Politicians caught on Internet candid cameras

Want to catch a senator napping during a congressional hearing? Or letting a possible racial slur slip out at a campaign rally?

Then log on to Internet video-sharing Web sites like YouTube.com -- the latest weapon in U.S. politics where a candidate's missteps can be viewed by hundreds of thousands of people.

Political campaigns for the November 7 congressional elections have sent out mass e-mails with links to videos of opponents in unscripted, often embarrassing, situations.

Some campaigns have even dispatched young staffers known as "trackers" armed with video cameras. Their sole job is to track a rival candidate's every move and make sure their cameras are rolling in case the politician makes a gaffe.

Republican Sen. George Allen of Virginia got some unwanted publicity when at a political rally he pointed to a tracker sent by rival James Webb's campaign and called the young man a "macaca" -- an African monkey and sometimes a racial slur.

The video of Allen's remarks to S.R. Sidarth, a 20-year-old U.S. college student, spread swiftly on the Internet (http://youtube.com/watch?v=9G7gq7GQ71c), drew the attention of Democratic activists and boosted Webb's campaign.