wire-pullers

He also worked with the less-than-great: hatchetmen, gossips, wire-pullers.

The Father of American Politics 2010

She looked so plaintively lovely as she proffered the request, so trustfully sure of his sympathy and understanding, that Trenor felt himself wishing that his wife could see how other women treated him—not battered wire-pullers like Mrs. Fisher, but a girl that most men would have given their boots to get such a look from.

The House of Mirth Edith Wharton 1987

She looked so plaintively lovely as she proffered the request, so trustfully sure of his sympathy and understanding, that Trenor felt himself wishing that his wife could see how other women treated him—not battered wire-pullers like Mrs. Fisher, but a girl that most men would have given their boots to get such a look from.

The House of Mirth Edith Wharton 1987

She looked so plaintively lovely as she proffered the request, so trustfully sure of his sympathy and understanding, that Trenor felt himself wishing that his wife could see how other women treated him—not battered wire-pullers like Mrs. Fisher, but a girl that most men would have given their boots to get such a look from.

The House of Mirth Edith Wharton 1987

Today, the bosses, the landowners, the bankers, the big industrialists, the politicians, the wire-pullers, the prostitutes, and the idle trash make up one outfit (applause).

17TH JULY SPEECH TO BUS WORKERS 1962

Here it seems to me that "the sovereign people" is fast becoming a puppet which moves and speaks as wire-pullers determine.

The Contemporary Review, January 1883 Vol 43, No. 1 Various

The epidemic spread to Poona City (and indeed it was freely said that the chief wire-pullers in the movement lived there).

India and the Indians Edward Fenton Elwin

Hence of the civilians of our party, David Daggett and other wire-pullers, worked to have him superseded, and Roger

The Development of Religious Liberty in Connecticut Maria Louise Greene

It was a disconcerting sequel to some skilful wire-pulling, and the martial ardour of the wire-pullers dropped in a trice to _zero_.

The Siege of Kimberley T. Phelan

He had learnt from the wire-pullers of the day — or "undertakers" as they were then called — that he could depend upon a majority being returned which would be willing to grant supplies in return for certain concessions.

London and the Kingdom - Volume II