How to Get Elected: An Anecdotal History of Mudslinging, Red-Baiting, Vote-Stealing, and Dirty Tricks in American Politics

Starting with George Washington and other Founding Fathers, this juicy collection of political iniquities by CNN reporter Mitchell demonstrates that no politicians, nor their families--nor even presidential dogs, like FDR's Fala--were spared vicious or unproven allegations of private or public misbehavior at the hands of opponents and a formerly unbridled, libel-free press. (Lincoln, for example, was called ``Ape'' and an ``ass.'') Just as New York's corrupt Tammany Hall and the Chicago party machine of Mayor Richard Daley controlled their respective cities' politics, so FBI czar Hoover and Reagan campaign manager William Casey employed any means, the author argues, to serve their White House bosses. In the political arena, Mitchell shows, dirty tricks are the staff of life. Illustrations not seen by PW. (July)