History is a set of lies agreed upon. History has decided that John Dean is the hero of Watergate: a reluctant and courageous man sucked into the scandal who became a whistleblower. Now comes further proof that Dean was in fact a primary architect of the Watergate cover-up who saved himself by deflecting guilt to others.

John W. Dean: Lied to save his ass

Peter Klingerman, a historian, has submitted a paper to the American Historical which argues that Stanley I. Kutler, the historian who prepared the Watergate transcripts, deliberately edited the tapes in ways that concealed Dean’s real role and duplicity.

Kutler, a self-important little man, thinks we should be impressed with his status as “Historian” and his academic credentials. We aren’t. Kutler, a registered Democrat, is a historian with a Nixon-hating bias. His rewriting of history is willful and dishonest.

Kutler’s subtle white-wash of Dean’s real role is neither inadvertent nor an honest mistake. He even transposes the chronology of meetings and phone calls between Nixon and Dean to create a false impression about what Nixon knew and when he knew it.

While Mr. Dean himself tries to label anyone who disagrees with his version of events as a “fringe element,” both Watergate Prosecutors and the Senate Watergate Committee were aware of discrepancies between Dean’s testimony and the facts as established by numerous other witnesses. For example, Dean told prosecutors that Attorney General John Mitchell had recruited California lawyer Herb Kalmbach to raise hush money for the Watergate burglars when it was Dean himself who recruited Kalmbach without Mitchell’s knowledge.

Just to be clear, Dean obstructed justice, destroyed evidence, falsely implicated Attorney General John Mitchell, and lied to both prosecutors and the Senate Committee in the Watergate affair.

Some hero.

The New York Times, certainly not a pro-Nixon news organization, had an excellent and balanced page one article regarding Kutler’s treachery.

Will AG Cuomo Get The Facts ?

New York Times calls D’Amato Gillibrands’s “mentor”

The appointment by New York Governor David Paterson of Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand to the vacant senate seat of Hillary Clinton raises serious questions surrounding the illegal dirty tricks employed to elect Gillibrand to Congress in the first place.

In 2006 Governor George Pataki’s Chief of Staff Zenia Mucha illegally obtained New York State Police records regarding a domestic dispute between then Congressman John Sweeney and his wife.

Wiese: Got the police docs

The records were obtained by former State Police captain Daniel Wiese, who functioned as a dirty tricks operative for Pataki and later Governor Eliot Spitzer. Wiese was also the operative who pressured State police Superintendent Preston Fenton to utilize the State police to spy on Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno and to fabricate records to smear Bruno. Fenton was forced to resign over the Bruno smear effort.

Mucha, a former aide to Senator Alfonse D’Amato, was the live-in girlfriend of Gillibrand’s father, Albany lobbyist Doug Rutnick. The State Police records were leaked to the anti-Sweeney Albany Times Union,

Mucha: Had the docs leaked

perhaps the most biased newspaper in the nation, just six days before the election, causing Sweeney’s defeat and Gillibrand’s election. Prior to the leaks Sweeney lead in the race by 19 points according to the New York Times .

Sweeney was targeted by Mucha and the Pataki dirty tricks operation because of his growing criticism of Pataki’s move to the left and his alliance with 1199, the Public Employees Union. Pataki’s agreement with the union in return for endorsement of his re-election virtually bankrupt the state.

Unfortunately for all involved, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has an open investigation in to Wiese and the State Police abuses, an investigation in which the New York Times reports Wiese now refuses to co-operate, presumably because of his fear of self-incrimination. It is essential that Cuomo examine the leaks and other political abuses of the State Police by the Pataki Adminstration. Cuomo should request special counsel status from Governor Paterson to obtain subpoena power to force the under-oath testimony of Mucha, Wiese and Gillibrand as to how confidential State Police records were obtained and leaked. A refusal by Paterson will stink of a cover-up.

Equally troubling is Gillibrand’s former internship with Senator D’Amato who’s misdeeds date to his illegal requirement that Town of Hempstead employees kick back 1% of their salaries to the Nassau County Republican Organization. D’Amato embarrassed New York State in the U.S. Senate for 16 years before the voters turned the crude, loud-mouthed D’Amato out of office. “Some guys mature in public office” said one U.S. Senator from a neighboring state ” Not Al- he was the same cheap, low-class hoodlum when he left the Senate as when he came”.

