Roger Stone

Infobox Writer
name = Roger Stone


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occupation = Political consultant, Republican activist
nationality = American
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subject = Politics of the United States
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website = http://www.stonezone.com

Roger Stone is an American political consultant [citeweb |url=http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/election/money_2-29.html |title="Online NewsHour: Money and the Presidency" |date=February 29, 1996 |author=(Transcript) |publisher=NewsHour with Jim Lehrer ] and lobbyist who specializes in opposition research for the Republican National Committee in the United States.

In 1990, "The New York Times" described him as a "renowned infighter" [citeweb |url=http://www.nytimes.com/1990/03/19/politics/19900319_politics_series.html |title="The Trouble With Politics: Running vs. Governing: ’Wars’ Wound Candidates and the Process" |date=March 19, 1990 |author=Robin Toner |publisher=New York Times ] and during the 2004 United States Presidential Campaign, CBS News described Stone as a "veteran Republican strategist" [citeweb |url=http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/10/12/politics/main648853.shtml |title="If You Ain't Got That Swing, Any Voters Still Up For Grabs? The Campaigns Seem To Disagree" |publisher=CBS News |author=Jarret Murphy |date=October 13, 2004] .

Life

Youth and early career

Born in Norwalk, Connecticut,Edsall, Thomas B., "Partners in Political PR Firm Typify Republican New Breed", "Washington Post", April 7, 1985, accessed via Newsbank.com subscription website April 28, 2008] in 1952citeweb |url=http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/06/02/080602fa_fact_toobin |title="The Dirty Trickster" |date=June 2, 2008 |author="Jeffrey Toobin"' |publisher=The New Yorker] Stone grew up in Lewisboro, New York in a half Italian American, half Hungarian American family. His mother was a small-town reporter, his father a well drillerSegal, David, [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/24/AR2007082402122_pf.html "Mover, Shaker, And Cranky Caller? A GOP Consultant Who Doesn't Mince Words Has Some Explaining to Do"] article, "The Washington Post", August 25, 2007, p C1, accessed April 28, 2008] who owned his own business. He has described his family as middle-class, blue-collar Catholics.

In the first grade, Stone claims, he broke into politics to further John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign: "I remember going through the cafeteria line and telling every kid that Nixon was in favor of school on Saturdays," Stone says. "It was my first political trick." When he was a junior and vice president of the student government at a high school in northern Westchester County, New York, he manipulated the ouster of the president and succeeded him. When he ran for election as president for his senior year, he later said, he "built alliances and put all my serious challengers on my ticket. Then I recruited the most unpopular guy in the school to run against me. You think that's mean? No, it's smart."Hoffman, Jan, [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0DE7DD163CF93BA25752C1A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print "PUBLIC LIVES; The Ego Behind the Ego in a Trump Gamble"] , article, "The New York Times", November 18, 1999, accessed April 28, 2008]

Given a copy of Barry Goldwater's "Conscience of a Conservative", Stone became a convert to conservatism as a child and a volunteer in Goldwater's 1964 campaign. (As of 2007, Stone said he was a staunch conservative with libertarian leanings.)

As a student at The George Washington University in 1972, he invited Jeb Magruder to speak at a Young Republicans Club, then successfully hit up Magruder for a job with Richard Nixon's storied Committee to Re-elect the President. [ [http://www.observer.com/2007/roger-stones-tattoo-alibi Roger Stone's Nixon Thing | The New York Observer ] ] Stone's political career began in earnest with activities such as contributing money to a possible rival of Nixon in the name of the Young Socialist Alliance — then slipping the receipt to the "Manchester Union-Leader". He also got a spy hired by the Hubert Humphrey campaign who became Humphrey's driver. By day, Stone was officially a scheduler in the Nixon campaign. "By night, I'm trafficking in the black arts. Nixon's people were obsessed with intelligence."citeweb |url=http://www.weeklystandard.com/Utilities/printer_preview.asp?idArticle=14278&R=1163A318CF |author=Labash, Matt |title="Roger Stone, Political Animal: Above all, attack, attack, attack--never defend." |publisher="The Weekly Standard" |date=November 5, 2007]

After Nixon won the 1972 presidential election, Stone worked for the administration in the Office of Economic Opportunity. After Nixon resigned, Stone went to work for Bob Dole, then was fired after columnist Jack Anderson publicly identified Stone as a Nixon dirty trickster. In 1976 he worked in Ronald Reagan's campaign for president, and in 1977 became national chairman of the Young Republicans.

