McHugh - Political Suicide : Missteps, Peccadilloes, Bad Calls, Backroom Hijinx,sordid Pasts, Rotten Breaks, and Just Plain Dumb Mistakes in the Annals of American Politics (9781681771175)

POLITICAL SUICIDE

Pegasus Books LLC
80 Broad Street, 5th Floor
New York, NY 10004

Copyright 2016 by Erin McHugh

First Pegasus Books edition April 2016

Interior design by Maria Fernandez

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher, except by reviewers who may quote brief excerpts in connection with a review in a newspaper, magazine, or electronic publication; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other, without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN: 978-1-60598-978-5

ISBN: 978-1-68177-117-5 (e-book)

Distributed by W. W. Norton & Company

I want to dedicate this book to the guys in the

white hatsin my life, the Fitzpatrick family:

Senator Jack, Jane, Nancy, and Ann.

You dumped me on a street in Pittsfield in 1973

to ring doorbells and ask for votes, and I began to

understand what service to the people is all about.

I n the twenty-first century, it seems that the electoral processfrom our local school board elections to campaigns for mayor and congressman to the selection of the next president of our fifty stateshas become a circus. What should be a serious and thoughtful activity on which the future of the country rests is instead filled with budgetary tightrope routines, sparkly partisan costumes, ethical disappearing acts, and most certainly, clowns. Instead, it becomes Three Rings of Horror. We are so fatigued by the time the mud is slung, the skeletons come out of the closet, and Election Day is over that were often exhausted by our new legislators before theyve even had a chance to start their jobs. The bloom is already off the rose, the thrill is goneand they havent even had a chance to screw it up yet.

Oh, but they will. Not all of them, of course, but enough to keep the headlines full and the 24-hour news programming churning. Enough will mess up to make us wish we had voted for someone else or to wonder, How could he think hed get away with that? And well sit back and shake our heads and say to each other, Now that is political suicide.

Political Suicide is a collection of some of the most incredible stories of misdeeds from our nations pastan array of tales of human misbehavior as old as time itself. There are all the things weve come to expect from politicians, including bribery, sex scandals, bigotry, embezzlement, and payoffs. But it turns out that there are myriad ways to mess up on the political stage, if one has only a bit of imagination and enough rope to hang ones self: brawls on the chamber floor in Congress; rent boys dressed as Nazis; candidates dressed as Nazis; girlfriends named Toodles; stolen money hidden under pillows; candidates who never existed; pistols at dawn; and some who happily sold their souls to the highest bidder. To name but a few.

There are many ways to commit hara-kiri in a government job, and, through the centuries, American politicians have tried them all. Given that its decidedly difficult today to hide anything from the camerawhether professional paparazzi or ill-advised homemade moviesits shocking how many politicians try. Whats perhaps even more shocking is how much egregious behavior came to light when there was nothing more available than the scratch of a quill by a late-night candle to catalog misdeeds.

If it all werent so appalling, it would be funny... and frankly, sometimes it still is. But its all part of the story: the fascinating, always evolving (or devolving), ingenious, outrageous story of the American landscapeone crazy politician at a time.

Murder, suicide, and plain old-fashioned duels are not just the stuff of B movies. Throughout Americas history, politicians have often found that the only way to solve their problems has been to resort to life-and-death solutions. A lot of it is more than they bargained for when they signed up for a life in the spotlight. From pistols at dawn to high dives and shoot-outs: welcome to the end of the line.

(17561836)

A aron Burrs political ascent was rapid. He moved up from state assemblyman to attorney general and then on to senator from New York State before becoming the third vice president of the United States under once and future superstar Thomas Jefferson. Though Burr was admired by many as a judicious president of the Senate during his term as the countrys vice president, Jefferson himself never seemed to be a fan, though he remained mum about his reasons. But the lack of love must have been evident enough to Burr: he ran for governor of New York in 1804, before his first term as vice president was even over. Unfortunately for him, he was handily trounced at the polls.

Any chance at the presidency (or even another term as second-in-command) was scotched when Burr decided to defend his honor by challenging his nemesisour nations first secretary of the treasury, Alexander Hamiltonto a duel. Hamilton had been digging at Burr for years; in fact, the vice president insisted Hamilton had been disparaging his honor for more than a decade. But Hamilton made some particularly disparaging comments in the media during Burrs gubernatorial run, and that was the last straw for Burr. After years of needling, Burr decided there was no better solution than pistols at dawn to end their quarrel once and for all. Win or lose, a duel was probably not the best idea. Though fairly commonplace, dueling was still on the books as a crime in both New York and New Jerseyand remains so in many states even today.

The two men faced each other on July 11, 1804, at the Heights of Weehawken in New Jersey. Burr killed Hamilton that morning, of course, but exactly what happened has been long disputed. For many years, historians believed that Hamilton fired first but threw away that shot, a gentlemanly dueling ploy meant to show courage. Historically, it was not unusual for both men to fire and purposefully miss, thus having duly engaged in the duel while letting it end without any bloodshed. However, a 1976 article in Smithsonian magazine gave rise to speculation that Hamiltons pistol had been fixed with a hair trigger, giving him a leg up to get off the first shot. This would imply that he may have intended to shoot Burr and simply missed. For his part, Burr seems to have shot to kill. Both men had engaged in duels before and knew the unspoken rules; neither appeared to abide by them that morning. The result was that the vice president was charged with murder in both New York and New Jersey, but eventually the case was dropped.

Aaron Burr didnt meet his maker that day, but his career was certainly buried. Jefferson dumped him from his ticket, and by the next year, Burr was embroiled in even worse trouble: it appeared that while still acting as vice president Burr began to investigate taking over the Louisiana Territory and points west to create his own empire. He was accused of treason, arrested, and indicted for what became known as the Burr Conspiracy; yet he managed once again to escape formal punishment. He died alone in a boardinghouse on Staten Island decades later, which may have been the just end he deserved.