That Governor Paterson allowed D’Amato to stand front and center at Gillibrand’s announcement press conference , although no doubt good for D’Amato’s influence peddling business, has inflamed New York Democrats and virtually insured public scrutiny of D’Amato’s and Rutnick’s Washington lobby clients and Gillibrand’s votes and activities impacting them.

The shady circumstances surrounding Gillbrand’s first election and her conservative record also insure a Democratic primary for the seat in 2010. The idea that up-state voters would cheer Gillibrand’s appointment is ridiculous- voters in Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse have never heard of her. Governor Paterson’s choice is a puzzling one. It gained him nothing other than the enmity of the Kennedy’s, Cuomo and his party’s progressive wing.

The New Blog From Republican Operative Roger Stone

Menendez Should Recuse Himself On USA Pick

By Roger Stone

According in the Newark Star Ledger, New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez is working with Senator Frank Lautenberg to evaluate and interview candidates for US Attorney for New Jersey.

In view of the fact that the US Attorney’s office issued subpoenas for records of a real estate deal involving the junior senator from Hudson County, is investigating consulting contracts tied to the Jersey City Medical Center, and examining Menendez’s relationship with a former staffer who is now a lobbyist, Menendez should recuse himself from this sensitive process.

It is important to note that the US Attorney’s office has declined to say that the investigation into Senator Menendez has been closed.

It is wholly inappropriate for Senator Menendez to have a hand in selecting the prosecutor who may determine whether or not Menendez should be prosecuted in these matters.

There are three candidates thought to be under consideration. They include defense lawyer John Azzarello, who served as counsel to the 9/11 Commission; defense lawyer Alberto Rivas, who was a federal monitor for New Jersey’s racial profiling consent decree, and John Vazquez, who recently stepped down as First Assistant to NJ State Attorney General Anne Milgram.

As long as Senator Menendez is under a cloud, he should separate himself from this process and let Senator Lautenberg make the recommendations to the Administration of President Barack Obama for the US Attorney’s post.

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Matthews Proves He’s A Jerk

MATTHEWS: Blowhard Scrooge

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews would have you believe that he is a regular guy from a modest background who hasn’t lost touch with his roots.

Unfortunately, Matthews continues to demonstrate that he is an elitist snob and insufferably pompous egomaniac.

The National Enquirer’s Mike Walker has the story:

“It’s beginning to look a lot like Chris Matthews is a bully – MSNBC’s attack-host even picks on kids! Matthews and wife Kathleen bought a Christmas tree at Blessed Sacrament Church near their Chevy Chase, Md., home, a teen volunteer cheerfully loaded it in their car – but they had no cash. No problem, said Matthews, he’d just take the tree and pay later. “I’m sorry,” said the lad, “but I can’t let you leave with it.” Making his trademark TV piggy-face, Matthews screamed: “You don’t understand what’s going on here. I’M CHRIS MATTHEWS!” The kid offered to unload the tree and hold it – but Matthews balked! Incredibly, he told Wifey to walk home and get moolah, then barked at the kid: “See what you made her do? You made her walk two blocks each way!” So while Matthews sat cozy in a warm car, his wife braved cold, dark streets. When she returned, Matthews paid up – but left NO tip! NOTE TO BULLY-BOY: That kid you Scrooge-d attends a school for youngsters with learning disabilities, and actually told people he’s worried he offended you. Here’s YOUR tip jerk: Since you’re scheming to run for the Senate, don’t browbeat Church charity workers, or kids…. It’s a vote-killer!”

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Nixon Man To CIA

Leon Panetta

Former Nixon Administration official Leon Panetta has been appointed by President-elect Barack Obama. Panetta, who served in the Nixon Justice Department under Attorney General John Mitchell, will be the first Nixon Administration official to join the Obama Cabinet if confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

“All those years of posing as a Democrat and putting up with Bill Clinton’s crap really paid off,” said Nixon Presidential Library Official Sandy Taylor.” We finally got a Nixonite in at the CIA.”

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Wales Town Names For Political Consultant
Roger Stone, Wales is for Real

If the New York Times is going to have Republican columnists we figure The Rumpus should too. So we invited Roger Stone, the architect of the Brooks Brothers Riot (which handed George Bush the presidency) to set up shop on our virtual pages. He was going to write an introduction but he wrote The 10 Best – and Worst – Dressed People of 2008 first. Stone is consumed with money and fashion, things The Rumpus, which is often published using our neighbors stolen wi-fi, doesn’t really understand.

