"Roger Stone [3], the dirty-tricks hobgoblin of Republican politics, has exploited his Bush connections to become an influence-peddling force in the $13 billion Indian gaming industry," reports Wayne Barrett. "Stone's booming business in such a federally regulated enterprise makes his recent pro bono orchestration of Al Sharpton [4]'s double-edged presidential campaign an even stranger covert caper. Stone financed and helped organize Sharpton's campaign in the Democratic presidential primary, prompting speculation that Sharpton was actually a stealth Republican operative working to weaken the party's chances in the general election. "Stone has a history of bizarre political operations, beginning with his Watergate-era infiltration of the McGovern campaign," Barrett notes. He explores Stone's current "double-agent role" in Indian gaming, which "mirrors his seemingly bizarre orchestration of the Sharpton scam. Both are just the latest sagas in Stone's exotic career of self-serving misdirection."