Verbatim: From 'Dirty Little Secrets,' Glenn Simpson, Co-Author

As a Wall Street Journal reporter, Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson was a critic of opposition research -- before he became the prominent practitioner of the craft who commissioned the Trump-Russia dossier. Here are excerpts from his 1996 book “Dirty Little Secrets,” co-written with Larry J. Sabato.

Back then, opposition research was bad:

As disturbing as it may be to get tailed or tapped, or have one’s divorce or college days scrutinized, there are other tricks of the political espionage trade that are more invasive. Ever miss a credit card payment use your Visa at an x-rated bookstore? You might want to think twice about a bid for public office, as you could well find your credit records on the front page of the local paper.

 And those who benefitted from dirt weren’t so good either:

Officeholders – most of them – want to do the right things but cannot bring themselves to change a system that, for all its faults, has the redeeming quality of having elected them. Meanwhile, the campaigns that put them into office are sinking ever deeper into a bog of sleaze and slime – a primordial political ooze whose toxicity is increased by new technologies that make voters who are already turned off hate politics all the more intensely.

But digging dirt was a growth opportunity for those in the information trade:

Taking advantage of the efficiencies of the information age, such as cheap access to computer databases, the “opposition research” field (known as ‘oppo’ or ‘op research,’ for short) blossomed into a multimillion-dollar industry. ... With fees rarely exceeding $20,000 for a basic report, even modestly funded campaigns found they could play the game, and the number of firms selling such services grew by 200 percent between 1990 and 1994. At least forty-four firms advertised such services by 1995.

And the rest is history – an arms race of sleaze:

One candidate decided to play vicious hardball politics, and with help from her cronies, she had her opponent’s photograph placed in the rogues’ line-up for a well-publicized child molestation case involving multiple children. Even though the targeted candidate apparently had nothing to do with the pederasty, about a tenth of the young children pointed to his picture when asked to identify their molesters. The victim-candidate was then privately and bluntly told by his opponent to withdraw or face public humiliation. At first, he decided to drop out to spare his family, but his campaign consultant asked for forty-eight hours and hired a detective. The p.i. hit pay dirt: early in her career, the other candidate had been a Las Vegas showgirl and, on the side, a $1,000-a-night prostitute. The two candidates quickly reached an accommodation and kept their nuclear weapons in permanent storage. Incidentally, in a modest victory for justice, the contender who was blackmailed first went on to win the election and still serves in public office. 

 Main article: 'Dirty Little Secrets' of Fusion GPS Sleaze Slinger'