Anyway, we’re moving too fast for introductions. We’ll have an introduction down the road. In the meantime, if you want to know more about Roger Stone check out this profile in The New Yorker by Jeffrey Toobin. – SE

The 10 Best – and Worst – Dressed People of 2008, by Roger Stone

Roger Stone

Every year, Hollywood designer and arbiter of fashion, Mr. Richard Blackwell, would publish a list of the ten best and worst dressed people in the demimonde. Mr. Blackwell has since gone to his maker, but the STONEzone refuses to let this fine tradition die. Therefore, the Zone has compiled its official list of the best and worst dressed men and women of 2008. However, first a word regarding the sorry state of fashion in America, and the very few who can plausibly claim to be true possessors of style.

If you want to find the best dressed men in America, you must go into the nation’s statehouses where the lobbyists and titans of special interests sport impeccable suits with classic, refined, and conservative styling. The starchy lawyers aside, lobbyists are the only elegant men left in America. They veritably live night and day in their suits, which is fundamental to the art of looking good in one.

If you want to find the worst dressed men in America, any corner bar should suffice. There you will find men unabashedly wearing baseball hats and tank tops, ill-fitting pants, and blindingly white sneakers. The average American male is an utter disgrace to male sartorial tradition. The ubiquitous gangsta fashion craze alone is enough to nauseate any person of even minimal taste, but the Ashton Kutcher trucker hat craze truly moved American men to the bottom of the fashion rung. To wear a hat indoors, especially a baseball hat, is a veritable fashion felony. It advertises not only bad manners but also poor taste. Ladies, my condolences.

While a true expression of the gold standard in mens personal style, sprezzatura informs the success of the best-dressed woman as well, if to a lesser degree. That’s because men dress, but women dress up. And we like it that way. So for the ladies, wearing an air of effortlessness is just as important as for the men. But a little affectation–even daring–is not only forgivable in woman’s dress, it is often roundly encouraged. Everything else matters in just the same way it does for men–fabric, cut, shape and style. The woman who understands how to wear great clothes naturally is always the best-dressed person in the room.

A list of best-dressed women written by a man is bound to bear the watermarks of an age-old truth about the male worldview: A woman’s clothing is a kind of mental foreplay for men. Being dressed is what comes before being undressed, which is always a pleasure to think about. Just by way of explaining some of the notables on the list below.

The problem of course is that most men just don’t care and don’t care to learn.

SPREZZATURA

In 1528, Baldassare Castiglione in The Book of the Courtier coined the term “sprezzatura.” He wrote,

Avoid affectation in every way possible . . . practice in all things a certain Sprezzatura, so as to conceal all art and make whatever is done or said appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it.

Therefore, the key is not a closet full of expensive clothing, but rather to look like you haven’t thought about what to wear, even though you look great. A look must never be studied or too precise; it should be nonchalant, even insouciant. Gary Cooper had it. So did Sir Anthony Eden, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., John Davis Lodge, Cary Grant, and Ambassador Henry Catto.

Sifting through those in sports, academia, politics, government, entertainment, and media, it’s hard to find people who are truly well-dressed as opposed to those whom a wardrobe producer merely outfits. Fred Astaire didn’t just look good in his movies- he looked good all the time. Contrast Astaire with Jeremy Piven of Entourage. I suspect his “Ari Gold” look is not his taste but that of a costumer. Piven at leisure seems slovenly.

The rules are simple, yet few men follow them. The elements of dress must exude confidence in one’s choices. Poor grooming must not detract from your appearance; gentlemen shave those pornstaches. Match your suit to both your body type and age. Find a top-notch tailor and use him (or her). Learn about fabric and choose only those of top quality and appropriate weight for your climate. Trousers should hang from the waist and have a proper break. A suit without cuffs is appropriate, only if you are a gigolo or in a show band. No over sized jewelry of any kind, particularly cuff-links. Match patterns carefully. Black suits are only for chauffeurs and funeral directors. Buy only shoes of the highest quality leather or suede and leave the sneakers in the gym. Lastly, learn to like looking good.

That said, here they are.

THE BEST DRESSED MEN

PRESIDENT ELECT BARACK OBAMA
Not stylish, but perfectly consistent. His long, lean frame could plausibly sport even a grocery bag. He is also bringing back the idea of going to work in a uniform, like Geoffrey Beene and his daily smock that I always loved.

