GOP Operative: I Regret Helping Bush Win

Daily Beast:

Roger Stone is one of the last guys on Earth one would expect to feel guilty over an episode of rough and tumble politicking. As a self-admitted hit man for the GOP, Stone has had a hand in everything from Nixon's dirty tricks to Eliot Spitzer's resignation to spreading discredited rumors of a Michelle Obama "whitey" tape during the 2008 Democratic primaries. You might call Stone the Forrest Gump of scandal, popping up to play a bit part in the most notorious negative campaigns in recent history.

The capstone of Stone's career, at least in terms of results, was the "Brooks Brothers riot" of the 2000 election recount. This was when a Stone-led squad of pro-Bush protestors stormed the Miami-Dade County election board, stopping the recount and advancing then-Governor George W. Bush one step closer to the White House. Though he is quick to rebut GOP operatives who seek to minimize his role in the recount, Stone lately has been having second thoughts about what happened in Florida.

"There have been many times I've regretted it," Stone told me over pizza at Grand Central Station. "When I look at those double-page New York Times spreads of all the individual pictures of people who have been killed [in Iraq], I got to think, 'Maybe there wouldn't have been a war if I hadn't gone to Miami-Dade. Maybe there hadn't have been, in my view, an unjustified war if Bush hadn't become president.' It's very disturbing to me."

Read the whole story: Daily Beast

Comments

[yourbuddyalan]

Stone supported KEMP, as I recall, not BUSH in 88

[simonsays9999]

Stone renounced BUSH-ism, not REPUBLICAN-ism!

[dadw5boys]

YOU MISSED WHAT THE MAN SAID !!!!!!

THERE WAS A COUP IN 2000 AND HE WAS PART OF THE COUP !!!!!!!

[bondjames]

Looks like the Kool Aid Gang has some new recruits. Where's the tolerance of opposing views? Is that a philosophy or just something to talk about and not to practice? Stone works in an environment that most us cannot even imagine with pressure and in-fighting. All factions have 'their Stone'. I found it refreshing that someone spoke openly and did not play the 'revisionist history' game that so many of the politicos practice. Stone may not be someone you invite for tea, but you would love to have him in a foxhole with you.

[billy boy williams]

Can Stone stop Jeb Bush from grabbing control of the Rep party? Is that worth the fight?

[georgeinthebronx]

Stone hated it when Reagan picked Bush for VP in 80

[peterforcouncilman]

Stone figures that with no Bush in 2000 then McCain would have run against Gore in 04 and won. Makes sense.

[warrenmcgeorge]

Stone is a conservative who opposed the war from the get-go.

Stone saidon tv at the time that he opposed the war

Stone wrote he opposed the war

Stone bashed Bill Kristol for supporting the war.

[careycares]

Stone has never been a supporter of the Neo-Cons who cooked up this little war. Stone thought and wrote that McCain's constant support for Bush war policies and praise for the surge was counter-productive.

[john1barrera]

You gotta figure things would have been different if Stone had run the McCain campaign. I figure in that event McCain would have defined himself and Barackie ealry on with a wholly different outcome on election day!

[carlvandeusen]

The Dems only WISH they had a hard-ball player like R Stone

[paulsonlarry]

You're right, John... Stone never supported the Bushes -- he opposed Geo HW Bush joining the Reagan ticket in 1980, opposed him again in 1988, supporting Kemp instead. Stone then sat-out the re-election campaign in 92 and opposed Bush in 2000, supporting McCain in the primary. Stone was not involved in Bush's 2004 re-election, but couldn't vote for Kerry..

[john1barrera]

Stone was for McCain in 2000

[paulsonlarry]

As a Goldwater-Reagan conservative, Stone has stayed true to his conservative principles.

[frankinstonybrook]

In retrospect Stone should now realize that stopping Bush in 2000 would have meant that the old McCain would have run in 2004, and it is likely Gore would have us kneww-deep in Afghanistan, if not Iraq as well. The GOP and the country would be better off...

[simonsays9999]

Stone is a lethal as ever --being anti-Bush is not being anti-conservative

[peterforcouncilman]

Stone's fight is with the Neo-Cons who hi-jacked the Bush presidency and were NEVER real conservatives. They cooked up this crazy war that has cost us $billions!