Making Sausage in New Jersey

Of all the things that go on during tough political campaigns, the one that may be the easiest to demagogue is "opposition research."Of course, it makes perfect sense that a candidate should research his opponent. Sun Tzu said to "Know thy enemy as thy self." Patton read Rommel's book during World War II. Heck, even athletes "scout" their opponents to find out their weaknesses. But for whatever reason, the public tends to view this research as "skullduggery." For this reason, many candidates refuse to dirty their hands by paying an opposition researcher directly. Instead, they "funnel" the money through a general consultant (who then pays the oppo guy as a sub-contractor). Why do they do that? Case in point: New Jersey's Thomas H. Kean is currently coming under attack for something his oppo guy supposedly did on a past campaign. When Teddy Roosevelt said politics was like making sausage, he wasn't kidding ...