The Pumafinks

This blog does not endorse candidates nor back a political party; should, say, John Sidney McCain or any other Republican come to their senses and reject their devotion to the conservatism that has been destroying America's democratic birthright lo these past several decades, and come to Jesus and accept progressive values, we will welcome them with open arms. We have not been shy, however, in arguing that tactically speaking the party of conservatism is more the heir to Watergate than it is to Goldwater: revisit posts here, here, here, here, here, and here.

I say this as preface to reminding us all that Watergate-style dirty tricks have been by now baked into the cake of conservative politicking (as Pat Buchanan continues to boast, and as Thomas Frank's stunning next book, which I've been reading, will irrefutably demonstrate). I say this as a preface to a demonstration about how it might be happening in the hear and now, the better so we can ward it off.

As I've demonstrated in Nixonland, key to Richard Nixon's smashing reelection success in 1972, and indeed his entire political career at least since the Hiss case in 1948, was to connive to get Democrats directing their vituperation at each other. Key to this were the operations that Nixonites referred to as "ratfucking," which I describe beginning with a discussion of the decline and fall of the candidate Nixon most feared to run against in 1972, Maine senator Edmund Muskie:

A stink bomb went off in one of his offices; a mysterious press release went out in Florida that the Muskie campaign was illegally using government-owned typewriters. Ten black picketers paced back and forth on the sidewalk in front of his hotel in Tampa calling him a racist for comment, back in September, that a Democratic ticket with a black running mate would have a hard time getting elected. An ad appeared in the February 8 issue of a Miami Beach Jewish newspaper: "Muskie, Why Won't You Consider a Few as a Vice President?" (Muskie hadn't said a word on the subject.) Flyers referring to Muskie's Polish heritage began appearing in Jewish neighborhoods: "Remember the Warsaw Ghetto...Vote Right on March 15."...

All of the other viable Democratic candidates—save the one Richard Nixon wanted to run against, George McGovern—suffered similarly during the primaries:

one morning Scoop Jackson's supporters opened their Tampa headquarters and found it plastered floor to ceiling with Muskie stickers A thousand cards circulated through a Wallace rally reading, "If you like Hitler, you'll love Wallace.") (The other side read, "A vote for Wallace is a wasted vote, on March 14 cast your vote for Edmund Muskie.") A press release on Muskie campaign stationery said Hubert Humphrey was anti-Israel.... On "Citizens for Muskie" letterhead, the Nixon operatives sent out letters addressed to "Dear Fellow Democrats (the same salutation Nixon's campaign used in 1962 when it apprised potential voters that [Democrat] Pat Brown was under the thumb of a left-wing organization that had adopted the "entire platform of the Communist Party"). The Florida letter read, "We on Senator Ed Muskie's staff sincerely hope you have decided upon Senator Muskie as your choice... However, if you have not made your decision, you should be aware of several facts." These included that Henry Jackson had sired an illegitimate daughter in high school and had twice been arrested for homosexual activity in Washington, D.C., and that Hubert Humphrey had been arrested for drunk driving in the company of a "known call girl" generously provided him by a lumber lobbyist.

Another letter on McCarthy stationery asked his supporters to ignore his name on the ballot and cast their votes for Humphrey. Actual rats scuttled through a Muskie press conference; ribbons tied to their tails read, 'Muskie is a rat fink." On television poles...elves posted giant signs, attributed to a "Mothers Backing Muskie Committee," reading HELP MUSKIE SUPPORT BUSING MORE CHILDREN NOW.... Democratic millionaires got a letter on Muskie stationery asking them not to donate: Muskie wanted small donors, not "the usual fat cats."

All this dreck issued—you guessed it—from the White House and Nixon's reelection campaign headquarters. Such "false flag" operations were an anchor of their campaign strategy: as Buchanan put it in a 1971 memo, to "focus on those issues that divide the Democrats, not those that unite Republicans," as their "guiding political principle." The point was to make it impossible for the Democrats to unite together at their convention in Miami Beach, and henceforth during the autumn campaign. It worked. At the end of 1971 pundits were predicting Democratic victory, whichever of their strongest candidates ended up with the nod. Then, soon enough, as I write, "In the watering holes where rival campaign staffers met to unwind, to gently chide each other, strike up flirtations, exchange war stories, imbibe with reporters—a veil of hostility descended between camps."

Different watering holes now, but same story.

No, it's not that some of the Hillary die-hardism isn't utterly organic, the product of sincere dyed-in-the-wool Democrats. But that was Buchanan's point in 1971: None of this stuff works unless you build it off divisions that already exist in Democratic circles. You exacerbate them. You light the fuse. You make it easy for good Democrats to rationalize that they're doing the right thing, as Hubert Humphrey rationalized to the president on election night in this private conversation that he was doing the right thing when he implied he helped sabotage George McGovern for the general election.

You find the loose thread in the coalition. Then you pull, pull, pull on it until it unravels. Think of this next time you hear about PUMA PAC, the "grassroots" organization still fighting for Hillary Clinton to win the Democratic nomination over Barack Obama, but was chartered by a Republican.