How a 'political hitman' sleeps at night
By Steve Benen Wednesday Jan 16, 2008 7:20amI suspect most Dems have a caricature in their mind of devious Republican smear artists, who help GOP candidates pander to the public’s worst instincts. These operatives specialize in opposition research — or, “oppo” — which, as the caricature tells us, involves political hitmen digging through dirt and peddling in innuendo, all in the interests of conning voters.
In reality, the caricature is probably a bit of an exaggeration. These smear artists don’t literally dig through Democrats’ garbage; they usually pay someone else to do that. But if we wanted to match this image with a real-life example, we’d have to point to Stephen Marks, who recently published, “Confessions of a Political Hitman,” and who chatted with the NYT’s Deborah Solomon about his career.
What led you to write your new book, “Confessions of a Political Hitman,” which chronicles your rather unsavory career as a Republican Party operative who was hired in hundreds of political campaigns to dig for dirt on Democratic candidates? I wouldn’t use the word unsavory. The voter has the right to know the history of any candidate in order to make the most educated vote.
Why do you make yourself sound as benevolent as a reference librarian? Because opposition researchers perform a needed public service.
In the 2000 election, you produced an infamous anti-Gore commercial, juxtaposing footage of Gore saying Al Sharpton couldn’t be altogether discounted with unrelated footage of Sharpton giving an inflammatory speech. I happened to have gotten some footage from some anti-Sharpton groups where he urged college students to kill cops: to off the “pigs,” as he put it.
How can you justify misrepresenting Gore like that? I’ll admit that the ad was nasty and negative, but it was accurate, just like the Willie Horton ad that finished off Dukakis.
Who paid you to make the commercial? Some folks in Tennessee who didn’t like Al Gore.
How do you sleep at night? Very well, thank you.
Asked specifically if he has any “moral qualms” about his professional efforts, Marks said, “No.”
Marks seems to understand perfectly well that he’s sleazy, and has smeared honorable candidates with garbage, but at the same time, he’s also quite pleased with himself.
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What an ass............hard to believe someone has no problem doing this.
But, this is only the tip of the iceberg; wait until a Democrat wins the nomination. Then the real smearing begins.
Stephen Marks or Slug Feces what's the difference?
There's a twisted logic to his words. Oppo research is indeed a public service, but only if both candidates are equally smeared. That means Democrats have to play just as nasty as Marks and the other GOP Slug Turds. The problem with this scenario is it sets off a race to the bottom, but what's the alternative? Getting beat because we're too nice? Obama is succeeding now because he is trying to rise above the Slug Turds, but I doubt that can work. Sunshine and optimism will eventually be eclipsed by fear and racial animosity. Obama will have to fight back, or lose.
I've never thought these creeps had any trouble sleeping at night...or after sunrise or whenever they have to be in their coffins. But these vial people who want to convince the public to vote against their own best interests by exposing petty little nothings and then the BS media in this country cover it round the clock like it's real news.
The Swiftboat thing is a great example, if a single news agency really did their job they would have gotten the real doctor who treated John Kerry or they would have looked into the facts and found it was simply BS, but instead of doing their job the media in this country just repeated the swiftcrap message and too much of the public doesn't even know the new has been canceled for what we have now believe what they see.
The Dan Rather thing is another great example, if other news outlets would have done their job the story would have been that Rather's report although based on whatever was wrong with the document, but that there was no evedence that disputes the story that was reported...that Dubya deserted his post by not showing up for his physical. But again, we don't have real news in this country anymore. There maybe a few outlets like the Nation mag and of course we can talk about it amongst ourselves here on the web, but really, if we want to fix America we need to stop the corporations that are distroying it.
Rationalization or just plain sociopathy? Only his shrink knows for sure.
Hitman and sociopaths have no conscience so therefore no regrets. I would say that Marks would fit right in with this group.
