I knew Stone during our time in Washington. He was a GOP consultant who took no prisoners and the firm -- Black, Manafort & Stone charged high dollar for their services. Paul Manafort was considered the sleaziest of the bunch while Charlie Black was someone you could work with. During by black sabbatical days as a political operative, Charlie asked me to join the firm. Glad I didn't.

At his height, Stone had a plane, a seagoing boat and several homes but lost the plane, boat and one of the homes in a nasty divorce. Afterwards, his comment was "from this point forward, it is flies, floats or f---s, it is better to rent."

Doug