There's a passage in Hunter S. Thompson's Fear & Loathing on the Campaign Trail where Thompson describes then-congressional candidate (and later U.S. President) Lyndon Johnson using a tactic Thompson referred to as "one of the oldest and most effective tricks in politics" to deep-six a competitor in a close race. "The race was close and Johnson was getting worried," Thompson wrote, so Johnson "told his campaign manager to start a massive rumor campaign about his opponent's life-long habit of enjoying carnal knowledge of his own barnyard sows." "'Christ, we can't get away calling him a pig-fucker,' the campaign manager ... (full story)