Corp politics and intra dept warfare

[slang]

When I was writing the post on the micro non-manager I thought about how I would have dealt with this conflict in the white collar world.

In that environment, the plan would have been very different.

So I'm wondering. Does anyone have any stories from work specifically of conflicts and results? Maybe some dirty tricks that were played on you, something you did to make someone else look bad, passive aggressive techniques of insubordination, or some specific event you planned and executed as revenge. Did you ever become the boss of a boss you hated? Maybe you broke some unwritten rule of the company and it's effects, arguments in meetings, blantant name calling in meetings, or even physical confrontations at work.

Or on the other side of the coin, some friendship you had in the company that shielded you in some way. Did some high level manager ever take an interest in you to put the screws to your boss, with his help? Were you ever a "spy" within the company for some upper level manager ? Did you ever fall on the sword for a boss you liked?

I'm interested in all angles of the company/corp politics and your personal strategy and experience in dealing with them.

There's a few good ones I could write about but I want to read your stories about surviving/winning corp politics and intra dept warfare.