Slate, Nov. 4, 2010 Slate Columns
Updating Mao, political power now grows out of the barrel of a video camera.
"In old days men had the rack. Now they have the press," Oscar Wilde once noted. If Wilde were writing today, he'd amend his comment to include the video camera, that cheap, all-seeing eye capable of inflicting pain on its target.
Both parties have added the video camera to their arsenals. Over the summer, the Democratic National Committee established an "Accountability Project" Web site where volunteers could "document Republican candidates and their public statements at local events, as well as their campaign tactics," as the site puts it, with the goal being to trap candidates making the sort of "Macaca" comments that destroyed the Republican Sen. George Allen's re-election effort in 2006.
The formation of "truth squads" to follow opposing candidates on the hustings until they commit a gaffe is as old as politics. But the Republicans now seem determined to marry the truth-detection properties of the video camera to the political tricksterism perfected by Democrat Dick Tuck. This morning's New York Times (Nov. 4) reports that Republicans targeted Democratic officeholders they hoped to nudge into retirement by menacing them "with video cameras and pressing them to explain votes or positions." According to the Times, Republican strategists now acknowledge they were behind the video ambushing of Rep. Bob Etheridge, D-N.C. As you may recall, Etheridge ended up manhandling a college-age kid who stuck a video camera in his face and asked, "Do you fully support the Obama agenda?" Etheridge apologized for getting physical, and as I write his race is still too close to call.
(Continued on Slate.)
