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Hahah, I remember that part. To those not in the know, it's from "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72," not "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas."

The gist was that if you call somebody a "pig fucker," the publicity of them denying it is bad no matter how nonsensical the accusation is. The actual quote is as follows:

…(I)n both the Ohio and Nebraska primaries, back to back, McGovern was confronted for the first time with the politics of the rabbit-punch and the groin shot, and in both states he found himself dangerously vulnerable to this kind of thing. Dirty politics confused him. He was not ready for it….

This is one of the oldest and most effective tricks in politics. Every hack in the business has used it in times of trouble, and it has even been elevated to the level of political mythology in a story about one of Lyndon Johnson’s early campaigns in Texas. The race was close and Johnson was getting worried. Finally he 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 protested. “Nobody’s going to believe a thing like that.”

“I know,” Johnson replied. “But let’s make the sonofabitch deny it.”

I bet the real reason why Biden et al. are shitting their pants is because they're going to be linked to the airliner that was shot down over Ukraine. Screencap this post.