"Confessions Of a Political Hitman" – Must Read!

January 17, 2008

Do you ever wonder who is responsible for finding, distorting, and publicizing ‘dirt’ on politicians. You know what I am talking about, the person who actually does the research, or snooping around per say to gather the goods on a political foe. Well in a new book titled “Confessions of a Political Hitman” all these questions are answered, and the results may surprise you. Author, Stephen Marks, chatted with the NYT’s Deborah Solomon about his career in political dirty work, here is a portion of the interview:

How do you sleep at night? Very well, thank you.

Seriously, do you have any moral qualms about the work you do? No. Negative politics have been going on since the beginnings of our democracy, when politicians had shootouts to settle their differences.

What’s interesting is that negatives played no role in giving a win to Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee in Iowa , where voters just went for the positives. Could we be entering a newly positive political age? I doubt it. Negative campaigning is part of American politics’ collective DNA.

Are you well paid for your work? Let’s just say over six figures.”

You claim to have helped elect Republicans including President Bush, Jesse Helms and Larry Craig. Have you worked directly for any of them or for their campaigns? No. Researchers are not usually hired by the campaign. We are more often hired by consultants or attorneys or others working for the campaign, so that we won’t come up in the candidates’ F.E.C. reports.

It is often said that the Republicans are better at negative campaigning than the Democrats. I don’t think that’s true. Look at the 2006 election. When you look at the tight races, the stuff that they killed George Allen with

They didn’t kill him. He self-destructed. They didn’t need anyone to dig up the word macaca.” He said it. But the Democratic research people were smart enough to have some kid with a camcorder to go out and film it. That’s also part of research, following the candidate when he is preaching to the choir. That’s when they say stupid things.

Where are you from? I grew up in Brooklyn, in one of the most hard-core Democratic districts in the country. Fortunately, Reagan showed me the light, and I was converted.

What did your parents do? My father was a school principal, and my mother taught special ed.

Have you sent them a copy of your book? No. Not yet. I’m a little nervous about how they may react to the personal content.