10 Things You Should Know About McCain Advisor Charlie Black

By Jon Ponder, Pensito Review. Posted June 30, 2008.

Charlie Black, John McCain's senior adviser, made news earlier this week when Fortune Magazine editor David Whitford reported that Black told him "with startling candor" when asked how a terrorist attack inside the United States would affect the campaign,"Certainly it would be a big advantage to [McCain]."

Keith Olbermann has been reporting on this story recently on his MSNBC news hour, in part to make that point that if a Democrat had made a similar gaffe, the Beltway punditocracy would have been in high dudgeon, demanding the adviser's head on a pike and lambasting the candidate for associating himself with such scum.

Longtime political junkies know that Charlie Black was among a handful of angry young rightwingers who remade the Republican Party after the debacle of Richard Nixon's resignation. Along with Roger Stone, Terry Dolan, Lee Atwater, Karl Rove and George Bush Jr., he is one of the inventors of today's GOP attack machine, a style of media-driven slash and burn politics that can be traced to the establishment by Black, Stone and Dolan in 1975 of a political action committee that raised millions from conservatives using deceptive direct-mail advertising and spent the money on TV ads that slimed Democrats.

Black, one of the most successful lobbyists and political strategists of the Reagan and Bush eras, has backed his share of losers over the years, too. But even when he has bet on the wrong horse, he has always landed on his feet -- which may explain why John McCain needs Charlie Black this year much more than Black needs McCain.

Here are 10 things to know about Charlie Black:

1. He's a Tarheel: Charles R. Black Jr. was born on Oct. 11, 1947, in the North Carolina seaport city of Wilmington.

2. A Goldwater Boy: He told the New York Times that he fell in love in politics when he worked on the presidential campaign of Republican Barry Goldwater as a high school student in 1964. Goldwater lost to Pres. Lyndon Johnson in a rout.

3. A Jesse Helms Man: In 1972, at age 25, Black served as political director for the first senatorial campaign of Jesse Helms, the North Carolina crypto-racist and uber-homophobe. In 1996, he told the New York Times, at the beginning of the race "everybody knew he was too conservative, he'd never run for office, and couldn't win. But it was a good conservative cause, so I went down and worked on his campaign for the last six months. And lo and behold, we did win."

4. Smear Group Founder: In 1975, with Terry Dolan and Roger Stone, Charlie Black was a founder of the National National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC), which used deceptively written direct mail solicitations to bankroll television ads smearing Democrats in congressional campaigns in the Reagan era.

Roger Stone has to be one of the sleaziest Republican operatives of all time. Earlier this year, he warned Florida Gov. Charlie Crist that in order to be considered as John McCain's vice president, Crist, a 49-year-old longtime bachelor, would have to get married -- incorrectly stating that "bachelors don't get elected vice president." In fact, Franklin Pierce's vice president, William Rufus de Vane King, was a confiirmed bachelor. Known as "Aunt Fancy," King was one of the first two senators from Alabama, who shared digs in Washington for 25 years with fellow bachelor James Buchanan, Pierce's successor in the presidency.

Earlier this year, Stone launched an anti-Hillary Clinton organization he called Citizens United Not Timid, which he promoted online by using its acronym. In 1996, he had to resign from a volunteer position on the Dole presidential campaign after an ad in a swingers' magazine surfaced that featured a photo of Stone and his wife.

Black and Stone moved on from NCPAC soon after it was established, parting ways with Terry Dolan. In 1979 and 1980, NCPAC spent over the then-unheard of figure of $7 million on spurious TV ads against Democrats. Dolan once called NCPAC a "gut-cutting organization." The macho rhetoric is notable because Dolan, along with the McCarthyite Roy Cohn and Sen. "Tailgunner" Joe McCarthy himself, was a classic self-hating gay Republican homophobe. While he worked tirelessly to slime liberals and their causes by day, at night Dolan was rumored to frequent leather bars where he picked up rough trade. He died from HIV disease in 1986 at the age of 36. (Additional source: New York Times, May 31, 1981)

5. Fired By Reagan: In 1980, Charlie Black worked as field director for Ronald Reagan's second presidential campaign. After advising Reagan to ignore the Iowa caucuses -- advice that almost cost Reagan the nomination -- he was among the senior staff Reagan fired after he lost the New Hampshire primary.

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