Confessions of a GOP slimer: Roger Stone on his role getting W elected
November 21, 2008 at 11:52 am by Wayne GarciaThroughout modern political history, just about every time there has been an epic dirty trick played, Roger Stone was nearby. Who tipped the cops about Eliot Spitzer frequenting hookers? Stone. Who got a hand in Nixon’s dirty tricks? Stone. Close to Lee Atwater? Stone. The Michelle Obama “whitey” tape rumors? Stone. Bumrushing the Miami-Dade County 2000 presidential recount, halting it and catapulting George W. Bush to the White House? Stone. The alleged Charlie Crist sex tape? Stone again.
Here’s my favorite all-time description of Stone, from Jeffrey Toobin in The New Yorker earlier this year:
While the Republican Party usually claims Ronald Reagan as its inspiration, Stone represents the less discussed but still vigorous legacy of Richard Nixon, whose politics reflected a curious admixture of anti-Communism, social moderation, and tactical thuggery. Stone believes that Nixonian hardball, more than sunny Reaganism, is John McCain’s only hope for the Presidency.
Now, The Daily Beast’s Bejamin Sarlin has an interview with Stone in which the GOP operative says he is sorry for his role in pushing FLA over to the W column:
“There have been many times I’ve regretted it,” Stone told me over pizza at Grand Central Station. “When I look at those double-page New York Times spreads of all the individual pictures of people who have been killed [in Iraq], I got to think, ‘Maybe there wouldn’t have been a war if I hadn’t gone to Miami-Dade. Maybe there hadn’t have been, in my view, an unjustified war if Bush hadn’t become president.’ It’s very disturbing to me.”
Stone voted for Bush in 2004 as well (“John Kerry was an elitist buffoon”) but he pulled no punches in his assessment of the last eight years. Stone’s own political philosophy is libertarian, and he says it conflicts with Bush’s penchant for expanded executive power.
“I think across the board he’s led the party to its current position, which means losing both houses of congress and now the White House,” Stone said. “How can you be conservative and justify wiretapping people without a warrant? We’re supposed to be the party of personal freedom and civil liberties. Big brother listening in on your phone calls—I got a problem with that.”
Ya think, Roger?
November 21st, 2008 at 12:29 pm
i think the biggest problem i see here is this:
“How can you be conservative and justify wiretapping people without a warrant? We’re supposed to be the party of personal freedom and civil liberties. Big brother listening in on your phone calls—I got a problem with that.”
the amount of denial that the republican leadership lives in amazes me. not only are they out of touch with a vast majority of the country, they are completely out of touch with themselves. they haven’t been “the party of personal freedom and civil liberties” for quite some time. lincoln being a republican doesn’t give your party a free pass to sit on the sidelines through years of people being oppressed and mistreated by the government at large.
November 22nd, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Love him, hate him, at least he’s another R who’s gotten off the W boat. I’ll take it.
November 24th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Many forget that Lincoln, too, was a despotic tyrant.
November 24th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Czech, how can people forget what they never learned? The wartime measures taken by Presidents Lincoln, Wilson and Roosevelt are completely unknown, I’m sure, to the majority of voters who consider themselves informed and astute.