He's just following the prevailing philosophy of the day... "The end justifies the means." or perhaps "Do unto others before they do unto you."
The only thing that surprises me is that there aren't armies of assholes like this doing exactly the same thing.
Last night the guests on Hardball stated that they were "so bored" with the Democratic debate because of the absence of mud-slinging. The msm wants our politics to be headline makers like "Paris Hilton" and "Britney Spears". If there is no garage to throw at the public, then the msm doesn't have a story.
The difference between a political hitman sleeping well and a person guilty of ethnic cleansing sleeping well is merely a matter of degree. The rationalizations and mental gymnastics that can conflate liberalism with fascism, and justify destroying careers with lies, are the same exercises engaged in when doors are kicked down and families are loaded on cattle cars.
Coincidentally they are the same processes of denial and distancing that convince good people that things like that can't happen to them.
The smug-o-meter on my laptop just redlined.
Let's face it, he's in it for the money and he's aligned with the Right Wing because they'll pay for his smearings. Why else would he write a book? It's not because he thinks what he does is unfair. His book will earn him money in sales and generate more business for him. Win-win. Welcome to the New American Century.
How do the people that quote and post vile and hate messages sleep at night? A lot of the younger people that don't know what went on in this country in times past are so out of the loop.
They think it is cool to leap and jump and scream for candidates like they would for American Idol contestants. The don't bother to see that whichever candidate they pick has the know how to run this country, and not just someone who smiles and nods.
Political hitment, now they know the difference. Look at rove being allowed to spew his hate and vile about HIllary. Wonder what would happen if the average citizen would like to say his piece on TV.
Some years ago, after a rather nasty court proceeding, my first ex-wife proclaimed that the truth was anything I couldn't prove was a lie. Politics for a Republican is just like a divorce trial.
Yeah, he seems real happy with himself. I imagine Josef Goebbels was the same way.
Never ever say to yourself “Well, they’d never do THAT"
There is NOTHING the Republicans would not do, if it served their purposes and if they thought they could get away with it.
NOTHING.
Confession implies telling someone your sins and asking for forgiveness.
I think this book should have been called "The Bragging of a Political Hitman"
Of course Mark is as you describe him in the last paragraph...he's a freaking "Republican hitman"...should anyone be surprised...????? It's not about truth or facts it's about making the "hit" and earning the MONEY!!!! That's why he sleeps well at night...fluffy money filled pillows.
There is a very sound moral principle which applies here, it is innate in our Christian-oriented, bible-based, EvangelicalFundamentalist society.
'God' is good, 'God' is benevolent, 'God' wants his followers to succeed, as he demonstrates daily by the exceptional performance of the MegaChurches, and the Bentleys which the church's owners drive, by the growth of the church-education industry, as exemplified by the Regent Law nursery in the Robertson conglomerate, and the repeated 'savings' of Robertson's very life by the avalanche of cash when 'prayed for'.
The moral principle which outweighs all others, is
'Today's Bottom Line is What Counts'.
Amen, 'Swift Boaters', proceed in 'god's' grace.
Is it more bothersome that there are predators like this creep, or that their prey, the uncriticle, knee-jerk, emotional electorate, is so easily taken advantage of?
The reason the media won't debunk crap put out by people like this guy is because they are lazy. They will talk about the results of crap but they are too lazy to disprove it because that would take investigative journalism.
He probably sees his job much the same as some private investigators do. They do the foot work and report back to their client whatever they find. What the client does with that information doesn't bother the private investigator at all. If a PI gets pictures of a woman's husband with another woman, he gives the client, the wife, the pics and if those pictures result in a broken home, that's not his responsibility.
This piece of work needs to meet a real 'hit man'.
That is why they win!
Why doesn't somebody do a political hitjob on Stephen Marks. What is good for the goose is good for the gander - he perfected the art of destroying the messager, which means that he must also be destroyed.
MargeAggedon @ 7:
Oh, but there is. Marks is just one of hundreds.
