Taking the historical view
Belgarion, can you please, please, please stop lecturing me to read "Dirty Politics". Any more and you'll have me thinking that you're in cahoots with the publisher!
The book simply details the mechanics of what was already quite apparent.
When people decide to "do whatever it takes" to ensure that they "win at all costs", they generally demonstrate that they're not as clever as they think they are, and that they tend to have an under-developed sense of judgement.
I lean towards considering the present mess in terms of the 1972 US Presidential election. Nixon and his allies were going to win. But to "make sure", they did all sorts of unnecessary dumb stuff. And got pinged for it.
Nixon won the election and lost the Presidency.