[DrC]

Beckel’s a political analyst at Fox News and columnist for USA Today.

It’s amusing to see his bio boast of winning the presidential nomination for Walter Mondale in 1984, yet not a word of the shellacking Walter took in the general election. Reagan won 49 seats—a feat equalled only by RMN in 1972—and his electoral vote tally, 525, was the highest ever for a presidential candidate.
http://www.foxnews.com/bios/talent/bob-beckel/

I’m too lazy to find it again, but one of the WHI alludes to the insider’s past career as a journalist (maybe newspaperman, but I won’t swear to that) and there are repeated allusions to how old the guy is. I suppose in principle, these too describe Beckel. However, although he served at State for awhile, to my knowledge, he’s never served in any WH. Hence WH Insider seems like a bit of a stretch if he’s really the one doing the leaking.

[reformedliberal]

To the *insider* part: he knows people and he may hear more because he isn't working there. State is full of people who trade on their information. I have known a few staffers in my time who exaggerated their own roles consistently and were eager to mention various principles in a catty manner. He has traded on his access to gossip all his public life. One can only imagine what he is like in private life. Who would trust such a blabber mouth?

I always grin when his Mondale campaign is pimped as his main credential. I noticed about a year ago, FNC changed his cred line to *journalist* and stopped the Mondale mention. I feel the same about Estrich and Schoen. They are the Three Losers who somehow managed to become experts in political commentary.