Richard Moe Quotes

Slander strongly and some will stick.

One of the characteristics of mudslinging is that mud sticks if it's thrown with enough force for long enough.

My first campaign was pretty ugly: the incumbent came after me hard with a lot of things that weren't true.

My theory on smear pieces is try and win 'em over.

There have been so many things written about me that are untrue and horrifying.

An attack is always a smear when it is directed against you.

There was a slow-motion swift boating of Hillary Clinton in '15.

Some of us believe, with good reasons, that the Republicans are 'mad-dogging' Hillary Clinton with the Benghazi hearing to damage not only her presidential prospects, but also to damage President Obama's credibility.

There's been a lot of lies written about me.

The fact of the matter is, Obama and the Democrats did a number on Mitt Romney's reputation and his character and his image with outrageous commercials that I thought nobody in their right mind was gonna believe. I know they're gonna appeal to somebody, but they appeal to far more. People may not have believed it specifically, but it did enough damage to make people say, "I don't know. I just don't like this Romney guy. Stick with what we got."

Bad stories are written about me because the press knows they can make me into a weeping dog and few people will object.

Look, in 1800 the sainted Thomas Jefferson arranged to hire a notorious slanderer named James Callender, who worked as a writer at a Republican newspaper in Richmond, Va. Read some of what he wrote about John Adams. This was a personal slander.

If you really want to diminish a candidate, depict him as the foil of his handler. This is as old in American politics as politics itself. It's easy to point at me. I'm convenient.

If enough things that are untrue are said about you, no one will know what really is true.

It angers me that a timed, planned and paid smearing campaign is run against me in the press.

It has been my policy not to respond to each of the many canards which have been part of the campaign to discredit my investigation, nor to waste time trying to prove negatives.

'American Idol' has done a great job of defaming my name and throwing a lot of mud at me for the past two years, so that set up a lot of roadblocks for me.

A lot of stuff written about me is rubbish. I don't know where they get it from, sometimes.

Vilify, Vilify, some of it will always stick.

Deny what they didn't charge and charge what they can't deny.... If it's our charge, we're revealing the facts; if it's theirs, it's a smear.

It's not a smear, if you please, if you point out the record of your opponent.

Nothing is so swift as calumny; nothing is more easily uttered; nothing more readily received; nothing more widely dispersed.

If a negative ad is run against you and you don't answer it, it becomes the truth.

If they [political opponents] go around lying about your record, insulting your job performance, your wife and your patriotism, you ought to double up your fist and knock the crap out of them.

Negative politics in a primary campaign produces damaged goods but you've got to do what you've got to do.