LARRY KUDLOW
The dandy of the supply-siders, CNBC host combines old world preppy and classic English-inspired tailoring for a look that is elegant, knowing, and always appropriate. Kudlow’s tie and shirt combinations never miss.

JAY-Z
Ignore his Gangsta garb because when Mr. Carter dresses, the cut of his suit and the fit of his collar are always correct. He isn’t afraid of bold stripes. He shines when coupled with Beyonce, but then – who wouldn’t?

REVEREND AL SHARPTON
Reverend Al has abandoned the Adidas track suits and gold chains of the street radical for more somber three piece suits of a civil rights leader. His lapeled vests are the sign of custom tailoring and good taste. He reinvented himself and outfitted himself accordingly.

JOHN WARNER
John Warner is Old School. Even before he married Liz Taylor, he used the best tailors in New York and London. He still wears the lower right button open on his drape-style double-breasted suits. Has an annoying habit of mixing rep stripe ties with dressier suits…and getting away with it.

CALVIN KLEIN
Anderson and Sheppard of Savile Row (http://www.anderson-sheppard.co.uk/) make Calvin Klein’s monochromatic suits and sports coats, which he teams with tee shirts or long sleeve polo shirts from his line, a look that is spare, clean and ideal for a designer. The suit or jacket dresses it up, the tee shirt dresses it down.

AMBASSADOR RICHARD BURT
Ambassador Richard Burt was America’s man in Berlin, but his look is an American twist on European style. Proper and understated, his well-cut suits perfectly match the subtly striped shirts and pin-dot ties. His trousers are creased as if with a knife and his ancient shoes gleam with a well-kept patina.

KEN ARETSKY
Ken Aretsky turned the 21 Club around and then bolted off to do “the” East Side New York steakhouse, Patroon, where he has held court for many years. Dapper as the front man in Oren and Aretsky, a fabled spot where politicians, gangsters, sports figures and the high powered rubbed elbows in the 70s, his sartorial tastes haven’t left him. He is impeccable at the door, starched and prosperous looking in his easy-shouldered suits by his pal Alan Flusser. (http://www.alanflussercustom.com/)

SHANNON SHARPE
Former NFL tight end turned commentator Shannon Sharpe is a tall man, a fact he takes into consideration in his choice to wear a three button suit buttoned at the second button but rolled to the top. It gives his athletic torso a balanced look. His collar is appropriately long for his angular face and his neckwear never distracts.

ELIOT SPITZER
Although I’d rather see him in stripes, as both governor and attorney general, the Sheriff of Wall Street’s crisp white shirts and Hermes ties stood out as both rich and tasteful. It looked as if he wouldn’t sweat even when Hank Greenberg and Ken Langone got off. The knee-length black socks I cannot explain.

BEST DRESSED WOMEN

CARLA BRUNI
Her clothes are always perfect on her, and she’s never overdone. More important, though, she glows with a mysterious freshly satisfied look. Her husband is indeed a lucky man.

RIHANNA
Rihanna dresses so that you cannot take your eyes off of her. She dresses up, she dresses funky, she dresses sexy, she dresses tomboy. In short, she’s redefining pop style. I don’t mind that flawless skin and exquisite self-confidence either.

FRAN LEIBOWITZ
Fran wears mens tailored English custom suits and shirts with bespoke shoes. It’s mannish yet perfect. On her, the look is real. On Tom Wolfe, it looks like he’s a cross-dressing character in a lesser Dickens novel.

INGRID BETANCOURT
Betancourt proves that freedom really is a beautiful thing.

VICTORIA BECKHAM
She pulls off former-slut-who-got-rich-and-cleaned-up-her-act better than anybody(ahem, Madonna). I don’t want to know her, but I wouldn’t mind knowing what’s in her handbag. If her husband dressed consistently in a suit, in which he looks incredible, he would have made the top 10 Men’s list.

GWYNETH PALTROW
A little too skinny for my taste, and I’d prefer that she quit crapping on America, but she rolls the rags right.

ANGELINA JOLIE
There’s a sleek indifference to her presentation that’s wildly attractive. Clothes, no clothes, she looks like she couldn’t care less either way. Plus, the threads go with the tatts and the tat goes with the threads. That’s not an easy trick to pull off, I happen to know.

SOPHIA LOREN
Makes my best-dressed list anytime, anywhere. Whether she’s wearing one of those grubby barefoot peasant getups from her post-war movie days or Italian couture, she is absolutely the definition of a woman who is guaranteed to get your undivided attention.