Andhakari @ 19:
It proves evolution - a predator evolved to take advantage of a societal trait.
But, oddly enough, it's a trait that came from the very 'lock your kid in a closet until he's eighteen' crowd, the folks who believe abstinence-only education is better than talking about penises and vaginas.
As I've said before, there's another word for something that's penned up, kept from growing properly, and can't stand on it's own: veal. It's soft and tender, and a taste treat for carnivores ...
What's he do in his spare time, sell bogus insurance to widows and orphans?...teaser rate mortgages to low income families?...derivative securities to school systems?
ugh....I need to take a shower after reading that. what a pig
I agree with him to the point that voters deserve to know the truth about candidates no matter how big their public "halo" is. If what he said is the truth, and it wasn't twisted to fit an alterior motive, I think he should be thanked for finding and disclosing the information. ONLY IF IT WAS THE TRUTH THAT REACHED THE PUBLIC!
drshatterhand @ 14:
Yes, until it became apparent that his side was going to lose--then he killed himself, his wife killed herself, and they killed their children. After making the environment for convincing their countrymen to kill millions, or at least to keep silent.
People like Marks and their moneymen like T. Boone Pickens are filled with righteous certitude bolstered by a healthy dose of pigsh*t.
One can only hope that they will be caught in an airport men's room in playing footsie from adjoining toilet stalls. That way, the MSM will have someone to obsess over besides Britney, Lindsey, OJ, Elian, and Paris.
Capitalism at its finest...
Shades of the 'Parliamentary Operative' from the movie Serenity. He admits he's a monster, but keeps on monstering.
and they wonder why republicans have a bad name.
I wonder how his family life is going.
I feel sorry for his "Significant Other" and any children they my have.
He must be hard to live with.
"I pity the fool."
right wing hater @ 2:
NO DIFFERENCE. :(
Let's not forget our own hitman and "genius" Michael Whouley. He may actually be worse than Marks, since he only works for big-money democrats to trash other democrats. Once the general election rolls around and help is needed to battle the republicans, this bottom-feeder is nowhere to be found. Presumably he spends all of his non-primary time doing oppo research on Dems he know won't be able to afford his "services". His work is currently on display with the Clinton campaign, especially the racial stuff.
"Opposition research" is not being a hitman or smearing a candidate.
Going through old speeches and papers the candidate has written, checking to make sure they aren't concealing or changing relevant parts of their history, that's legit.
Digging up irrelevant stuff or twisting and distorting things (or making things up) is wrong.
Marks is a scumbag.
I'll bet that Hitler, Ida Amin, and Pol Pot all slept soundly as well?
Wow! This guy has no conscience. He reminds me of Mr. Potter in " It's a wonderful life."
Such is the way with sociopaths.
This heres america where god wears his angles on his sleeve
for all to see, he rewards with riches his favorites.
god loves those with the most money.
At least that's what he told governor bush you know the haves and have more.
How else could we tell the saints from the sinners.
It's important to remember that the perpetrators of the Holocaust had few if any regrets.
Maybe Marks' books could be used as training manuals for the Democratic Party to start fighting back.
Their "playing nice" has gotten them nothing but nice cans of whip-ass broken on them in consistent fashion, and I'm tired of seeing it.
Smearing and lying about the political opposition is a time-honored tradition. Both sides do it.
The Dems should hammer the Republicans for being the bigoted greedy assholes they are.
Then the social progressives (all six or eight of them) should hammer the Dems for being the corporate shills they are.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, in this screwed-up country, we all need to pull out the hammers.
.
Bet we can dig up a lot of "accurate' garbage on this immoral G.O.P.er too!
.
To be fair, he is just facing down the hypocrisy of the interviewer. This pious holier-than-him reporter makes it oh-so-clear that she finds his work so disdainful. Yet the muckraking he comes up with is precisely the stuff the press runs with. Where do the Times and all the other news outlets get the vast majority of their stuff? Oh yes... from SwiftBoats, political hitmen, and republican cheerleaders (who make stuff up when hitmen can't find anything).