Career, 1980-1992

Jon Sears recruited Stone to work in Ronald Reagan's presidential campaign in 1980 and 1984, in which he served as Eastern Regional Political Director. Stone said that Cohn helped him arrange for John B. Anderson to get the nomination of the Liberal Party of New York, a move that would help split the opposition to Reagan in the state. Stone said Cohn gave him a suitcase that Stone avoided opening and, as instructed by Cohn, dropped it off at the office of a lawyer influential in Liberal Party circles. Reagan carried the state with 46 percent of the vote. Speaking after the statute of limitations for bribery had expired, Stone later said, "I paid his law firm. Legal fees. I don't know what he did for the money, but whatever it was, the Liberal party reached its right conclusion out of a matter of principle."

Stone's 30th birthday party was given at the "21" Club by Roy Cohn.

With partners Charlie Black and Paul Manafort, he formed Black, Manafort, and Stone [citeweb |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,960803,00.html |title="The Slickest Shop in Town" |author=Evan Thomas |publisher=Time Magazine |date=March 3, 1986 ] [citeweb |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE3D8143AF932A05754C0A966958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all |title="Washington at Work; The New Spokesman for the Republicans: a Tough Player in a Rough Arena" |author=Robin Toner |publisher=New York Times |date=July 31, 1990 ] , a political consulting firm, described as "instrumental in the success of Ronald Reagan's 1984 campaign." Lee Atwater later joined the firm.

According to "Time", in the 1988 George H. W. Bush presidential campaign, Stone was involved with the Willie Horton advertisements targeted against Democratic opponent Michael Dukakis.citeweb |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,975347,00.html |title="The Political Interest It's Not Going To Be Pretty" |date= April 20, 1992 |publisher= Time Magazine |author= Michael Kerner ] The Horton ad is credited by some with contributing to the defeat of Dukakis by portraying him as soft on crime. Stone has said that he urged Lee Atwater not to include Horton in the ad.

Life and career, 1993-2003

Roger and his wife Ann Stone divorced in 1991, shortly after they helped start Republicans for Choice.

In 1995, Stone was the president of Republican Senator Arlen Specter's campaign for the 1996 Republican Presidential nomination [citeweb |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E02E4DA1439F933A25752C1A963958260 |title="96 Aspirants Filling Breach Left By Powell" |author=Steven Holmes |publisher=New York Times |date=November 10, 1995 ] . Specter withdrew early in the campaign season with less than 2% support.

Stone was for many years a lobbyist for Donald Trump on behalf of his casino business [citeweb |url=http://edition.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/time/1999/09/20/trump.html |title="Take my party, please" |date=September 27, 1999 |publisher=CNN |author=Michael Duffy, Matthew Cooper ] and was also involved in opposing expanded casino gambling in New York State, a position that brought him into conflict with Governor George Pataki

In 1996, Stone resigned from a post as a volunteer spokesman in Robert Dole's campaign for president after "The National Enquirer" wrote that Stone had placed ads and pictures in racy publications and a website seeking sexual partners for himself and his second wife, Nydia. Stone denied the report. On the "Good Morning America" program he said: "An exhaustive investigation now indicates that a domestic employee who I discharged for substance abuse on the second time that we learned that he had a drug problem is the perpetrator who had access to my home, access to my computer, access to my password, access to my postage meter, access to my post-office box key." Stone has since admitted that the ads were authentic.

Stone has been credited with setting up street demonstrations in Florida to protest the recounts held after the 2000 presidential election; he is also credited with organizing the so-called "Brooks Brothers riot" where Republican congressional staff members, among others, protested outside an office where ballots were being recounted.citeweb |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/23/nyregion/23stone.html |title="Political Consultant Resigns After Allegations of Threatening Spitzer's Father" |date= August 23, 2007 |author=Danny Hakim, Nicholas Confessore |publisher= New York Times]

In 2002, Stone was associated with the campaign of businessman Thomas Golisano for Governor of New York Stateciteweb |url=http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/politics/columns/citypolitic/6153/ |title="The Right Stuff" |author=Michael Tomasky |publisher=New York Metro |date=June 17, 2002] .

