What's Next for Republican Campaign Trackers--Sexual Assault?

Republicans in Congress just don't get it. More than 2/3rds of the American public just doesn't want "more of the same" from them. The public doesn't want the Republicans to stay mired in right-wing ideological rigidity, doesn't want the Republicans to be maintain an attitude of relentless aggression, and doesn't want the Republicans pulling one cheap stunt after another against the Obama administration and the Democrats.

Today's manifestation of GOP obtuseness is the practice of using Congressional staff members as "campaign trackers" to track Democratic members of Congress and try to provoke them into saying something that can be used against them in negative ads.

The National Republican Congressional Committee is sending out video "trackers" to ask provocative questions of Democratic members of Congress. The trackers, who are congressional committee staffers, were earlier reported by Congress Daily, a specialty publication distributed largely on Capitol Hill.

NRCC spokesman Paul Lindsay told McClatchy that Democratic complaints were "whining," adding that "The modern-day world of campaign politics demands that we track our opponents' steps and missteps. We have nothing to hide when it comes to asking tough questions, but it appears that Democrats do when it comes to answering them."

One target of this form of stalking is conservative Pennsylvania Democrat Chris Carney:

Rep. Chris Carney was walking down a Capitol Hill street when suddenly — bam —
an anonymous Republican with a video camera who'd been following him asked him a question that was intended to embarrass the Pennsylvania Democrat.

The interviewer asked first about a single provision in the massive economic stimulus bill, then asked if Carney was going to be "ready to vote tomorrow."

An irritated Carney answered: "Like I told you before, if I see the damn package, I'll have an answer."

The whole idea is to get Democrats to embarrass themselves under stress and hopefully cost them re-election the same way George Allen ruined his career by referring to a Democratic videographer as a "macaca."

Given that they're now stalking people, one wonders how far Congressional Republicans are willing to go. Are they going to start shouting provocative insults to see how Democrats respond? Perhaps they'll go ahead and just start assaulting Democrats to see if they're "tough enough" to defend themselves or whether they're "committed enough to gun rights" to carry a pistol on them?

Maybe the Congressional Republicans will really "push the envelope" and start sexual assaulting Democrats on the streets in order to tape the response.

They could call it "Porn Politics."