Slang among political ops for "I am looking for dirt on your candidate." May or may not be connected to the classic line from The Godfather: "Clemenza sleeps with the fish." Meaning he's been whacked, per orders. So "
Fishing for your Goombas,"
maybe, started out meaning "looking for the bodies in your candidate's background." (Classically such bodies would be a live
boy or a dead girl).
"
Hey, what's this bullshit with a guy with a camera in the parking lot at four in the morning?"
"I am fishing for your Goombas,
asshole. If your
boy can't keep it zipped, the people got a right to know."