The Art of Dirty Politics

[Warph]

When it comes to political elections, all politics is dirty.  As Susan Estrich, Michael Dukakis's campaign manager in 1988, says, "He who doesn't throw mud ends up covered in it."

In any political campaign, successful candidates have two fairly simple imperatives. The first is relatively easy: to promote yourself.  The other is to knock down your opponent. This side of the equation can get nasty — smears, misleading advertising, and outright dirty tricks make up the dark underbelly of the democratic process.  The political operatives whose specialty this is -- known as 'Opposition Researchers' -- are widely considered the lowest form of life in the campaign business.  Their work happens below the radar screen and outside the polite forums of televised debates and political barbeque cook-offs.  It's also what usually makes or breaks a candidate running for political office in most cases.

In effect, opposition researchers are just the types of people Obama was supposed to be running against.  For instance, in Iowa in February 2007, Politico.com asked Obama why, after all his promises to run an untraditional campaign, he was using opposition researchers.  His response said much about the state of politics today.  Obama declared that issue-based opposition research was "essential to democracy.  There's nothing wrong with compiling facts about your opponent's record — and your own," he said.  "It's what you do with the information that matters."

This mud-slinging crap has been going on since 1776.

In the 1800 election between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, Jefferson supporters combed through Adams' records and turned up statements showing he favored a "hereditary president" and a Senate with life tenure. They used the statements in pamphlets attacking Adams. Adams' campaign fought back with accusations that Jefferson had fathered children with his slave mistress, one of the first sex scandals ever uncovered by opposition research.  There has been many such scandals since.

Take the case of William "Gimme the MONEY" Jefferson (D-LA.)

While his constituents back home were still reeling from the worst natural disaster in U.S. history, Jefferson was lining his own pockets in Washington.  In May 2006, the FBI raided his office after the Louisiana Democrat was caught accepting $100,000 in bribes -- (most of which $90,000 plus was later discovered in Jefferson's freezer)  but he was re-elected later that year.  On June 4, 2007, a federal grand jury indicted Jefferson on sixteen charges related to corruption.  Vernon Jackson, the CEO of iGate, was sentenced to seven years for bribing Jefferson to push the tech company's products on the U.S. Army.

Democrats didn't fully abandon their most self-serving member.  The party hosted a fund-raiser for Jefferson in March, long after it was clear he was under investigation.  When he was busted, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi did force Jefferson to give up his seat on the Ways and Means Committee -- but then joined House Speaker Dennis Hastert in denouncing the FBI's raid on Jefferson's office as "unconstitutional."

Equally shameful were Jefferson's antics after Katrina struck.  Now get this: He commandeered a Coast Guard helicopter to gather personal effects from his home in New Orleans -- at a time when his constituents were literally drowning in their attics.  Yet despite his outrageous unethical behavior, Jefferson tried for re-election which he was soundly defeated by a republican, Dec. 6, 2008.  "In Louisiana, they have a long tradition of corruption -- a Huey Long tradition," says Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. 

No shit, Melanie!
 
The list goes on.... and on... and on.... republicans.... democrats.... you name it

If I don't seem to be as outraged as some people over Political crimes against humanity, I suppose it's because I assume these political payoffs take place every day of the week, not just in Washington, D.C., but in Albany and Springfield, Austin, Salem and Sacramento, and every other state capitol and city hall in America.

It takes money — and plenty of it — to run for public office in this country.  So how surprised can any of us be when we discover that those who wish to further their political ambitions will take bribes, or as they're more commonly referred to, campaign contributions, from those wishing to further their business ambitions?  It's like being shocked when the NCAA sanctions certain colleges for recruiting infractions.  After all, one doesn't become a football or basketball superpower by happy accident.

To me, speaking as an American who has often boasted that we have the best politicians that money can buy, the most shocking aspect of all this is how cheaply so many of these public servants can be bought and sold.

What always surprises me is that politicians, whatever their party affiliation, seem unable to grasp the fact that their sins will inevitably come to light.  Are they just stupid or arrogant or possibly even naive?

Perhaps it's a combination of all three!