Dino Rossi has gone too far. With his approval, Seattle Police abused their power, lied about the law, and forcibly prevented a Washington state citizen from learning about a candidate for Washington state governor. That behavior is inexcusable.
Launching attacks (in the war of words sense), hyperbole and exaggeration, spin and the art of public relations, it's all part of the game.
And, in the YouTube era, where an ill-advised "macaca" can sink a career, it's standard practce to follow your opponent with a video camera in hand in the hopes that something like "macaca" will slip out.
So young political operatives from Governor Chris Gregoire's campaign have been following Republican Dino Rossi with a video camera, leading to a few entertaining incidents and some documentation of Rossi keeping the public generally out of his pre-screened campaign events.
All of which is well and good, and has stayed (mostly) within the boundaries of political sportsmanship. The operative never caused any harm, he just took video, and nothing ever got violent or out of control.
Until now.
Now, Dino Rossi has gone too far. Under his watch, the Seattle Police stopped short of pulling a Rodney King on the young democrat who took this video, but they did abuse their power, lie about the law, and forcibly prevent a Washington state citizen from learning about a candidate for Washington state governor.
That is not the type of behavior that we want from our police force, and that is not the type of behavior that should be sanctioned or encouraged by a candidate for governor.