2004 elections

During the 2004 US Presidential campaign, Al Sharpton responded to accusations that Stone was working on his campaign, stating "I've been talking to Roger Stone for a long time. That doesn't mean that he's calling the shots for me. Don't forget that Bill Clinton was doing more than talking to Dick Morris" citeweb |url=http://www.laweekly.com/news/news/a-prayer-for-rev-al/1974/ |date= February 19, 2004 |title="A Prayer for Rev. Al" |publisher=LA Weekly |author=Doug Ireland ] Critics suggested that Stone was only working with Sharpton as a way to undermine the Democratic party's chances of winning the election. Sharpton denies that Stone had any influence over his campaign. [citeweb |url=http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0406,barrett,50930,5.html |title="Sharpton's Cynical Campaign Choice" |date= February 3, 2004 |author="Wayne Barrett, Jennifer Suh"' |publisher=The Village Voice]

In the spring and summer of 2004, two 527 groups associated with Roger Stone sent out mailings attacking Winston-Salem City Councilman Vernon Robinson during the primary race. Other mailings from one of the 527 groups promoted then-State Senator Virginia Foxx, who ultimately won the race.Fact|date=April 2008

In this election, Stone was also accused [ [http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/extra/archives/001061.html Campaign Extra!: Arlen's spectre: Roger Stone ] ] of responsibility for the "Kerry-Specter" campaign materials that were circulated in Pennsylvania. Such signs were considered controversial because they were seen as an effort to get Democrats who supported Kerry to vote for the Republican Senator Arlen Specter in heavily Democratic Philadelphia.

Career since 2004

In 2007 Stone, a top adviser at the time to Joseph Bruno (the majority leader of the New York State Senate), was forced to resign by Bruno after allegations that Stone had threatened then gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer. Stone was accused on an episode of "Hardball" with Chris Matthews on August 22, 2007 of being the voice on an audiotape threatening Governor Eliot Spitzer's father Bernard Spitzer. The audiotape is controversial because of the expletives involved: "And there‘s not a goddamn thing your phony, psycho, piece-of-shit son can do about it." [citeweb |url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20408966/ |title=Hardball with Chris Matthews (transcript) |publisher= MSNBC |date=August 23, 2007 |author= ] [ [http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/audio/nyregion/20070821_voicemail.mp3 Audio recording, hosted by the New York Times] ] Stone has consistently denied the reports. Thereafter, however, he resigned from his position as a consultant to the New York State Senate Republican Campaign Committee, at the request of Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.

In January 2008, Stone founded Citizens United Not Timid, an anti–Hillary Clinton 527 group with an intentionally obscene acronym. [citeweb |url=http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/014/617oiaek.asp |title="Making Political Trouble: Roger Stone shows how its done - again" |author=Labash, Matt |date=January 28, 2008 |publisher=The Weekly Standard ] [citeweb |url=http://www.citizensunitednottimid.org/ |title="Citizens United Not Timid" |publisher= hosted by Citizens United Not Timid ]

tyle and opinions

tone's Rules

According to a 2007 magazine profile of Stone by Matt Labash, the consultant "often sets his pronouncements off with the utterance 'Stone's Rules', signifying listeners that one of his shot-glass commandments is coming down, a pithy dictate uttered with the unbending certitude one usually associates with the Book of Deuteronomy." Stone's Rules can be about fashion, food or strategy.

Examples:
* "Unless you can fake sincerity, you'll get nowhere in this business." (one of Stone's favorites)
* "Politics with me isn't theater. It's performance art. Sometimes, for its own sake."
* "Don't order fish at a steakhouse,"
* "White shirt + tan face = confidence,"
* "Undertakers and chauffeurs are the only people who should be allowed by law to wear black suits."
* "Hit it from every angle. Open multiple fronts on your enemy. He must be confused, and feel besieged on every side."
* "Always praise 'em before you hit 'em."
* "Be bold. The more you tell, the more you sell." (attributed to advertising guru David Ogilvy)
* "Losers don't legislate." (from Richard Nixon)
* "Admit nothing, deny everything, launch counterattack." ("Often called the Three Corollaries", Stone says of this rule.)
* "Nobody ever built a statue to a committee."
* "Avoid obviousness."
* "Never do anything till you're ready to do it."
* "Look good = feel good."
* "Always keep the advantage."

