Political Dirty Tricks are Nothing New
I had to laugh when some left-wing media became unglued about the rumors swirling around senatorial candidate James Talarico when he went missing for 9 days.
You have to admit — that was a bit strange.
If Talarico really was out with the flu, you’d think his staff would take care to made sure people knew so that rumors wouldn’t get started. The response from the Right was predictable and somewhat funny. There was even audio of a phone call to a clueless receptionist at a mental health facility in Ohio, where rumor had it Talarico was being treated.
The art of the dirty trick, however is no stranger to Democrats. Lyndon Johnson pulled a famous one and others were played on George W. Bush, Mitt Romney, and even Abraham Lincoln. If all’s fair in love and war, you can add politics to that list.
Talarico at a Capitol news conference in Austin on 1-13-25. (Wikipeida Commons)
Left-wing media even wrote articles on how Talarico was targeted.
The best one may have been from Eleanor Klibanoff of the Texas Tribune. This article, published on-line and likely carried by dozens of Texas newspapers, was headlined:
How Ken Paxton and allies fanned a false conspiracy to convince voters James Talarico was morally unfit
Set aside for a moment the tact that Talarico is certainly morally unfit (you can insert your Ken Paxton comment here) due to the fact that he is a supporter of abortion and has claimed the Bible is silent on the issue. He was confronted about that at a town hall where a questioner noted that “Thou shalt not kill” is in the Ten Commandments.
Video (CBS News): Talarico defends abortion stance at CNN town hall
I’m not sure what Talarico’s evolving position on “gender-affirming care” is, but he certainly is sympathetic to kids changing their sex. And that is morally corrupt. So, there was no need to dredge up a rumor; it’s just that the Talarico interregnum was long enough to make the opportunity too tempting to resist.
RELATED: The SPLC and the Charlottesville Hoax
Talarico finally quashed the rumors by appearing in the flesh, looking no worse for the wear, and with body and voice intact as if there never had been any flu.
The Talarico dirty trick is far from the first. And it’s not the worst.
In no particular order and without regard to party, here are a few that come to mind.
First (and juiciest) is one that Klibanoff herself mentioned in the Tribune piece. It seems that a young Lyndon Johnson, one day to become president of these United States, was worried that he was going to lose an election, and so he started a rumor that his opponent had sexual relations with pigs. Johnson’s campaign manager told Johnson that no one would believe such a lie. Johnson reportedly answered, “I know. But let’s make the son of a bitch deny it.”
Even if that one’s not true, Johnson ran for president against Barry Goldwater after President Kennedy was assassinated. His campaign ran one of the most devious dirty tricks in history, and ran it in an ad campaign entitled “Daisy.” Per Wikipedia, it sought to smear Goldwater as a possible threat to use nuclear weapons.
Though aired only once, it is considered one of the most important factors in Johnson’s landslide victory over the Republican Party’s candidate, Barry Goldwater, and a turning point in political and advertising history. A partnership between the Doyle Dane Bernbach agency and Tony Schwartz, the “Daisy” advertisement was designed to broadcast Johnson’s anti-war and anti-nuclear positions. Goldwater was against the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and suggested the use of low-yield nuclear weapons in the Vietnam War, if necessary. The Johnson campaign used Goldwater’s speeches to imply he would wage a nuclear war.
Video: “Daisy” Ad (1964): Preserved from 35mm in the Tony Schwartz Collection
Another dirty trick was employed against candidate John McCain in 2000. South Carolina voters were asked in a push poll: would you be likely to vote for John McCain if you knew he fathered an illegitimate black child? Of course, McCain had done nothing of the sort, and the question did not state that he had. But it planted the seed and it was nasty.
In 2016, candidate Donlad Trump pulled a disgusting dirty trick on fellow candidate Ted Cruz, alleging that his father, Raphael Cruz, was somehow connected to Lee Harvey Oswald, who history says assassinated President John F. Kennedy.
