For some of us oldsters there's been a distinct whiff of deja vu emanating from the McCain campaign, even for those who weren't particularly attentive to politics in the age of Tricky Dick and his merry pranksters.
Now, it turns out, that's probably because, unlike the bureaucratic hold-overs from that time (Rumsfeld and Cheney and Schultz) the mischief-makers haven't surfaced quite as regularly. But, with the re-emergence of the McCain quest for the presidency, they're back with a vengeance.
I should say that we've also been slightly distracted by the media's assignment of all political skullduggery to the alcolytes, Lee Atwater and Karl Rove, glossing over the fact that they learned their skills in the shop of Charles Black, Roger Stone and a few others who are now dead and gone. Or perhaps it's just a matter of Black, Stone, Manafort and Davis having gone through a number of iterations and permutations. So, it's been hard to keep up with them.
Roger Stone seems to have surfaced himself by giving a lengthy interview to The New Yorker where some of the exploits he admits to are actually disputed, including his participation in shutting down the Miami ballot count in 2000 and the outing of Elliott Spitzer as a client of expensive call girls.
Most recently Stone has turned up as a "Republican consultant" offering free advice to Barack Obama. Before that he was hard at work in Broward County, Florida following what seems to be a well-worn strategy--knocking out stronger candidates in the early rounds so his minions have a chance in the end.
Trickster in Chief
Famed political hit man Roger Stone takes a special interest in would-be Broward Sheriff Scott Israel
By Bob Norman
Published on September 04, 2008
The assault on Scott Israel, a man who very well might be Broward County's next sheriff, came fast and furious a week before Election Day.
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"This is President Richard Milhouse Nixon with an important message for Broward County Democrats," dubs a topnotch Nixon impersonator. "Scott Israel is a good man. In fact, he was a Republican only months ago. He's really one of us, you see... Scott Israel is my kind of guy, a real operator. And just like me, he is not a crook."
Other videos feature George W. Bush ("I like to think Scott Israel is a Bush Republican at heart... God bless Scott Israel"), a heavily lisping Rudy Giuliani ("Scott Israel reminds me of my ex-partner Bernie Kerik: Shoot first, ask questions later"), and Pat Robertson ("Pray for brother Scott Israel").
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Several sources have confirmed that Stone, the famed Republican electioneering hit man who began his career as an operative for Richard Nixon, put together the anti-Israel campaign for a local political committee with the deliciously ironic name of the Broward Coalition for Justice & Equality.
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"I can tell you without a doubt that Roger Stone was involved in that campaign," said Rothstein, managing partner of Rothstein, Rosenfeldt & Adler and friend and major fundraiser for Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and Republican presidential contender John McCain.
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But if the primary was any indication, Israel will have a lot more negative ads to contend with. Because this campaign had little to do with Lemack and everything to do with Lamberti.
Bottom line? The public is being conned.
Earlier in this election cycle, Stone turned up as a source for Nedra Pickler.
Take the Associated Press. On February 24 the news agency runs a story by Nedra Pickler under the headline Conservatives Say Obama Lacks Patriotism. Pickler's fourth sentence cites, as her story's lead source, Roger Stone, chastely described as a "Republican consultant."
This is the same Roger Stone who appeared with Tucker Carlson on MSNBC a few days earlier to promote an anti-Clinton 527 group, Citizens United Not Timid, or CUNT. "The more people go to the site," Stone had smirked to The Weekly Standard in January, "the more people buy the T-shirts.... The more people wear the T-shirts, the more people are educated. Consequently, our mission has been achieved."
But sometimes the con turns. As we are all aware, John McCain has a thing about celebrating his birthday, no doubt to the eternal dismay of George W. Bush, who was tricked into posing with a cake on a tarmac, when he should have been worrying about a drowning New Orleans.
In any event, the birthday bash in 2006 was even more special. As Ari Berman and Mark Ames report for The Nation,
The McCain-Follieri Love Boat
The Maverick and the Celebrity Con Man
By Mark Ames & Ari Berman
September 11, 2008
John McCain has been hammering rival Barack Obama for being little more than a vapid "celebrity" and "elitist." But The Nation has obtained a photorevealing just how star-struck a straight-talking maverick can become when offered the chance to celebrate his birthday aboard a yacht filled with celebrities--even if one of those celebrity types turns out to be an A-list con man.
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In the current edition of Vanity Fair, Michael Schnayerson reported that Follieri rented the Celine Ashley for the month of August 2006. Montenegro's leading daily newspaper, Vijesti, earlier reported that during McCain's visit in 2006 he celebrated with birthday cocktails and sweets aboard the Celine Ashley yacht. In the photograph, taken in Montenegro at the end of August, McCain is shown boarding the yacht ramp towards the smiling Follieri and Hathaway. Just ahead of McCain and shaking hands with Follieri appears to be Rick Davis--McCain's top aide and now co-manager of his campaign, who accompanied him on the trip and advised the government of Montenegro.
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Yet Follieri's ties to McCain's orbit have been largely overlooked by the media. Follieri first met McCain when the Arizona Senator visited Montenegro from August 29-31 as part of a Congressional delegation that included Republican senators Lindsay Graham, Richard Burr, Saxby Chambliss, Mel Martinez and John Sununu.
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In February 2007, according to a recent article in the New York Daily News, Follieri retained Davis's lobbying firm, Davis Manafort. According to the paper, "on Feb. 27, 2007, Davis Manafort partner Rick Gates signed a confidentiality agreement drafted by the Follieri Group. In the contract...Gates agreed not to disclose any information about Follieri's deal to get Clinton pal Ron Burkle to buy Catholic Church properties." (Gates did not respond to repeated requests for comment.)
Two months later, Burkle sued Follieri, who later repaid the $1.3 million owed to Burkle's Yucaipa Funds. That fall, the Wall Street Journal exposed Follieri's life as a high-society con man. In June of this year, Follieri was finally arrested and charged. Following his guilty plea this week, Follieri now faces up to five years and three months in jail.
"Get ...Ron Burkle to buy Catholic Church properties!" And that was supposed to be pleasing to Catholic voters' ears, how?