On Tuesday James O'Keefe and three others allegedly identified themselves as telephone repairmen in an attempt to get into Sen. Mary Landrieu's office. Now they are behind bars, accused of trying to tamper with her phone.
Simply put, it's a hot-button political issue that has gotten a lot of people talking. So I'll shut up and let them speak for themselves:
• The Talking Points Memo does some research into The Pelican Institute, where O'Keefe was going to give a talk on investigative journalism Thursday. They also point out that Robert Flanagan, an intern last year for Rep. Mary Fallin, R-OK, is an employee at The Pelican Institute. The Wall Street Journal has a profile on a higher-up at the institute, Kevin Kane.
• In an interview in September, O'Keefe said he wanted to do more more undercover films and he already has a few targets in mind. He said while his friends always believe his next sting will never work, he thought he could find a way. “I disagree with them,” said O’Keefe. “I think that I’ll come up with a new strategy and I’ll get them to say yes.”
Oops.
• Ben Smith with Politico says Democrats are capitalizing on what Louisiana Democratic Party Chair Michael McHale called "The Louisiana Watergate."
• As Washington gossip blog site Gawker points out, ACORN is having a field day with the news. Their Twitter feed was silent for more than a month, but it pumped out several tweets concerning O'Keefe's mischief.
• Gawker also has small profiles on each of those arrested.
• A source told Fox News' Eric Shawn that O'Keefe and his accomplices “were not attempting to wiretap the phones or anything like that,” and another source said “he would not want to do anything wrong.”
• Conservative pundit Michelle Malkin, once an ardent supporter of O'Keefe, isn't pointing fingers at Democrats. "This is neither a time to joke nor a time to recklessly accuse Democrats/liberals of setting this up — nor a time to whine about media coverage double standards. Deal with what’s on the table," Malkin wrote. "But for now, let it be a lesson to aspiring young conservatives interested in investigative journalism: Know your limits. Know the law. Don’t get carried away. And don’t become what you are targeting."
• According to The Hill, the sponsor of a resolution in Congress that praised O'Keefe's work in filming the ACORN employees said he doesn't condone the wiretap.
"Individuals who lawfully expose wrongful activities by an entity like ACORN receiving federal tax dollars should be praised," Rep. Pete Olson, R-Texas, told The Hill in an e-mail. "However, if recent events conclude that any laws were broken in the incident in Senator Landrieu’s office – that is not something I condone."
31 House Republicans supported the resolution, according to Media Matters. None of them are from Louisiana.
• Liberal blog site DailyKos draws parallels between how Republicans called the Watergate Hotel break-in a "third-rate burglary" to how Republicans today are responding to O'Keefe's action. "This incident demands immediate, aggressive open investigation and public hearings beginning now," writes "DarkSyde."
• The Washington Independent spoke to Andrew Breitbart, who runs the website that published O'Keefe's ACORN videos, Big Government. He said the website has "no knowledge about or connection to any alleged acts."
• Megan McArdle with The Atlantic said O'Keefe's actions aren't just bad journalism, but "illegal and reprehensible."
