Only Allen West, the Republican challenger in Florida's 22nd District, could see a lone man with a video camera and conclude:
I know here today we have a representative from the Florida Democratic party and he is here to film me and his whole purpose of filming me is to take what I say and allow other people to distort it so they can misrepresent me. You know if we allow those Gestapo-type intimidation tactics to prevail in the United States of America what happens to our liberties, what happens to our freedoms?
Yes, the campaign tracker -- this one who happens to be the grandson of Holocaust survivors -- is like the secret police of the Nazis, and videotaping candidates for public office, while they're in public, will somehow take away our freedom. Mr. West doesn't explain exactly how this will happen, but he's not backing down:
"We are not apologizing for that,'' responded West's campaign manager Josh Grodin, who said the videotaped event was at an event attended by clergy including rabbis. "What the Florida Democratic Party is doing is they are just using intimidation tactics. They are following West around everywhere."
Of course they are. Otherwise they would have missed him calling Islam a:
... very vile and very vicious enemy that we have allowed to come in this country because we ride around with bumper stickers that say co-exist.
... or telling his supporters that the way to handle his Democratic opponent, Rep. Ron Klein, is to:
... make the fellow scared to come out of his house. That’s the only way that you’re going to win. That’s the only way you’re going to get these people’s attention.
... or his suggestion that:
... the tea party fight against a Chicago politician like Obama in the Chicago style that's described in The Untouchables: "They send one of yours to the hospital. You send one of theirs to the morgue."
Of course there were no cameras rolling when this happened:
... West was forced to retire from the Army and fined $5,000 after he admitted to apprehending an Iraqi policeman he suspected of planning an ambush, watching as his troops beat him, and then firing a gunshot by the Iraqi’s head in order to scare him into divulging information. West said the decision saved lives by preventing an ambush. But no plot was ever discovered and the policeman in question later told The New York Times that he had no knowledge of any attacks.
Speaking of Gestapo-type intimidation tactics ...