Did Hillary Leak Book Excerpts to the WA Post?

Last night I wrote of a couple forthcoming books on the Clintons, "Does anyone else suspect Hillary is glad to deal with these books relatively early in the campaign, so she doesn't have to discuss them closer to the primaries?"

That may have been more on-target than I realized at the time.

Ben Smith of Politico theorizes in "How to Kill a Book in 3 Easy Steps" that Hillary's campaign deliberately leaked excerpts from the Jeff Gerth book to the Washington Post so that news of some of the book's contents would be published the Friday of Memorial Day weekend -- classic Clintonian "Friday/Holiday Dump" strategy.

Last night, just before the Post published their article, a group which supports Clinton posted a 2700+ word article rebutting Gerth's book. Coincidence that the rebuttal was ready before the Post published?

The timing gave the Clinton campaign the opportunity to cut the wind out from under the sails of the publisher's marketing plan, and the campaign will sigh "Oh, that old news," from here on.

Smith: "The leak seemed calculated to catch the publishers off guard, though people familiar with each book’s publication plans said both are still on schedule. Bernstein’s book is due out from Knopf on June 5. The Gerth and Van Natta volume is due out from Little, Brown on June 8..."

As an aside, is it just me, or, reading between the lines, does Smith seem somewhat admiring of the Clintons' plotting here?

Meanwhile, Tim Graham of NewsBusters dissects the Washington Post's article.