NH phone jammer blogging at FDL today....very interesting. Almost missed it.

[madfloridian]

His name is Allen Raymond, and he wrote "How to Rig and Election". It tells how he helped the RNC rig elections, and how he found just how expendable he was. He sounds like an obnoxious SOB, but this looks like interesting reading to see just how low they will go.

FDL Book Salon welcomes Allen Raymond

I have not yet read through all the comments in the blogging section, but here are some quotes that caught my eye. Emptywheel's comments describe just about how I feel about him.

I've gotta say, the first half of Allen Raymond's How to Rig an Election is a tough slog. It describes Raymond's early career as a GOP operative, in which he stopped at nothing to smear his candidates' opponents.

.."As someone who has helped a challenger beat a well-funded incumbent who used every kind of smear, I simply don't buy that such tactics are necessary, and the cynicism of it really pissed me off.

That said, the first half of the book includes fascinating descriptions of Raymond's tenure working under Haley Barbour and Mitch McConnell (apparently, McConnell rarely speaks). And throughout the book, Raymond includes extensive descriptions of the contempt with which neo-cons treated (and still treat, no doubt) north-eastern, socially moderate Republicans."

..." It's the second-half of the book, though, where Raymond really exposes the cynical underbelly of Republican operations. Raymond was, recall, the telemarketing consultant whom the New Hampshire GOP employed to jam the phones of the Democratic GOTV lines on election day in 2002, helping to get John Sununu elected over Jeanne Shaheen.

Here are a couple of items emptywheel quotes from his book.

Yes, I was a dick. That was my job, and I was pretty good at it--and learning every day."

..."There was always a palpable sense that we were being held in contempt by our colleagues from the Southern and mountain states. Somehow, you were less of a Republican if you tended toward compromise."

...."The Bush White House had complete control of the RNC and there was no way someone like Tobin was going to try what he was proposing without first getting it vetted by his higher-ups. That's if Tobin, rather than one of his bosses, had even thought of the ploy himself--which seemed unlikely."

..." Standing alone in that soundproof chamber was Karl Rove. It was an impressive sight, that behemoth flailing his arms while barking into a headset, surrounded by a vast blinking array of laptops, desktops, telephones, and monitors (noticeably all of the computer gear was Apple rather than PC). He clearly saw himself as a field general with his all-seeing eyes on every last troop. The effect was something out of James Bond, or the first time you glimpse Darth Vader in his life-support pod, the bald head revealed just before the helmet comes down.

The committees chaired by Waxman and Conyers are still investigating this. The RNC's political director admitted that "I've made sure there's no e-mail traffic on this".

This occurred in 2002, the wheels of justice grind...well you know the rest.

Now to read some of the blogging comments.

[madfloridian]

1. I just read some his blogging, and he is doing a lot of it.

Very open, very talkative. He gives his opinions on most everything, even the primary race.

Here is a typical comment....it comes across to me as...well, amoral. Just nothing there. But at least we are getting some inside looks.

"My wife is far stronger and smarter than me, no doubt.

The whole morality issue is important, but needs context. Running a campaign is not about morality (although one wants to occupy the moral high ground).

When the judge questioned my morality it was like he was speaking in Coptic. It also told me I was screwed. Morality is the domain of religion and not government, and it never should be the domain of government.

I do not consider ethics the same as morality. In campaigns the only beacon is the bright line of the law. And more often than not campaign managers look to go up to that edge but not cross it. That was my default setting, although it turned out I stepped over the line.

See what I mean?

[Robbien]

3. Since he was living in a world

where everyone was being a dick, being a dick was the acceptable way of behaving. Not being a dick was equated to being a loser.

Everyone in the GOP acted and still act that way.

Morality is only relegated to the church and being a bigoted christian.

[madfloridian]

4. Like they have no consciences.

It's strange to listen to them. It is like they made their own reality. Oh, that's right, they did.

[Warpy]

2. They can't grind slowly enough for me

I want this scum to be deprived of pardon power by the time the jaws clamp shut on these party racketeers.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Interesting. Thanks. n/t

[madfloridian]

6. Most welcome. He sounds like a real SOB about politics.

:hi: