Flax is a slang for "bullshit/crap", something one says but it sucks, doens´t have evidence to substantiate it, for instance.  

So, it would be something like "...where there was always some bullshit to spin".

Tallow would be some kind of fat, so one can 'smear something or someone with tallow", so it could be meaning a 'smear campaign' against the opponent.  In other wrods, 'tallow to drip" could be akin to "lies (false claims, etc) to drip"