(Community Matters) In today’s Mike Allen Playbook:
BEHIND THE CURTAIN – HOW WE GOT THE GIBBS STORY: At 4:04 p.m. on Friday, we got an e-mail from a Democratic financial source who had written, Mike-Allen-style, the entire message in the subject line: “You hear about the proposed new chairman of the DNC?” It’s the rare e-mail that makes us pick up the phone, but this one certainly did. “You know how to get my attention!” we said when the sender came on the line. This person had first-hand knowledge of the temperature-taking going on with DNC donors, but was candid that they wanted to kill the Gibbs idea. So we went to sources friendly to Gibbs to stress-test the information. The callbacks came while we were drinking Sapporo with Porritt at Meiwah (after we finally turned our ringer on). These officials explained with the logic behind the idea, and acknowledged the hurdles. We asked one of them if they believed it would occur and they said, “I do.” We still framed the story narrowly – as something being discussed with donors, not as something likely to happen. But that’s how it became news.
Community Matters 