PENELOPE CRUZ
La Loren redux. I like her in jeans and a white tee shirt. I like her in Valentino. She just makes everything better–movies, clothes–by being in them.

SARAH PALIN
Come on. Who’s gotten more fashion traction from a mere $150,000 of someone else’s money than the Governor of the great state of Alaska? She went from Alaskan Housewife to Catwalk Candidate overnight.

THE WORST DRESSED MEN & WOMEN

SIMON COWELL
To have a Brit appear on this list is as near a fashion tragedy as I can imagine. Thin shawl lapels on a pinstripe suit is an abomination. Does the man own a necktie? He wears his trousers far too tight in the seat and haunches. And the man boob-tight tee shirt incident should be enough to expel him from England.

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE
Justin Timberlake takes pop star license with his wardrobe and it does not work. He commits the faux pas of wearing the vest of a three piece suit that is too short so that his shirt and belt may hang out. It’s not cool. It’s slobbish.

ASHTON KUTCHER
Who dresses this guy? Demi? Formal without a necktie, always dressed wrong for the occasion, and the ubiquitous tractor hat? Anyone who accessorizes with a mesh trucker cap ought to be run over by a semi.

JOHNNY KNOXVILLE
Johnny Knoxville dresses so slovenly that one may fairly describe him as a true fashion jackass.

PETER WENTZ
Peter Wentz is sprezzatura gone all wrong. He looks as if he called a costume shop and requested the generic rock star outfit, and his different color stove pipe pants are truly horrific. He is not cool; he is disheveled.

PINK
Just an atrocious stew, a walking scrapbook of bad ideas. Great voice, though.

SARAH SILVERMAN
Hooded sweatshirts and sneakers on a grown woman who knows how to talk dirty, well, that’s just a crying shame.

MADONNA
It’s not just me who’s sick of her look; I think she’s sick of herself. How else to explain the outfit she wore to a Gucci benefit this year, which in a civil society would have gotten her 20-to-life.

SAMANTHA RONSON
Look, there’s nothing wrong with looking like a boy. Just try to look like a cute boy, please. Katie Holmes, Agnes Deyn, or sapphic sister Ingrid Cesares might have some pointers. An occasional bath doesn’t hurt either. Fran Leibowitz looks cool, Samron looks butch.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR
I keep waiting for her to become as good-looking and well-dressed as she is smart. I think, though, she just may have spent too much time living with the livestock in the Afghan countryside.

IVANA TRUMP
Which part of “over” does Ivana not understand about the 1970′s? Big shoulders, big hair, pastel colors and ‘power suits”. If she is going to keep chasing Italian Playboys half her age, she is going to have to dress younger.

GLORIA STEINEM
As the original Ms. once said, “A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.” I might suggest a corollary: “A contemporary woman without a care for her presentation should quit worrying about fish and bicycles and get herself a hairbrush, some good red lipstick (Chanel’s “Fire” never fails), and a highly skilled stylist who can make her look a little less like a disheveled monolith and more like the elegant woman of historic and cultural stature she really is–somewhere deep inside.” P.S. Sorry, but trading in your 70s aviator specs for frameless Palinesque wannabes just isn’t enough. I wanted to do you in the 70′s. Today.

With this first installment the STONEzone will release a list of the 10 Best and Worst Dressed People of the year at the end of every year in the tradition of Mr. Blackwell and my late friend, Eleanor Lambert. HAPPY NEW YEAR

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See Also: The Political Animal from The Weekly Standard (pdf download)

See Also: The Dirty Trickster, the New Yorker Profile of Roger Stone

See Also: Bitch Craft, by Bitchy Jones

See Also: Rumpus Resolutions

If the New York Times can have Bill Kristol and Davis Brooks, we at the Rumpus can have our token Right winger in house. NOTES FROM THE DARK SIDE will be a regular feature for the Rumpus by controversial Republican Political Consultant Rogers Stone. Stone is the hard-bitten veteran of eight national Republican Presidential campaigns starting with Nixon and running through his involvement in the 2000 Florida Recount in which he incited the Brooks Brothers riot and closed down the Miami-Dade recount for BUSH. Stone’s political views are candid, pungent and informed, although rarely conventional.
For those not familiar with Republican Hit Man go to Matt Labash’s profile on Stone- Poitical Animal (pdf)  or Jeff Toobin’s The Dirty Trickster for the New Yorker (pdf).