The Daily Beast's Political Opposition Research Concludes Lou Dobbs Is A Dickhead

Winston Churchill:  "In war you can only be killed once.  In politics, many times."

Former CNN blowhard Lou Dobbs may never get the chance to savor more than one political life.  The long knives are out to puncture his political aspirations before they get out of hand.

The Daily Beast's Lloyd Grove is the messenger in Is Lou Dobbs Too Mean To Be President?:  His former colleagues at CNN, a dozen of whom I interviewed, most insisting on anonymity, describe a brilliant, talented, mercurial man who could be warm and charming one moment and seething with rage the next—often, it seemed, for no apparent reason. “Talking about Lou Dobbs,” says one longtime co-worker, “is kind of like talking about Tony Soprano… Lou manages through intimidation.”

Yet Dobbs engendered a strange loyalty as he “beat up” his long-suffering staff, according to one of them. He assembled a platoon of camp followers, and several worked for him for 20 years or more. Dobbs—who liked to address underlings as “you liberal pukes”—often displayed a sardonic sense of humor, even as he occasionally resorted to sexually suggestive jokes. “There were plenty of crude, off-color jokes—they had to do with body parts,” says a longtime Dobbs producer. He was apt to crack to a female employee, “Why don’t you come into my office and we’ll work this out,” or “If you’ll show me yours, I’ll show you mine.” But unlike some television stars, Dobbs didn’t hit on his female colleagues and, as one former CNN correspondent says, “He wasn’t sexist at all. He was as mean to the women as he was to the men.”

A smoker until surgery two years ago that was described as a tonsillectomy, Dobbs would puff away during editorial meetings in his CNN office and refused to stop even when a pregnant employee was required to attend. (He did allow the young mother-to-be to sit just outside his open door

“He would pick on people if someone showed a weakness—he would kind of grab on to it,” says a former CNN co-worker. “If someone was going through a hard time, he could make it even worse. Sometimes he could be cruel.”

CNN correspondent Kitty Pilgrim, a divorced single mother who supports her two children alone, worked closely with Dobbs for a quarter-century and was his regular substitute anchor on Lou Dobbs Tonight. According to a CNN source, Dobbs tormented Pilgrim to the point that “she was like a battered wife.” Reached at her office, Pilgrim declined to comment.

In an infamous incident years ago when Dobbs was hosting the business show Moneyline—first reported by Howard Kurtz in his 2000 book The Fortune Tellers: Inside Wall Street’s Game of Money, Media, and Manipulation—Dobbs exploded at CNN correspondent Allan Dodds Frank, now a Daily Beast contributor, and producer Jonathan Labe. Focusing his ire on the diminutive Labe, the 6-foot-3, 200-pound-plus Dobbs allegedly cracked: “I don’t like to shout down to people. Stand on a chair so I can talk to you man to man.” Dobbs was unavailable for comment, his spokesman said, but Labe confirmed the anecdote.

Another longtime colleague, former CNN correspondent Donald Van De Mark, said Dobbs’ bullying methods were ultimately self-defeating. “People were right to be afraid of him,” Van De Mark recently wrote in a personal blog. “Don’t get me wrong—Lou could be fun and very charming. But his overall management style was built on intimidation. And I don’t think that kind of leadership works anymore…People simply don’t make the best choices when they’re nervous or scared. Great leaders know this.”

Radio Hall of Famer and long-time syndicated radio talk show host Jim Bohannon introduced me to Lou at Radio & Records Talk Radio Seminar in 2008 in DC.  Right out of the box I dubbed him "Ted Baxter."  He was there to pimp his then-new syndicated radio show.  L-Do gave what amounted to a political stump speech.  It didn't take trolling around CNN to determine Lou is a consummate asshole, bully, abuser, fear-driven egomaniacal potty mouth.  Within seconds I figured out the above.