[orig. U.S.; see WIRE sb. 8 and PULL v. 7. One who ‘pulls the wires’; one who works secretly to further the interests of a person or party; esp. a politician or political agent who privately influences and directs others.
1848. N. Y. Mirror, 5 June (Bartlett). Already that city [Philadelphia] is filled with wire-pullers,… and the whole brood of political make-shifts.
1859. Green, Oxf. Stud., iv. (O.H.S.), 263. This youth breaks out … in a passionate loyalty to academical wire-pullers.
1898. G. W. E. Russell, Collect. & Recoll., iii. 35. He [Lord Shaftesbury] was essentially the type of politician who is the despair of the official wire-puller.
So Wire-pulling vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1847. Congressional Globe, 26 Jan., 262/3. Neither by demonstrations here, nor by figuring and wire-pulling at home, am I engaged to the support of this bill.
1876. ‘E. Pinto’ (Latham Smith), Ye Outside Fools! (1877), 50. Let your clients try their best against the wire-pulling usurers who rule the roast.
1878. Parkman, in N. Amer. Rev., CXXVII. 9. Wretched, wire-pulling demagogues, ignorant as the constituencies that chose them.
1887. Sat. Rev., 14 May, 705/2. Literary wire-pulling and bargaining with publishers.