The distancing tactics she employs are a joke. She's not only complicit, her survival is staked on people like him. Together, they make the low quality of news that we have as a daily diet possible.
right wing hater @ 2:
Well, Slug Feces would suggest the presence of a slug somewhere. Stephen Marks only suggests the presence of feces.
People, we must remember that Marks is just part of a much bigger system. Our Media are owned by the same people who pay Marks to dig up bullshit. You wonder why John Edwards' haircut or Hillary's cleavage gets more airtime that the ongoing atrocity in Iraq? You wonder how the reichwingers can actually get away with attacking a 12 year old accident victim because he questions Bush's morally indefensible decision to veto any further aid to sick children? Here's why: The same guys who pay a sociopathic scumbag like Marks are the same ones who disseminate his bullshit in print and on the airwaves. Yeah, I don't doubt Marks can sleep well at night. He's able to do so for the same reason Billo, Coultergeist, Hannity, and Rush Lamebrain can: They all cash paychecks written by the same master.
I highly recommend "The Republican Noise Machine: Right-Wing Media and How It Corrupts Democracy" by David Brock. This guy was a tool of the right wing until he couldn't sleep at night and came clean in his book.
Avenger,so your saying the reporter is just as bad as he is?....I think you need to out more.
Who's stupider though, the propagandist, or the fool who believes the shit he's slinging?
Any time I try to talk to knee jerk, right wing idiots, (not that they're all idiots, but I'm talking about a guy who goes ballistic over flag burning, yet beats his wife after church) & I ask why they feel they way they do, they never KNOW. They cannot explain their position ever. Just parroting.
If people would just wake up from their cushy comfy fog, people like this smear guy couldn't exist.
these Branch Rovians will do anything for money
John @ 16:
Damn - it took 16 comments for somebody to hit on the most important aspect of this situation: this book isn't a confession as much as it is an extended boasting session. Just the latest example of Republican ignorance and hypocrisy - nobody does it better, baby! Thanks for finally pointing out this subtle error in the title of this guy's book, John.
One can only hope that some day he gets what is coming to him: AIDS.
This rotten bastard is certainly not one of the Reslugs religious freaks.
Omzir McKay @ 53:
If this were a "confession" in the religio-sacramental sense, this arsewipe would be denied absolution.
I truly believe that the majority of evil people do not perceive themselves as evil.
Was it Will Smith who got in trouble for opining that he thought Hitler probably viewed himself as Good rather than Evil? I think he was right: It's not that they ARE good, it's that THEY *think* they are Good. or, at least, working towards a Good cause.
When ideology screws a person's mind SO completely, it affects their perceptions and allows them to rationalize a whole slew of behaviours that would otherwise be considered reprehensible. It is only when a behaviour is SO extreme/ridiculous that it falls *too* far out from what their imprint allows, that they may have a chance to snap out of it and start questioning their cherished ideology.
I know: I was a hard Right neoconservative for a long time ... up until the farce of a Clinton impeachment. It was just TOO ridiculous -- an obvious political hitjob that embarrassed me, as a Republican.
I started questioning my Far Right ideological beliefs.
And once a person starts *honestly* questioning their own Far Right beliefs, the whole house of cards comes tumbling down!
Let's not be so naive as to think that only Republicans use opposition researchers and create negative ads. Both sides do it. Besides, no one can reach a position of power in government without a few skeletons in his/her closet. It's a rite of passage.
JohnnyThief @ 51:
It appears to me--and, correct me if I'm wrong--that when you distill a Republican to it's purest state, you get absolute, unadulterated greed. "Not in my back yard, not MY hard earned tax dollars, not if your skin is not the right color--by the way, I pulled myself up by my OWN bootstraps, etc., etc." This greed is cloaked in a narcissistic hedonism thinly veiled as Fundamental Christianity.
