His great skills would always have fetched a decent price in the private sector. But now he has moved on to a different plane and revealed himself as one of the best crisis managers in the business.
Now when Campbell moves to the private sector, which could be a lot sooner than he thinks, he will be able to write himself a blank cheque of the sort that could bring tears to the eyes of Lord Bell.
Can you imagine a greater crisis than a prime minister taking the nation to war on dodgy intelligence dossiers? Non-existent weapons of mass destruction that nonetheless could be conjured up before the end of the first half on a Saturday afternoon? Yet Campbell has thrown up a smoke screen so perfect that the main issues have virtually vanished from sight.
In crisis management terms, the performance is close to a perfect ten.
The only mild imperfection was a rant on Channel 4 News. That tendency to go a step too far and undermine the case a bit is something Campbell will have to watch out for when he goes private. You have to admit that Tim Bell has a better feel for when it is time to withdraw into the shadows.
Campbell has at least had the wit to declare a temporary truce until next week's Select Committee finds in his favour.
But Campbell is still managing to rewrite the crisis management textbooks.
There was a view that when an organisation was in the deepest poo, first you stopped digging and then you came clean and told the truth.
Now we know that what you do, wherever possible, is launch an attack on the BBC. This may not be a wise thing for politicians to do, as everyone from Leon Brittan to Harold Wilson has found out. But spin doctors are different. That's what they are supposed to do.
This is clearly one of those completely benign crises with something in it for everyone - not just Campbell's future earning capacity. The papers are happy because they like nothing quite so much as a decent crisis at the BBC. Greg Dyke and his chairman Gavyn Davies are overjoyed. They have now finally shed their reputations as Tony's Cronies for good, although they can also forget their knighthoods for now.
Dyke in particular doesn't know who to hate any more. How is he going to cope psychologically with the fact that the Daily Mail has started saying nice things about him?
Andrew Gilligan, a reporter with a rather maverick reputation, cannot possibly be sacked now. A pay rise and a journalistic award are guaranteed.
The proceedings have even livened up the reputation of the Today programme just when it was starting to sound a bit dull.
It's even good news for the medium of steam radio. At long last radio has proved it can produce a BBC political row every bit as effectively as television. With its ability to cause so much pleasure to so many people, this one will run and run.
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