No one can accuse Jack Shafer of being a sap [e.a.]:

Novak and his partner in logrolling, Tim Russert.

…
In his Russert-tribute column today, Novak explains the nature of their logrolling relationship.

“Russert from the start … was an extraordinary source for me,” he writes. By “from the start,” Novak means since 1977, when Russert came to Washington as part of Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s staff. Novak writes of meeting Russert for drinks in Manhattan in 1982, when Russert pulled from his briefcase a batch of opposition research that would ultimately demolish a Republican who planned to run against Moynihan that year.

In a recklessly honest passage, the conservative Novak attributes the “peculiar pro-Cuomo slant” of his column to Russert’s move to liberal Gov. Mario Cuomo’s staff. In other words, Novak fesses to spinning positive columns about a politician whose politics he despised in return for good material from his friend Tim.

Ho hum. Just business as usual inside the Beltway.