Parents' Guide to Get Me Roger Stone

To the filmmakers' credit, you may come away from this movie feeling like you need a hot shower, as simply being in Stone's presence, even just digitally, might make you feel soiled. "Those who say I have no soul, I have no principles, are losers," Stone explains. Sporting a series of meticulous hairpieces and spouting his win-at-any-cost philosophy, Stone resembles the villain of a superhero movie. The audience might wonder what will save us from the likes of him, but identifying a problem is the first step toward a solution, which is why Get Me Roger Stone should be required viewing by Democrats and Republicans alike. One of the filmmakers asks Stone what message he has for viewers "who will loathe you as the credits roll." Stone doesn't hesitate: "I revel in your hatred because if I weren't effective, you wouldn't hate me." This is the kind of misdirection he excels at. It's not his effectiveness that triggers antagonism. More likely, if he is hated, it will be because he values winning over decency.

Stone has long associated himself with slinging slime against "enemies," including news of then New York governor Eliot Spitzer's prostitute habit and rumors about presidential candidate Pat Buchanan and an illegitimate child. It seems fitting that a sex scandal also laid Stone low in 1996 when he worked on Bob Dole's unsuccessful Republican presidential bid. Stone argues that he is a private person whose private life is nobody's business. "Even if Donald Trump loses, I still win because the Stone brand of politics is front and center." Surely, if it is his politics we are living with, then his private proclivities are fair game. Stone loves to work a crowd but he's probably canny enough to recognize that with the hairpieces, the two-tone wing tips, and his penchant for dropping his shirt to show off the Nixon tattoo on his back that he's a little too slick, a little too flamboyant, a little too weird to be accepted in the role of candidate by the "non-sophisticates" and "non-elitists" he has been handling for the last 40 years. In a 2008 New Yorker profile he declared, "I'm a Libertarian and a libertine." Stone is no doubt aware that, so far, voters have never knowingly elected either.