Common practice among all politicians

Dear Editor:

I was very disturbed by your editorial in the Aug. 17 edition condemning the videotaping of a political candidate.

A person running for a public office appearing at a public event should not object to being videotaped. Indeed, candidates often pay to have their own appearances recorded.

I agree that negative politics have had a corrosive effect on our government.

One can argue that this has been the key factor in the extreme partisanship existing today that prevents the kind of essential cooperation across party lines that was once fairly common.

I can remember when in the 1960s, people like Republican Senator Everett Dirksen of Illinois often worked with Democrats. They would appear together at press conferences and share credit for important legislation like civil rights, often joking together showing an element of camaraderie, and recognizing that the national interest is always more important than partisan advantage.

It all began to change when Richard Nixon set up a “Dirty Tricks” operation as part of his 1968 campaign. Since then things have become progressively worse and, let’s be honest here, it has been overwhelmingly the Republicans who are guilty of it – the Willie Horton TV scare ads against Michael Dukakis, the “push-polling” done by George W. Bush against John McCain, the “Swift Boat” campaign of distortions against John Kerry, and now the false “birthing” claims about President Obama’s citizenship as well as false claims about his religion.

If the videotaping of Mr. Koster is subsequently selectively edited and then shown in order to mislead voters about what he actually said, then that will be dirty politics and should be condemned by everyone.

That process, by the way, is presented fairly regularly these days on Fox News.

Gene Woodruff Camano Island