Don’t forget the obligatory hat tip to the grand-daddy of dirty politics in the modern age - Tricky Dick Nixon.
Sorry, but I think that one's interred with Drew Pearson's lying body ..... even in death, he still lies. It was his genius, to defend his fellow-traveling Communists against their detractors by smearing critics viciously, even taking hits from libel judgments and then going right back to lying about people. He was absolutely dedicated to lying.
Tipping my hat to Nixon, and to one of his zaniest black ops guys, G. Gordon Liddy. I just read Liddy’s autobiography recently, and he was the master of dirty tricks.
Too bad he got caught!