Political prankster and Nixon nemesis Dick Tuck dead at age 94

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

U.S. MAY 30, 2018 / 11:53 AM / UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO

Political prankster and Nixon nemesis Dick Tuck dead at age 94

Bill Trott
4 MIN READ

(Reuters) - Dick Tuck, the one-time Democratic Party operative who made a career of political pranks and subterfuge, specializing in tormenting Richard Nixon, has died at the age of 94, his longtime friend Lorraine Glicksman said.

Tuck died on Monday in Tucson, Arizona, Glicksman, who said she was executor of Tuck’s estate, said in a Wednesday telephone interview.

Tuck was Puck, Shakespeare’s mischievous sprite from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” - if Puck had been a Democratic Party campaign consultant with a major fixation on Richard Nixon.

“I never tried to be malicious,” Tuck said in explaining his strategy to Time magazine in 1973. “It’s the difference between altering fortune cookies to make a candidate look funny and altering State Department cables to make it look as if a former president were a murderer.”

-snip-

Tuck also had more traditional political jobs, such as working in Robert F. Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign. He ran for a seat in California’s Senate in 1966, but drew only 10 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary. “The people have spoken - the bastards!” he said in his concession speech.

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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-people-dicktuck/political-prankster-and-nixon-nemesis-dick-tuck-dead-at-age-94-idUSKCN1IV257

[sharp_stick]

1. I saw a story about him several years ago

Seemed like a fun guy. When he got creamed in a State primary one year his concession speech was something like. "The people have spoken, the bastards".

[DinahMoeHum]

2. During the Watergate investigation. . .

. . .there was an alleged exchange between Tuck and Nixon's chief of staff H.R. "Bob" Haldeman
on May 5, 1973 at the Dirksen Senate Office building. . .on the issue of dirty tricks and "ratf**king"

Haldeman: You S.O.B., you started this

Tuck: Yeah, Bob, but you guys ran it into the ground.

[Hekate]

3. "The people have spoken - the bastards!" RIP, Tuck.