"opposition research"

[Algorem]

The scum always rises

http://www.clevescene.com/Issues/2005-12-21/news/firstpunch.html

In politics, it's called "opposition research," a polite phrase for digging up anything you can to smear your opponent. Plain Dealer columnist Connie Schultz never knew how slimy it could be until she married Congressman Sherrod Brown.

Schultz recently moved from Shaker Heights to Avon so that the couple could live in hubby's congressional district. Then Brown announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate. Strange things began to happen.

Schultz looked out the window one day to see two men in suits and a white van taking away her garbage. "I just thought they had upscale garbage pickup," she jokes of her new hometown. But when she confronted the well-dressed sanitation workers, they quickly fled.

Then she noticed a guy taking pictures of her house. The man said he was an appraiser. When she asked for identification, he bolted too