Almost as noteworthy is that Jim McTague, the Wa****ngton editor of
Barron's, finds this "uproariously funny."
In article <u0nlv3pjccl5e5re7kigoq08gf1v7tkn5m@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
NewsToBeRead <NewsToBeReadremjunk@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
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>http://online.barrons.com/article/SB120735085142991267.html?mod=9_0031_b_this_weeks_magazine_main&apl=y&page=2
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>Sleazebag's Ascent: Thriving in the Back Room
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>Reviewed by Jim McTague
>
>HOLD YOUR NOSE AND READ THIS BOOK: The political memoir of convicted
>GOP dirty trickster Allen Raymond is both educational and uproariously
>funny.
>
>Raymond is one of the most morally ambivalent, self-serving,
>intellectually shallow human beings that you'll ever encounter. But
>his book gives us the real low-down on electioneering, by cracking the
>door to the seldom-seen political back room. The conduct there is less
>encumbered by decency than even a practiced cynic might suspect. This
>is a win-at-all-costs world. Ethics is the first casualty.
>
>And Raymond was more adept at the dirty game than many of his
>colleagues. He developed a reputation for being the GOP's go-to guy
>for sleazy tactics. In 2005, a federal judge sentenced him to three
>months in a federal slammer for jamming the telephone lines at a
>Democratic get-out-the-vote center in New Hamp****re during the John E.
>Sununu campaign. He got the light sentence for implicating some of his
>former Republican National Committee colleagues in the scheme.
>
>Raymond's adventure began a decade ago, when he was a callow youth,
>fresh from college. Because he boasted an impressive pedigree -- he's
>an heir to the Underwood Typewriter fortune -- he felt an exaggerated
>need to succeed. Yet Raymond had no discernible vocation.
>
>The aimless youth tried a number of jobs, before settling on a
>graduate degree in political management from New York's Baruch College
>-- because it "sounded cool." He learned that election campaigns are
>the moral equivalent of all-out war and that idealists are losers.
>
>After graduation, he began working for the 1992 Bush-Quayle campaign
>in New Jersey. Raymond saw no real difference between Republicans and
>Democrats, but made his choice because a friend and well-connected
>Democrat told him, "The Republicans are on the rise. That's where all
>the money's heading."
>
>By 2000, Raymond was running his own million-dollar-per-year phone
>bank for Republican candidates, financed by investments from party
>bigwigs. Operatives for Dick Zimmer, who was running for a New Jersey
>Congressional seat against Democrat Rush Holt, were among his earliest
>customers. They asked him to use an actor who sounded like a black
>"gang banger" to call the homes of white, Eastern-European voters in
>the district -- a substantial number of people -- and ask them to vote
>for Holt. He said the calls were highly targeted to people whose
>psychological response would be, "I'm not voting for Holt because he
>uses scary black men to call my house."
>
>Raymond agreed to jam the New Hamp****re phone lines after informally
>consulting a GOP lawyer about the legality. The lawyer didn't
>recommend the program, but saw nothing illegal about it, claims
>Raymond. Unfortunately, he has nothing in writing to prove this.
>
>Raymond claims to have gone straight. He now works for a charitable
>foundation. He doesn't sound chastened, however. He sounds slick, like
>the ex-con that he is.
>
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