Until we address the myriad ways our species' economic behavior has become corrupted by greed and excess, we will continue this slide into an abyss of hate and fear. Ironic, isn't it, that the very people who decry the love of money have sold their souls for filthy lucre?
At least he'll be out of a job soon, now that that stuff doesn't work with the public, anymore.
Why is it that whenever someone questions a Repig's morality or character, the only response is an underhanded "I know you are but what am I." I mean, it's obvious that most of these idiot's are immature man-children (and yes, I mean the "women" of the lot too), but seriously... The price we pay in a free and democratic nation.
What makes them tick?
As a physician trying to understand the workings of such minds, I would highly recommend John Dean's (former Chief Legal Counsel to Richard M. Nixon) book Conservatives Without Conscience - a well-documented, analytical look particularly focusing on the psychological mish-mash of christianists and neo-conservatives.
Excellent writing.
In response to Chervilant: You hit the nail on the head man. There is a whole lot of ass hole's in this nation that have no knowledge of what self-reflection or self-criticism means. I've said it a hundred times, we need a good punching law. Every time some publicly admits that he does not question himself, he gets a good few punches in the face. Maybe they problem is that thanks to lawsuits and the like, there are way too many people who've never actually been punched lol.
Of course this is just me verbally venting my frustration at lunacy through imaginary punching :) But really, is it such a bad idea? Can any of us really say that this guy doesn't deserve a good punch in the face? With the exception of Mike Tyson, every prize fighter who's been knocked out before knows this very basic lesson. Thus why after the fight, even if he clearly whooped his opponent's ass, he'll usually have something good to say about his opponent. It's a reminder that your not above another person in anyway, thus the popular wisdom "I know I can hit, I know I can get hit."
I've never been a fighter, but I grew up with a brother just one year apart. It's just that these kind of people are really sick. Not being able to question yourself is a very, very dangerous disease.
Hopefully the book tanks and Marks slithers back beneath the rock the GOP found him under.
The one major thing that separates a Repub from a Democrat is that most Repubs lack a conscience.
I would think that only a psychopath could behave the way he does, and still be able to sleep nights and stay calm.
This profile fits in perfectly with John Dean's portrait of authoritarians, brilliantly presented in his book, "Conservatives Without Conscience". Having read it, I'm not only not surprised by his responses to the questions, I feel I could have written them myself. And this "lack of political conscience" is the Repubs advantage politically - for they not only have no qualms, they also realize politics is a zero-sum game.
So, while progressives (or whatever) may occupy some kind of moral high ground, they/we also have the bad political habit of shooting ourselves in the foot by becoming petulant and threatening to not vote for our candidate(s) when they don't exactly measure up to what we want........hello, Hilary....while
authoritarians will hold their noses and vote for their candidate because they realize they'll be laughing all the way to the Victory Bank. Just a little word of warning.....you better take these guys seriously.
Wasn't there some guy who recently advocated skewering the Michigan repub primary by asking dems to switch parties and vote for Romney? Oh yeah, kos... another self agrandizing little ends-justify-the-means politico.
wisedup @ 50:
I don't know that she's bad. She seems biased, cliche and generally not a very good interviewer, though. Seriously, she asked how he sleeps at night? Come on, he's not out murdering babies.
These types of sociopaths post comments here and on every political blog. To them, filthy, lying politics is just a crafty, fun computer-like game. It's not about consequences; it's about "winning".
It reminds me of a giant high-tech company's "values": Win and have fun (yes, that's right...what it really means is "Win at all costs and destroy your perceived enemy.")
All of these people have helped transition us to a culture of civilian war, pitting every person against one another. Coincidentally, that's how corporations operate, too. <shock>
It has never been as bad as it is today. When the average person begins to perceive everybody as an enemy, the bad guys have won...and had fun.
