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The political temperature of the country appreciated another notch last Monday. The arrest of Herbert Mensah by BNI operatives was the cause. It had to do with a certain tape recording of a conversation covering an alleged planned expenditure for the President�s nomination campaign. In our opinion, the BNI�s action was not only unnecessary but also politically high-handed. Expectedly, FONKAR boys were on standby, ready to storm the point at which the man was being held and interrogated if it was going to be an overnight affair. What could have happened is beyond our ken but it would have been anything but normal. What has happened since the bombshell about the said campaign money, for which, according to the President, there is no budget, is worrying. There has been an un-commensurate reaction from state players to what could have passed for a normal feature of a democracy when Herbert Mensah joined the political conversation of the time to state what he said he knew. In growing our democratic culture, such overbearing reaction from the state could rob us of what we really seek to build for ourselves and posterity, a virile democracy. We do not find the conversation which unsettled the president and his minders anymore than what we are used to hearing on the political turf, sometimes from Castle minders. It was not difficult predicting what happened yesterday when Herbert Mensah was taken in by BNI operatives. President Mills�s laughter, as part of the reaction to the allegation, was explicit enough about what he intended to do. Cynics wondered why the state hounds did not invite ex-President Rawlings in whose custody the telltale recording was. We can save the country a further rise in an already-heated political temperature through a better handling of such high-profile issues, as they appear on the political turf. There is no doubt that as our democracy chalks more years of growth, we shall come across many of such seemingly unsettling utterances from political players. What is transpiring currently, an intra-party affair, should have largely been treated like what we are used to hearing and thus prevented from spilling onto the national stage. By last Monday�s BNI action, what was previously an entirely NDC affair has made a disturbing entry onto the national stage. So far, the ex-President has not spoken about this latest development in the political malaise that has visited the NDC. It is not as if he is going to keep it that way. He would certainly mention it either on June 4 or even today as the media troop to his Ridge residence for a planned meeting between him and Dr. Spio-Garbrah. His references to the latest development on the political turf will further raise the temperature of the country. Ghanaians have had an overdose of the political wrangling in the NDC, and a deliberate attempt at increasing this could be too much to be assimilated. We ignore this at our own political peril. Politics-fatigue is one thing we should avoid in this country because allowing it would be killing the interest of many persons in politics, the repercussions of which can be counterproductive to democracy. We do not seek to outdo the crying of the bereaved but just expressing worry about what, if not handled properly, could impugn negatively on our democracy, outside the confines of the NDC. If a Herbert Mensah with a derived status from his association with an ex-president can be �roughened� the way we saw happen to him, it can only be imagined what could befall others with no political pedigree. Herbert Mensah�s disclosures about the President�s campaign did not suggest that there was an ingredient of theft. It was all about profligacy not an alleged theft from state kitty. Coming against the backdrop of a previous protestation by the then Candidate Mills about government extravagance, when the NPP was in power, reduces the equity of the action. Let the President and his team reduce their adrenalin level because we cannot contain such a rise, especially not when the temperature is already at an almost all-time high.