Stone glories in his wallow

(H/t to digby) Roger Stone has achieved a bogeyman status on par with Scaife and Rove - but you really have to meet the guy to understand how completely nuts he is.

Jeff Toobin's piece in The New Yorker (held in a sex club and complete with Iggy Pop-like posings of Stone) is a window into the world of full-on crazy political operatives.

Beyond narcissism, Stone is all tactics and strategy. To say he is without scruples is like saying the sky is blue:

He was just nineteen when he played a bit part in the Watergate scandals. He adopted the pseudonym Jason Rainier and made contributions in the name of the Young Socialist Alliance to the campaign of Pete McCloskey, who was challenging Nixon for the Republican nomination in 1972. Stone then sent a receipt to the Manchester Union Leader, to “prove” that Nixon’s adversary was a left-wing stooge. Stone hired another Republican operative, who was given the pseudonym Sedan Chair II, to infiltrate the McGovern campaign. Stone’s Watergate high jinks were revealed during congressional hearings in 1973, and the news cost Stone his job on the staff of Senator Robert Dole.

There is no ideology - just a manic devotion to whomever he's decided to back, or a white hot hatred for whomever he's decided to destroy.

He [added: claims to have] started the ball rolling on the Spitzer scandal, and is proudly part of the right-wing conspiracy to bring down the Clintons.

Stone sounds pretty convincing when he's telling you how to destroy people:

“Attack, attack, attack—never defend” and “Admit nothing, deny everything, launch counterattack.”

“Remember,” Stone said. “Politics is not about uniting people. It’s about dividing people. And getting your fifty-one per cent.”

But he sounds absolutely ridiculous when he tries to express admiration for people:

“The reason I’m a Nixonite is because of his indestructibility and resilience,” Stone said. “He never quit."

“Roy [Cohen] was not gay,” Stone told me. “He was a man who liked having sex with men. Gays were weak, effeminate. He always seemed to have these young blond boys around. It just wasn’t discussed."

I'm not sure anyone needs to know much about Roger Stone, but it's worth knowing what kind of character the phrase "partisan attack dog" encompasses.

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