Personal style and habits

Stone has long been noted for his "flamboyant personal style" as one "New York Times" article noted, and Stone has been called "flamboyant" in "Newsday" and "The New York Observer". [Slackman, Michael, [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D04E3DC1638F936A15752C0A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print "The 2004 Campaign: The Consultant: Sharpton's Bid Aided by an Unlikely Source"] , article, "The New York Times", January 25, 2004; [http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-32699587_ITM article headline and date] "Old tricks rock Roger Stone's political world." and [http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=%22Roger+Stone%22+%22flamboyant%22&hl=en&um=1&sa=N&start=0 Google News search results showing quotation from article: "famous GOP consultant Roger Stone Jr. ... the flamboyant Stone "] , "Newsday", August 23, 2007;Conason, Joe, [http://www.observer.com/node/46643 "Pataki Camp Gets Stoned"] , opinion column, "The New York Observer", October 22, 2002; all accessed April 28, 2008]

The notability of his personal style has extended to his fashion choices. As another article from "The New York Times" put it, he "has a reputation for sartorial elegance". (The same "New York Times" article also reported that when Stone stopped wearing socks during "Ronald Reagan's 1980 Presidential campaign, Nancy Reagan fastidiously brought this to her husband's attention.") [Taylor, Stuart, and Binder, David, [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DEEDD1F38F932A2575BC0A96E948260&scp=1&sq=Roger+Stone+sartorial&st=nyt "Washington Talk: Briefing Sockless Strategist"] , "New York Times", August 11, 1988 (The "Times" reported that when Ronald Reagan asked him about it, "'I told him, "I'm not wearing socks until the Soviets are out of Afghanistan,"' Mr. Stone recalled. 'I had to say something, and that answer seemed acceptable to Governor Reagan.'"), accessed April 28, 2008] His flashy style partly involves good food and good clothes. "A dandy by disposition who boasts of having not bought off-the-rack since he was 17 ... [Stone has] taught reporters how to achieve perfect double-dimples underneath their tie knots", according to Labash. Washington journalist Victor Gold has noted Stone's reputation as "one of the capital's smartest dressers". [Gold, Victor, "Hail to the tie", "San Antonio Express-News", February 17, 1994, accessed via newsbank.com subscription website on April 28, 2008]

His longtime tailor is Alan Flusser, author of "Style and the Man". A Flusser associate has said Stone knows enough about men's clothing to work in Flusser's establishment. As of 2007, Stone declared single-vent jackets the sign of a "heathen" and pleated-waist pants an atrocity: "Pants today are like a little church in the valley — no ballroom". Stone says he owns 100 silver-colored neckties and has 100 suits in storage. He despises cowboy boots worn with suits. Fashion stories have been written about him in "GQ" and "Penthouse".

As of 1999, according to a "New York Times" article that year, " [H] e always wears suspenders, but never red ones. 'People with blond hair do not look good in red,' he said. 'And you shouldn't call them suspenders. It's more accurate to call them braces.'" At that time he was sporting a "silver watch fob, spread-collar shirt and wide-striped double-breasted suit tailored to accentuate his bodybuilder's silhouette". He had only started wearing blue jeans when he met his second wife, he said. He credited his youthful good looks to "decades of following a regimen of Chinese herbs, breathing therapies, tai chi and acupuncture," according to the "Times". Others have noted that he wears a diamond pinkie ring in the shape of a horseshoe, in 2007 he had Richard Nixon's face tattooed on his back, he owned five Jaguars as of 2007, and he also owns five Yorkshire Terriers. He has said of himself: "I like English tailoring, I like Italian shoes. I like French wine," he told a reporter for "Newsday". "I like vodka martinis with an olive, please. I like to keep physically fit." [Metz, Andrew, "Golisano's Not-So-Secret Weapon / Adviser lobs political bombs", "Newsday", September 23, 2002, accessed via Newsbank.com subscription archive April 28, 2008] And his office in Florida has been described as a "Hall of Nixonia" with framed pictures, posters and letters associated with Richard Nixon. Exceptions are a poster of a stripper and a photo of him standing by a pool with pornstar Nina Hartley, both in bikinis.

ee also

* " Young Republicans, Old Tricks" by Robert Novak & Rowland Evans "The Washington Post" April 27, 1977.
* " The Dirty Trickster" by Jeffrey Toobin "The New Yorker" June 2, 2008

External links

* [http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0405,barrett,50745,1.html "Village Voice" article]
* "The Stone Zone: Political Punditry And Observation" [http://stonezone.com] , website of Roger Stone
* [http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/06/02/080602fa_fact_toobin?currentPage=1 "Dirty Trickster"] - Article from "The New Yorker"

References