Former President Richard Nixon pulled out his bag of “dirty tricks” long before the 1972 Watergate scandal, showing a preference for cheating during his first-ever political campaign, according to a forthcoming investigative biography.
Author John A. Farrell, whose earlier well-received books were focused on lawyer Clarence Darrow and former House Speaker Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill, dates the tactic to Nixon’s 1946 come-from-behind victory against Democrat Rep. Jerry Voorhis.
According to Richard Nixon, The Life, when he was picked to run for the California House seat, Nixon wrote himself a note on yellow pads that included the words: “Set up spies in V. camp.”
Nixon also may have created the first campaign “tracker,” when he also told his campaign manager, “We should get better reports on Voorhis’ activities than we are at the present time. If necessary, one person should be assigned the duty of tailing him and reporting everything he says.”
Several years later, in his 1962 gubernatorial bid following his loss to John F. Kennedy in the 1960 presidential race, he urged his campaign to organize a group to heckle foes, and he demanded, “We have to have some of these other candidates tailed and taped.”
And, leaving no doubt he favored dirty tricks before Watergate, when campaign surrogates bungled a phone bugging during an illegal break-in, Nixon told long-time aide Bob Haldeman a year earlier, “I want, Bob, more use of wiretapping,” according to the book out later this month.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