In 2004, Dan Rather, anchor of the CBS Evening News, and a correspondent on 60 Minutes, did a hit piece on candidate George W. Bush using documents known as the Killian Papers:
The Killian documents controversy involved six documents containing false allegations about President George W. Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard in 1972–73, allegedly typed in 1973. Dan Rather presented four of these documents as authentic in a 60 Minutes II broadcast aired by CBS on September 8, 2004, less than two months before the 2004 presidential election, but it was later found that CBS had failed to authenticate them. Several typewriter and typography experts soon concluded that they were forgeries. Lieutenant Colonel Bill Burkett provided the documents to CBS, but he claims to have burned the originals after faxing them copies. The documents describe preferential treatment during Bush’s service, including pressure on Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian, commander of the 111th Fighter Squadron, to “sugar coat” an annual officer rating report for the then 1st Lt. Bush.
The incident likely led to Rather’s fall from grace at CBS; on March 9, 2005 (his 24th anniversary at the network) he stepped down. Wikipedia’s article states that it is unclear whether Rather’s retirement was directly caused by this incident.
RELATED: News with Views from the Associated Press
Democrats have used TV commercials and the rumor mill to insinuate that former Speaker Paul Ryan would throw grandma out of her wheelchair and off a cliff, and that Mitt Romney was cruel to his dog by taking the dog on a family vacation in a crate on the top of the car. And who could forget how the Left twisted Romney’s comment that he had “binders full of women” in his search for female members for a prospective Romney administration.
Video: This commercial was despicable — even for Democrats
Lee Atwater was a famous strategist for Republicans and a master of dirty tricks, including the so-called Southern Strategy. But his most famous dirty trick was played on candidate Michael Dukakis. Per Wikipedia:
Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis supported a felon furlough program originally begun in 1972, under Republican Governor Francis Sargent. In 1976, the Massachusetts legislature passed a measure to ban furloughs for first-degree murderers, but Governor Dukakis vetoed the bill. Soon afterward, Willie Horton, who was serving a life sentence for first-degree murder for stabbing a boy to death during a robbery, was released on weekend furlough, during which he kidnapped a young couple, tortured the man, and repeatedly raped the woman. Horton then became the centerpiece of Atwater’s ad campaign against Dukakis.
And finally, the swift boating incident with John Kerry that led to the term becoming a verb. George W. Bush had been the subject of a dirty trick, and, in the 2004 presidential election, Kerry was hit with one as well. Wikipedia:
As the presidential campaign of 2004 developed, approximately 250 members of a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT, later renamed Swift Vets and POWs for Truth) opposed Kerry’s campaign. The group held press conferences, ran ads and endorsed a book questioning Kerry’s service record and military awards. The group included several members of Kerry’s unit, such as Larry Thurlow, who commanded a Swift Boat alongside Kerry, and Stephen Gardner, who served on Kerry’s boat. The campaign inspired the widely used political pejorative ‘”swiftboating”, to describe an unfair or untrue political attack. Most of Kerry’s former crewmates have stated that SBVT’s allegations are false.
Just as an aside, I found 6 different dirty tricks that were played on Abraham Lincoln.
The Republicans do it. The Democrats do it. They will continue doing it because rumors and nasty television commercials and dirty tricks can work wonders in turning around a campaign. For the Democrats, Lyndon Johnson was a master, as Lee Atwater was for the Republicans.
RELATED: The Power of Logical Thinking
As for Talarico, it seems to me that no dirty trick was necessary. Talarico’s own words ought to be enough to stop his political career. He wants a welcome mat at the border. He thinks there are 6 genders. He’s a Christian who hates Christianity. He supports the radical trans agenda. But, to paraphrase the Democrats: when given an opportunity, never let a good case of the flu go to waste.
Lynn Woolley is a Texas-based author, broadcaster, and songwriter. Follow his podcast at https://www.PlanetLogic.us.
Check out his author’s page at https://www.Amazon.com/author/lynnwoolley. Order books direct from Lynn at https://PlanetLogicPress.Square.Site. Email Lynn at lwoolley9189@gmail.com.
Dirty tricks? Yes! Book 2 of the trilogy lands our protagonist in the death chamber. And in another reality to boot!
