It passed by with relatively little notice, but there was a remarkable moment on an MSNBC show last week. A well-known beltway pundit actually apologized for believing the White House over what his Republican sources told him.  P.J. Gladnick of Newsbusters captured the moment.

MIKA BRZEZINSKY: ...The man who said America was tricked about the high cost of Obamacare, was a lot closer to the controversial law's creation than previously known. New emails show that MIT economist Jonathan Gruber, remember him, was in regular contact with high level Obama administration staffers about the health care law policy...

JOE SCARBOROUGH: But that's not what the White House said, Mark Halperin. They said he was not there.

MARK HALPERIN: No, and I owe all my Republican sources an apology because they kept telling me he was hugely involved and the White House played it down. They were right. The Republicans were right.

SCARBOROUGH: Did the White House lie about that?

HALPERIN: I think they were not fully forthcoming. Their recollections had paled.

The last time I can remember brand name pundits apologizing for believing a president was during Richard Nixon’s terms in office. What with Hillary Clinton needing to distance herself from Obama, and with the prospect of some of his closely-held secrets becoming less well-protected after her leaves office, perhaps the Halperin Precedent will lead to more apologies.