Dirty tricks

In politics, dirty tricks refers to duplicitous, slanderous, and downright illegal tactics employed by politicians (or their underlings) to win elections and/or destroy opponents. The entire Watergate scandal can best be described as a series of dirty tricks. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for covert operations (as in 'dirty tricks department').

Watergate era dirty tricks

The Watergate era "dirty tricks" occurred prior to post-Watergate era legislative reforms regarding the management of Campaign finance funds, usage, and reporting. The Nixon Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP), a private non-governmental entity, had used funds from its coffers to pay for, and later coverup, "dirty tricks". As a result of post-Watergate reform legislation, such activities are strictly regulated, though other private entities still may practice what has become commonly referred to as questionable or unethical "dirty tricks".

Related Topics:
Watergate era - Legislative reforms - Campaign finance - Committee to Re-elect the President

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As the Watergate scandal unfolded in 1973 and 1974, voters were mesmerized by the endless series of shenanigans encapsulated in the term "dirty tricks." False rumors were spread about initial Democratic frontrunner Senator Ed Muskie and his wife Jane, which undermined his legitimacy as candidate and led to ill-considered emotional confrontations and his eventual withdrawal. The office of the psychiatrist of Vietnam War critic and ex-Defense Department consultant Daniel Ellsberg was burglarized by G. Gordon Liddy to get negative information about Ellsberg. Most dramatically of all, the Watergate building office of Democratic National Committee Chair Lawrence O'Brien (then a former Postmaster General, later an NBA Basketball Commissioner) was burglarized in the hope of finding negative information about Democratic plans.

Related Topics:
1973 - 1974 - Ed Muskie - Psychiatrist - Vietnam War - Defense Department - Daniel Ellsberg - G. Gordon Liddy - Watergate building office - Democratic National Committee - Lawrence O'Brien - Postmaster General - NBA Basketball Commissioner

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In the FBI's "Dirty Tricks" investigation, the FBI discovered,

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:"activities that included forging letters and other literature which unfairly attacked some candidates, planting manufactured stories in the press, copying documents from campaign files, and recruiting people to ask embarssassing questions at candidites rallies or to picket such rallies on behalf of opposing candidates. WSPF also received and investigated allegations about possible "dirty tricks" by agents of Democratic candidates directed against President Nixon's campaign."http://foia.fbi.gov/watergat/watergat2.pdf

Related Topics:
Unfairly - Agents - Democratic - Candidates

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President Nixon ordered his aides to compile an "Enemies List" of his most prominent critics, so that the Internal Revenue Service and other governmental agencies could harass them, though it should be noted the IRS did not comply http://www.taxhistory.org/thp/readings.nsf/0/0f13f820fc42b47d85256e000057b5e9?OpenDocument, and in fact, audited Nixon himself http://www.taxhistory.org/thp/readings.nsf/0/f8723e3606cd79ec85256ff6006f82c3?OpenDocument.

Related Topics:
Nixon - Enemies List - Internal Revenue Service

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Johnnie M. Walters, disobeyed orders to target the president's critics with tax investigations. White House counsel John Dean presented the infamous Nixon enemies list to Walters and instructed him to audit the hundreds of people named on it, but instead Walters tucked the list away for a year and then provided it to congressional investigators. http://www.parascope.com/articles/0297/nixon1.htm

Related Topics:
John Dean - Nixon enemies list

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Nixon ordered that all his conversations be taped, so that he could have material for his memoirs and he could structure the record of history because he would be the only person in the room with knowledge of the taping. Ironically, the tapes led to Nixon's downfall, because they documented the efforts at coverup more than the greatness to which Nixon aspired.

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The Watergate scandal turned out to be a boon to the Democratic Party. Democrats swept elections among swing voters from 1973 through 1976, in large part due to the revulsion among Nixon "law and order" voters about the atmosphere of "dirty tricks" illegality within which the Nixon Administration acted. The Democrats may have taken false comfort from Watergate-inspired victories, however, as the 1976 presidential election proved to be a high-water mark never again equaled for the Democratic Party nationally and in the vast majority of the states.

Related Topics:
Democratic Party - 1973 - 1976 - 1976 presidential election

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Donald Segretti, who was employed by CREEP and coined the term, ultimately was convicted and served four months on misdemeanor charges. Others included John Ehrlichman, H. R. Haldeman, G. Gordon Liddy, and Chuck Colson. Colson "found God" in prison and went on to become a major religious leader for the cause of restorative justice.

Related Topics:
Donald Segretti - CREEP - Misdemeanor - John Ehrlichman - H. R. Haldeman - G. Gordon Liddy - Chuck Colson - Prison - Restorative justice

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The dirty tricks of the Watergate era set a standard of questionable practices in political campaigns that has rarely been equaled on a national scale, although other negative campaigns, for example, 1988 and 2004, may have been more vicious.

Related Topics:
1988 - 2004

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Recent nomanclature equates a Dirty Tricks Squad to any organized, covert attempt to besmirch the credibility or reputation of a candidate, individual or organization so as to render them ineffective.

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