EDWARDS & VARIETY. Actually, I was apparently suffering from blogger dyslexia in the item below, and did not make the chronology clear. The Peter Bart article is from January 19th, referencing an event that took place even earlier in January, while the Herzliya speech was given on January 22nd, and Edwards talked to Ezra on February 2nd. While the appearance and circulation of this article at this time smacks of oppo research -- fair oppo research, as the month-old story had no correction -- the article itself predated any controversy about Edwards' Iran policy statements, and so whoever Bart's sources were, if they erred, did so without any intention of excerbating this particular controversy, which did not then exist. They may well have wanted to gin up some different controversy, however, which they have now done on an extremely micro-scale. In any event, I'd never have bothered posting such a contended story had I read Edwards' denial first, and have called event host Adam Venit, whom the Edwards campaign says will corroborate the campaign's story, as well as reached out to Bart about when the Edwards team first asked for a correction, and will update if/when I hear back. Obviously, if Edwards says he never said it -- and I agree with Ezra's take that Edwards is not given to off the cuff pronouncements -- and Bart says his source says he did, well, then, in the absence of any independent corroborration either way, it's a wash and the whole story should be ignored (including by people who have been using it to argue for Edwards' non-hawkish credentials).
--Garance Franke-Ruta
