Rep. Bob Etheridge looks like an ass. Most people will leave it at that. He seemed to "go off" and assault some poor innocent students that dared to ask him a question. He really, really looks like an ass.
But consider, isn't that exactly what they wanted? Are they really students? What happened leading up to the confrontation? We know that Etheridge was the "star" of the video, but we also know who the editors and directors of the video were. They were anonymous blurred-out "students".
This is sort of a new thing. We've had people accidentally capture YouTube moments on camera before. We've also had ambush interviews by reporters. That's been around forever. But these guys seem to be TRACKERS that are applying military tactics for political reasons. They work in a two man team like a sniper/spotter team. One plays the part of an interviewer. The other is the cameraman. Once the video is made, edited, and their faces are blurred out it gets uploaded anonymously to a website. You gotta give the guys a hand for combining all of the TMZ/YouTube/special forces/Mike Wallace/undercover pimp&ho ideas that are floating around out there.
That's just brilliantly evil, and I expect more from them over the summertime until they get caught. And they will get caught. (Remember, the REAL D.C. Sniper team eventually got caught.) Will they get caught before the fall elections or after? How effective will they be? IMO, I think they'll do some damage. Sadly, this will be real damage as they'll be hurting some good people so they can get idiot Tea Partiests elected. Just look at what the undercover pimp/ho videos did to ACORN. I think this tracker team learned a lesson from that guy, though; Remain anonymous!
Wild card: Next time they might not be as lucky. If 68 year old Etheridge can easily manhandle the little punk, then I'm sure there are other politicians that can beat his little ass and take his driver's license and camera. What then tracker boys?