Confessions of a Political Hitman: My Secret Life of Scandal, Corruption, Hypocrisy and Dirty Attacks That Decide Who Get Elected (and Who Doesn't)

With his 2007 autobiography CONFESSIONS OF A POLITICAL HITMAN, former Republican operative Stephen Marks details his career examining public records of politicians in order to derail their electoral campaigns. Drawing on a decade of personal experience and a lifetime of observations, author Marks makes a strong case for negative campaigning as the best bet to swing fence-sitters to vote for your candidate. A year in advance of it happening, for example, the author correctly predicts Barack Obama's opponents using the Illinois Senator's outspoken minister against him. It may interest you to note Stephen Marks does not mention publicly-financed campaigns or instant run-off voting as solutions to the problems of today's moneyed interests-controlled elections. Perhaps he could study states and cities where public election financing or I.R.V. is the law to see if negative ads still affect vote counts. Throughout CONFESSIONS OF A POLITICAL HITMAN, Stephen Marks refers to political discourse as liberal left versus conservative right. In reality, the wealthy minority's efforts to supersede the middle class/poor majority are what drives political affairs. History is nothing more than the affluent stealing from and dominating the masses. Often appearing to be a Republican Party sycophant in CONFESSIONS OF A POLITICAL HITMAN, Stephen Marks: - regarding the U.S. invasion of Iraq, says, "those on the left actually root for . . . America's defeat." However, author Marks does not support that claim with the name of even one political progressive who ever said such a thing. - supports the Clinton Administration's Republican-esque Welfare "reform" that forced single mothers to work, ignoring the fact that the majority of Welfare beneficiaries are children. - says Christie Whitman was an "enormously popular New Jersey governor." As Whitman barely won her 1997 re-election against Jim McGreevey, does that sound like someone enormously popular with Garden State voters? - subscribes to Orwellian definitions of terms such as "liberal" and "welfare." The former means "tolerant," and the latter "wellbeing," but CONFESSIONS OF A POLITICAL HITMAN uses the words as if they mean the opposite. - says Reverend Al Sharpton once said, "Off the pigs," a declaration the activist never made. - describes himself as conservative yet speaks highly of the ayatollah-friendly, borrow-and-spend-America-into-debt Ronald Reagan. - does not raise the fact that George W. Bush broke his 2000 campaign promise not to nation-build and says nothing about the debt into which Bush has borrowed and spent America. Last time I checked, conservatives do not support conquering other countries or spending on credit. - objects to paroling prisoners, yet is silent on the fact that convicted felon I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is a free man. America has more people in prison than China and Russia combined; is author Marks aware of that, and does he think its enormous prison population

I recommend this book, if you REALLY want to find out the tricks of the political trade. It can get seedy out there, but don't you want to know, so you can make informed decisions on candidates? I sure did. : )

Marks sees political hitmen as the most influential people in a political race. He writes from 12-some years' experience behind the scenes as an opposition researcher - aka political hitman, and assassin of reputations. Those hiring political hitmen include the committees to elect various candidates, PACs, political committees, 572 groups (new entities created to evade McCain-Feingold restrictions), and even the candidates themselves (identify areas of vulnerability). Information sources include voting records, bill sponsorship (sometimes the bills candidates proudly claim "sponsorship" of involved 100+ other sponsors; obviously, some other bills appear negative on the surface - eg. reduced penalties for child-molesters; still another fertile ground is looking for flip-flops down through the years). Marks also tells us that state comptroller offices are a good source of dirt - eg. agency audits or other evidence of government waste, a candidate being behind on personal taxes, etc. Camcorders can also sometimes be a good source - eg. George Allen and "macaca." Negative ads involve a simple three-step process: 1)The hitman digs up dirt. 2)Pollsters determine which dirt is most damaging. 3)Media folks put the best dirt out to the public. Marks is clearly a conservative Republican supporter - yet, he doesn't hesitate to state that Democrats can't hold a candle to Republicans in hypocrisy regarding "family values." New Gingrich and Bob Livingston (both House Speakers), Mark Foley, Larry Craig, etc. (And then there's Jack Abramhoff, and friends.) The bulk of "Confessions of a Political Hitman" is taken up with specifics invovling various campaigns Marks had been involved in. My favorite involved a candidate for Arizona's Republican nomination for governor - Bob Goldwater. Turns out Goldwater lacked none of his famous uncle's talents - at best, he was more than a quart low, late on his personal taxes, and incredibly biased against illegal immigrants. Worse yet, Goldwater's campaign tried to stiff Marks for his vulnerability research - to collect, Marks' secretary had to call Goldwater's campaign office and threaten to release the (itemized) information they had dug up on him. (Marks was immediately paid.) Another interesting story involved Pat Buchanan's campaign for President. Marks has very high regard for Buchanan's ethics and lack of bias (contrary to those believing Pat is anti-Semitic); however, this admiration does not extend to Bay Buchanan - Pat's sister, who ran his campaigns. Marks found her personally obnoxious, and running a campaign that stiffed many creditors (despite heavy contributions) while taking $100,000/year+ for herself - even a year or so after the campaign. Many campaign financial violations were found by federal investigators and Marks himself, but the FEC did nothing. The biggest issue is whether negative ads are effective. Marks has no doubt, though he does cite several instances where they backfired. To