He's no worse than the Clinton political machine.
Sociopaths and psychopaths do not have any trouble sleeping. They have no conscience to be bothered with. The White House is full of them.
Might have been worth mentioning to him that, from his deathbed, Lee Atwater chose to apologize to Dukakis for the Willie Horton ad. I guess he was hoping for redemption.
liberalista @ 73:
Like I always say: "I'm sorry" fixes everything...
Marcus Aurelius @ 40:
You took the words right off my keyboard. Sociopath in spades.
Fanon @ 69:
Yes, he is. His actions DIRECTLY resulted in the Iraq war. His actions are INDISPENSABLE to the lying sack of shit Bushies and other lying sack of shit republicans. So, yes, he IS out murdering babies.
How odd. Why ask this smear merchant about morals when he clearly doesn't have any. Makes no sense to even bother.
I've got a better use for the word "sorry" - One Sorry Prick.
There is no corner in hell hot enough for this piece of garbage. Rot there you bastard, and soon. Eat shit and die.
bob @ 75:
Really? His actions led directly to the Iraq war? He was in charge of the military, lied about WMD etc. etc. No, his actions may have helped a candidate get elected (then again, so did the SCOTUS, 'lost' votes in FLA and OH, etc etc) who led us into Iraq, but his actions did not have a direct link to the war in Iraq. It's not exactly cause and effect.
Look, I'm not saying this guy is the most honorable dude in the world, but come on. Lighten up. Sorry, I hate dirty politics as much as the next guy, but people are out there doing it on our side, as well. It doesn't make them Satan's own.
Fanon @ 78:
Dude, do you really not understand that this guy is DIRECTLY responsible? Remember, Adolph Eichmann ONLY made the trains to Auschwitz and Dachau and Bergen-Belsen run on schedule. He didn't ACTUALLY kill the Jews and Gypsies and labor unionists and homosexuals. Nope. Lighten up, dude is COMPLETE bs. The brownshirts got wiped out by Hitler when he was done with them. Does that exonerate them from responsibility for the cause of WW2? They were already dead, right? There is morer to a war than who DIRECTLY gives and carries out the order. Goebbels was guilty, wasn't he? How about Leni Reifenstahl? How about Herbert von Karajan? Sheesh.
bob @ 79:
That is just laughable. He may have helped somebody get elected. May have. He wasn't responsible for any decision making or actions in an administration. He's not even part of the administration. You are REACHING in a big, big way. Someone earlier made what I thought was a pretty apt comparison. He's just a dirty little PI. He took the naked pictures of your wife and you choose to kill her. Does that make him guilty of murder? No freaking way.
Nazis. The last defense of a desperate argument.
What goes around, comes around.
Political hitman sounds like just the job for someone like Marks... a sociopath. They don't seem to have any problems never considering integrity or ethics, or even morality... and they certainly never have a thought about trying to reconcile any of that... Pretty scary stuff!
bob @ 75:
EXACTLY!
Fanon @ 81:
Get fucked. Desperate my ass. This guy is SHIT. His actions DIRECTLY led to the Iraq war. DIRECTLY. I used and apt analogy, and you know it. No, he's not a dirty little PI. He is an accessory BEFORE the fact. Look it up. The ENTIRE Republican party is responsible for the war. All the cheerleading and accusations of treason and THIS GUY is more than that, he is an ACTIVE dirty trickster. This guy is just as responsible as any mid-level Spanish Fascist or Stalinist beaurocrat or Red Guard or whatthefuckever just so you don't think I'm crying NAZINAZINAZINAZI. The Republican party is, without a doubt, a criminal conspiracy. This guy proves it. If you don't like the Nazi analogy, how about Organized Crime? You think this guy wouldn't be subject to the RICO act and if a murder was committed that he wouldn't hang for it? Please.
An illegal war is an illegal war. PERIOD. All who enable it are war criminals. And yes, that includes those who authorized it. I use the Nazi analogy because they are the only example in history of war crime prosecution. It is the model. These guys have done things that are as bad or worse than the Nazis did. Deny it, go ahead, it just makes you an idiot if you do. Therefore, if Eichmann was guilty, so is this "Political Hitman". Why is that hard to understand for you? Or do you really think these guys are just politics as usual?
bob @ 85:
Get fucked? There's an erudite argument. Why don't you cool your jets a little and maybe you could make more sense. No, I don't think you used an apt analogy. I think you are emotional and over the top and reached for the easy analogy that usually makes other people stop arguing. Noone wants to appear to defend someone compared to the Nazis.
RICO statutes? For what? Digging through the garbage and then giving it to someone to use against a political opponent in a campaign? You are laughable. Again, if you don't think we have guys out there doing the exact same thing, you are mistaken. This guy "proves" that the Republican party is a criminal conspiracy? Again, how? Going through someone's garbage and speeches, etc. is a 'criminal conspiracy'?
Again, I will reiterate that I don't think the guy is particularly likeable and I know I wouldn't be able to tear people up with disregard the way he does. But, Nazis, RICO statutes, he caused the Iraq war?? Give me a break.
Fanon @ 87:
Screw you. Live in a fascist state an love it then. This guy did way more than dig through garbage. Jesus, why would you compromise with such a piece of shit? Oh, maybe you are just a republican and all the Macchiavellian bullshit is ok with you. I have yet to see a Swift Boat, Willie Horton, etc, type thing from our side since 1964 with the flowers and nukes. However, Goldwater likely WOULD have nuked Vietnam. Nixon certainly wanted to. The Republican Party is a criminal conspiracy, top to bottom. Yes, RICO. Racketeer Influenced or Controlled Organizations. I agree with Mike Malloy that the Bushes are a crime family. Their crimes go back into the 19th century. They are aristocratic, believers in inherited wealth conferring inherited power. This is what the Enlightenment was all about. This is the struggle of the ages of democracy vs aristocracy. The aristocracy has ALWAYS
used murder to further it's ends. And this guy is an enabler of such. I knew a guy who once had the job of buying cars and boats for a pot smuggling group. When they were busted, HE went to jail with the rest of them. Did he sell as much as an eighth ounce of weed? NO. Was he in jail as an accessory? Yes. So take any analogy you want. This man is an accessory before the fact of an illegal war. A minor but significant player in what has been a coup against the constitution. I really don't think I am overstating the case.
Bob
I don't disagree with you that the Bush family is a crime family. However, this guy is not a Bush, and as far as I can see what he did, while reprehensible, is far from illegal. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. I do think you could tone down your rhetoric a little and it might go further towards influencing people. But, that's just me.
Oh, and your pot running analogy was way better suited for your RICO stance than the Nazi one, but, still reaching. Though I see where you're trying to take it.
Reminds me of an exchange in the Simpsons...
Jay Sherman, movie critic: How do you sleep at night?
McBain, Schwarzeneggerian action star: On top of a pile of money, with many beautiful ladies.
Jay Sherman: Just asking.
I'm not sure Stephen Marks has the beautiful ladies part, but I'm sure the price he commands for his filth allows him the pile of money.
He sounds very much the same as any type of Mafia hit-man. They have a great dinner first and then sleep very well at night. However their life span in general is not very long.
Fanon @ 91:
Good, I don't want to fight with you. All the analogies are just that: ANALOGIES. The curve is the same even if the magnitude is different. If they are a crime family, as you agree, then RICO applies by definition. If they are fomenting preemptive war, which is a war crime by definition, then they are war criminals and THOSE analogies apply. If they are instituting programs of spying on citizens with secret police and secret courts, then they are gestapo, again by definition, and THOSE analogies apply. I'm not for compromising with any of these shitheads, nor for clemency. If this guy is just a hired hitman and not a member of the Bush Crime Family, well, then he's a mercenary, and all THOSE analogies apply. There is no such thing as "a little bit pregnant". Again, I really don't think I am overstating the case. But let's not fight. We mostly agree.
