“Opposition research” on The Daily Caller

Be honest: Don’t you wish you were important enough to justify a team of investigators writing a 200-page book just to torpedo your career? (more)

If you think you’ve already heard everything there is to know about Mitt Romney, think again. A 200-page document that appears to be Sen. John McCain’s entire 2008 election-year opposition research file on the former Massachusetts governor hit the Internet with a vengeance Tuesday evening. And it’s an eye-opener. (more)

For Wisconsin voters on both sides of the aisle, it’s senatorial hunting season, and thanks to the organizing power of social media, it may be like shooting fish in a barrel. Embroiled in the state’s budget controversy, all 16 senators vulnerable to the state’s recall laws have had petitions launched against them. (more)

The Democratic National Committee formally has asked the Pentagon for reams of correspondence between military agencies and nine potential Republican presidential candidates, a clear indication that Democrats are building opposition-research files on specific 2012 contenders even before the midterm elections. (more)

Days before the election, the Nevada Senate race is increasingly turning ugly with Majority Leader Harry Reid’s campaign accusing GOP opponent Sharron Angle of voter suppression and calling her a liar. (more)

The headline above was the crisis management strategic mantra when I worked at the Clinton White House in 1996-98 as Special Counsel to the President. It was my job to deal with the scandal-hungry White House press corps and serve as media spokesperson. (more)

Just when political pundits thought we’d seen every campaign trick in the book, this year’s mid-term election cycle once again proves us wrong.  Credit (or blame, depending on your viewpoint) for the newest fad in electoral tactics goes to an odd figure: former Virginia Senator George Allen. (more)

WASHINGTON — Democratic candidates across the country are opening a fierce offensive of negative advertisements against Republicans, using lawsuits, tax filings, reports from the Better Business Bureau and even divorce proceedings to try to discredit their opponents and save their congressional majority. (more)

Nevada Sen. Harry Reid has out-raised his Tea Party-backed opponent Sharron Angle by millions of dollars, but a recent influx of cash for ads targeting Reid appears to be putting the Senate leader on the defensive. (more)

Christine O’Donnell’s stunning victory in Delaware over the liberal — but, as some have argued, much more electable — Republican Rep. Mike Castle for the GOP Senate nomination was the culmination of several days of heated back-and-forth among conservatives. Here’s a sampling:
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Harry Reid’s small army of young, eager staffers has bombarded Nevada voters with unflattering, sometimes distorted allegations about his challenger Sharron Angle. (more)

After serving Virginia as a U.S. senator, governor, congressman, and state delegate, Republican George Allen has racked up considerable political experience. Despite losing his Senate seat to Democrat Jim Webb in 2006, the UVA alum has remained busy and maintains an active website informing readers of his activities, endorsements, and fund raising events. In an exclusive interview with The Daily Caller, Allen provided his take on the upcoming midterm elections and his own political future. (more)

Study: In Florida, every single candidate running for higher office is a jerk/toad/idiot — Sharron Angle to journalists: What have you done for me lately? — Senators explain how to waste millions of dollars that belong to someone else — Don’t count Linda McMahon out just yet — NY Budget fiasco: a curtain-raiser for the rest of America? — British artists no longer beholden to monarchy  (more)

The day after walking out of her own campaign event when reporters were offered an opportunity to ask questions, Nevada GOP Senate nominee Sharron Angle on Thursday responded to a question from a reporter — to tell them she wasn’t answering the question. (more)

Prominent conservatives responded Tuesday to new reports of a 2008 discussion topic on Journolist, the now-defunct listserv of centrist and liberal journalists, that called for a smear campaign to paint Republicans as racists. (more)

Washington is shocked top Democrats gave the National Rifle Association – one of the most powerful lobbies in town – its own loophole in legislation designed to increase disclosure requirements on campaign spending following the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. (more)

The surprising thing about the recent revealing of the Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light On Spending in Elections Act (DISCLOSE Act) is how very unsurprising it is. From the acronym that suggests one thing (while the legislation, in fact, does just the opposite) and the timing in preparation for November elections, to the aggressive push to have it in place as quickly as possible, this latest piece of legislation is exactly in line with everything else this administration has done to date. In fact, this newest legislation is so mundane in the context of what this administration has attempted to do from the beginning that it’s incredibly frustrating to even talk about because the specter of redundancy, a nasty bug most writers and political analysts fear might infect their work, is an ever present reality. And that is perhaps what makes this legislation most frightening of all. (more)

Governor Deval Patrick, even as he decried partisanship in Washington, said today that Republican opposition to President Obama’s agenda has become so obstinate that it “is almost at the level of sedition.” (more)

UPDATE – 12:26 p.m. – The McMahon campaign has pulled the Rennie blog post off their site, in an apparent attempt to backtrack from the claim that they gave the story to the Times. A McMahon spokesman has not yet responded to a request for comment on why they did so. (more)

The five Supreme Court Justices who formed the majority in Citizens United v. FEC—in which the Court held that corporations can spend unlimited amounts of money to call for the election or defeat of candidates—can be forgiven if they view certain corporations that benefited from their ruling as a bunch of ingrates. Since Citizens United was decided in January, a large group of media corporations, including the ones that own the New York Times and Washington Post, is still spending millions of dollars criticizing the decision as disastrous for democracy. In doing so, these corporations have ignored one basic fact: If Citizens United had sanctioned the suppression of speech merely because it is uttered by a corporation, then it would have opened the door for Congress to censor media corporations’ speech. (more)