Early Lessons

(Community Matters) This story resonates. Reminds me when during college a candidate’s staff & national party leaders tried convincing me to infiltrate another campaign.

JASON ZENGERLE: “Smith was … a crusading reformer whose combination of charisma, idealism, and intelligence prompted comparisons to Howard Dean, Paul Wellstone, and even Barack Obama. … The Smith campaign, like all underdog efforts, had been approached by second- and third-tier political consultants-the kind of operators that no well-funded candidate would dream of hiring. One particularly persistent suitor … presented himself as ‘a plumber’ and ‘this guy [who] does the dark arts.’ Smith’s campaign had repeatedly turned down his solicitations, but now it seemed his services might prove useful. … [In rationalizing the mailing to his campaign brain trust, Smith] ‘put on his professorial cap, and he was talking about FEC rules and regulations and how they were basically created by politicians who were already in office,’ [recalls Nick Adams, a recent college graduate who as in the campaign’s inner circle]. ‘We didn’t know what was inbounds or out-of-bounds. We knew politics was a little seamy; there were gray areas. … So, when Jeff said this is how the game is played and if you can’t play it, you’re not going to go anywhere, it felt weird. It didn’t feel right, but it seemed like it was probably correct.’ …

“Adams … says Smith assured him that it was not a big deal [to lie to an FEC investigator] — that he would ‘be doing this investigator a favor’ by letting her close the case. … Smith [by then a state senator being squeezed by the FBI] drove to his parents’ house in the St. Louis suburbs. ‘I said, “I’m in more trouble than you could have ever imagined and probably am going to have to go to jail, and it’s going to be a terrible few months here.”‘ … Smith’s crimes had less to do with corruption than with its opposite: idealism. So convinced was Smith of the righteousness of his cause that he came to view everything-even his friends-as means to an end. Ultimately, his idealism led him to embrace the most corrosive kind of cynicism.”

The article is behind TNR’s paywall. But TNR Editor Richard Just was kind to provide a complimentary link for Playbookers. http://bit.ly/hwjxvq