Stalking rival politically tacky

Politics is certainly not a clean game. Sometimes it requires getting your hands dirty. But even politics, amazingly enough, has its limitations.\nJustin Warfel, a campaign staffer for Illinois Republican Senate candidate Jack Ryan, has been given the assignment of following Ryan's Democratic opponent, state Sen. Barack Obama with a hand-held video camera, documenting his every public move.\nAccording to the Chicago Tribune, Obama had complained that Warfel had the camera rolling on him at every moment of the day -- as he walked through the statehouse, as he made private telephone calls to his wife and daughters and even as he headed to the restroom.\nRyan's campaign claims it's trying to document whether Obama remains consistent as he campaigns across the state.\nWe agree it's good for the political debate to keep your opponent's words in check -- but it's an entirely different thing to invade his privacy and videotape him at all points in the day. \nRyan, who knows a thing or two about wanting to keep a private life private since he doesn't want his divorce records released, should know better. It's a tacky political move and although his campaign has said they'll pull Warfel back, until he's removed from duty entirely he won't be pulled back far enough.