From:  The Party of One   -   by Michael Harris   
   ________________________________________   
      
   Stephen Harper and the National Citizens Coalition years . . . .   
      
   Both Preston Manning and his father, Ernest, were ardent supporters of the   
   NCC, sharing its values and vision.     
      
   At its peak, the NCC took in $2.8 million per year in donations.  The   
   organization fervently believed that citizens and organizations should be able   
   to spend as much of their own money as they wanted in election campaigns - - a   
   right in the United States    
   that has turned politics into the sport of kings and wealthy kingmakers.   
      
   Arthur Fiinkelstein was crucial to the NCC's plan to turn Canada blue.  In   
   1982, the lobbying group hired this brilliant and secretive political   
   consultant who had perfected the political attack ad.  His job was to teach   
   the NCC the art of commando    
   politics as  practised in the United States and several other countries where   
   Finkelstein operated.   
      
   Finkelstein, who knocked down incumbents like bowling pins in US politics, was   
   the most south-after neoconservative political strategist in the world.  A   
   Libertarian in his personal politics, his first success came in the 1970   
   Senate race in the US, in    
   which he got James L. Buckely, brother of William F. Buckley, elected.     
      
   As a member of the Republican caucus, Buckley became the lead petitioner in   
   the Supreme Court decision that shaped new campaign finance law in the United   
   States, striking down limits on spending in Congressional races.     
   (On behalf of the NCC, Stephen Harper took the same issue all the way to the   
   Supreme Court of Canada, where he ultimately lost in 2004.)   
      
   In 1988, Finkelstein did a poll that alarmed the far right, suggesting that   
   Canadians might be on the brink of electing NDP leader Ed Broadbent as prime   
   minister.  Broadbent stood at 40 percent in the polls - - majority government   
   territory if the    
   numbers held until the federal election looming in the Fall.     
   Since there were difficulties driving a scandal-ridden Brian Mulroney's   
   numbers up, the NCC decided to bring Ed Broadbent's down.   
      
   Under Finkelstein's guidance, the message was simple and deadly: Broadbent the   
   socialist, who wanted to take Canada out of NATO and who opposed Senate   
   reform, was "Scary, very, very scary".   
      
   The campaign virtually sidelined Broadbent - and free trade, not leadership,   
   became the key issue in the 1988 election.  But there was still a problem with   
   promoting free trade, because the man who was advocating it, Brian Mulroney,   
   was not popular.   
      
   Arthur Finkelstein was not deterred . . . . Finkelstein told his colleagues at   
   the NCC: "We have to convince Canadians to drink piss."  They did.   
      
   Brian Mulroney won a second majority government on the issue of free trade,   
   despite serious doubts about his government's integrity.   
      
   Finkelstein would have an enormous influence on Stephen Harper's political   
   career.  He worked only for conservative candidates and always tried to get a   
   benefit for Israel out of any of his campaigns.   
      
   But according to his associate, Gerry Nicholls, he was not a mercenary and   
   wouldn't work with a candidate he didn't agree with, of for the biggest   
   paycheque.  But there was a striking exception to that practice . . .   
      
   Although gay, Finkelstein helped to elect Republican candidates all over the   
   United States who thought homosexuality was immoral and who opposed gay   
   marriage.  He managed to keep the contradiction between his professional and   
   private life secret until    
   2005.   Meanwhile, according to a CNN report on Finkelstein in 1996, his   
   abilities were almost magical:  "He is the stuff of Hollywood; a man who can   
   topple even the most powerful foes, yet so secretive that few have ever heard   
   of him."   
      
   Executives at the NCC tended to see elections as wars, as did Stephen Harper.    
   Finkelstein had honed the art of third-party advertising to a razor's edge.    
   The strategic use of attack ads could elect or destroy a candidate for public   
   office in a    
   heartbeat.  Donors to the NCC not only got to support or attack a candidate,   
   they also received a tax deduction.   
      
   Finkelstein's modus operandi was always the same: pinpoint polling aimed at   
   exposing a weakness in an opponent, then use a trenchant, repetitive   
   advertisment to exploit the candidate's Achilles' heel.   
      
   The right fifteen-second spot on TV or radio could end an opponent's career   
   when the attack ad followed the formula of Arthur Finkelstein, nicknamed the   
   "Merchant of Venom."   His specialties were upset victories and close races.    
   According to "Finkel-   
   Think", 80 percent of the vote in the US is decided before parties even begin   
   to campaign - - evenly split at 40:40.  The election is taken by the party   
   that wins the close races in the remaining 20 percent of the swing vote.   
      
   Not much is known about Arthur Finkelstein - - by design.  He almost never   
   grants interviews, and he never appears as a talking head on any of the   
   network gabfests.  His advice to clients is almost always delivered face to   
   face - as it would be to    
   Stephen Harper in 1998.     
      
   But while speaking in Prague in May 2011, Finkelstein was recorded, and the   
   audio ended up on YouTube.  It was an ex gratia lesson from the master   
   strategist about how to win in modern politics and about where the world was   
   headed.   
      
   In a smooth, calm, intelligent voice, he talked about his work in the United   
   States, Canada, Israel and Eastern Europe - and about the nature of politics.    
   Sounding a little bit like a political reincarnation of philosopher George   
   Berkeley, Finkelstein    
   told his audience that what they perceived to be true was true - as distinct   
   from the objective truth.   
      
   An old philosophical chestnut:  perception as reality.  Good politicians will   
   first tell you things that are true and only later begin to mislead you,   
   Finkelstein said.  If they tell lies to you first and get caught out, they   
   will always be disbelieved.   
      
   Money is important because it determines who gets to hear what, he continued.    
   As for political candidates, apparently looks and size matter.  Finkelstein   
   offered his audience an interesting statistic:  the taller candidate wins 75   
   percent of the time.  "   
   An ugly person could not be elected now", he said.  And if you were female and   
   wanted to get into politics, Finkelstein had some advice:  "look mannish,   
   strong, and wear a pantsuit".  If the economy is a mess, he pointed out, the   
   electorate looks to    
   business people as leaders.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)