Marks is no better or worse than Lee Atwater, Roger Ailes, Dick Morris, and other campaign "managers" and "advisers" whose primary job is to discredit the opposition candidate. If it can be done honestly, they do it. If it can't, they do it dishonestly. Should we be surprised at this point?
The United States of America can't run a decent election. That's a fact. Between hackable election machines, illegal campaign contributions, ridiculous polls that get it all wrong, candidates who say one thing to one audience and the opposite to another, legal voters being excluded by fraud, and media who treat it all like a horse race, our electoral system has become a joke. Marks is a product of the system, nothing more or less.
Sadl, Marks has the kind of balls some Democrats need.
"They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue."
Get with the frickin' program. They want to play dirty, then play the same game, but harder. Then bury their asses.
Many years ago, when I was a very young girl, I lived in Jewish neighborhood in St. Louis County, Missouri called University City. When John Kennedy ran against Nixon, pamphlets were shoved under doors in apartment houses on our street reminding the voters that Joe Kennedy was an isolationist and, therefore, the pamphlet implied, an admirer of Hitler and responsible for concentration camp deaths. Lots of the folks in that neighborhood were survivors or children of survivors of those camps. I was shocked and disgusted by the Nixon people who would do such a thing.
This stuff isn't new, it just gets nastier and nastier. A good sign that a candidate reallyl has nothing to set him or her apart from the competition is this type of campaigning.
This pisses me off. I think we shouldn't be naive. Both parties hire these weasels, and I heard from someone who read the damn book that this guys blowing the whistle on his GOP handlers
I'm sick of this Washington bullshit!
SmackInTheMiddle @ 58:
Well, then it must be okay. You sound as if you are this guy's boss.
He sleeps well at night because he's a sociopath.
We put him on the list of corporate bastards who heads are going to end up in our guillitine.
Yes. Time to bring it back.
The US arrested Marc Emery, IN CANADA and deported him to hell on earth, the USA. What he was doing is not illegal in Canada but it pissed off American's because he is a political marijuana activist.
It was stated so in his arrest report. That means that this is a politically motivated extradition with no crime. Remember Marc Emery, we are going to free him and take back our fucking countries.
Where are all the bodies from the Marijuana victims eh?
Fanon @ 90:
Then it's time to change teh laws. Decieving the public should be the largest crime. If you guys don't recognize that, its time to live in a false realtiy where terrorists are around every corner and brown people attack you on 9/11, as opposed to say... the truth.
It's a criminal family, they are criminals, they steal countries and oil and money galore form you, and you guys go...
"Eh... No big, it's only 2.4 trillion"
why all the venom at this guy? has anyone read the book? he's an equal opportunity revealer-of-confidences here. do you think the republicans are happy about him "outing" their relationship? notice he worked for the RNC. i'm sure no one can be happy that information came out. think rick perry -- or the Bushs -- are happy that he told the world he was "part of their team"? i'm not thinking so. particularly if you read the book. his character is bad on a personal level, but really, all he "digs" through are public records. did you NOT think anyone was going through that stuff? i agree that the timing and slant given this stuff when released makes for distortion and obfuscation of the important matters -- but doesn't that just mean that we need to get better at separating the wheat from the chaffe? i would rather have more information, but also more honesty in conveying the information. how are you going to monitor them in what they release and how they release it? i don't see how to keep them from making big deals out of small things unless you shut them off from everything. and some things we do need to know. personally, i do want to know when our president is so out of control sexually that he's not able to make sound decisions concerning national defense because he's worried somebody is going to find out what he's been doing with his cigars... i'm no prude, but important jobs require wisdom and discretion. just me.
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