James O’Keefe is known for his investigative journalism, which effectively exposed ACORN for what they are. Unfortunately, even people who do good work make bad choices.
A conservative activist who posed as a pimp to target the community-organizing group ACORN and the son of a federal prosecutor were among four people arrested by the FBI and accused of trying to interfere with phones at Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office.
Activist James O’Keefe, 25, was already in Landrieu’s New Orleans office Monday when Robert Flanagan and Joseph Basel, both 24, showed up claiming to be telephone repairmen, U.S. Attorney Jim Letten’s office said Tuesday. Letten says O’Keefe recorded the two with his cell phone.
Flanagan, the son of acting U.S. Attorney Bill Flanagan in Shreveport, and Basel asked for access to a phone at the reception desk. Then they asked for access to a phone closet so they could work on the phone system. The men were directed to another office in the building, where they again said they were telephone repairmen.
They were arrested later by the U.S. Marshal’s Service. Details of the arrest were not available. A fourth man, Stan Dai, 24, was also arrested, but Letten’s office said only that he assisted the others in planning, coordinating and preparing the operation.
Federal officials did not say why the men wanted to interfere with Landrieu’s phones or whether they were successful. Landrieu, a moderate Democrat, declined comment Tuesday. She has been in the news recently because she negotiated an increase in Medicaid funds for her state before announcing her support for Senate health care legislation.
Michelle Malkin writes:
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.
Good advice. Here’s the thing: The fact that O’Keefe screwed up doesn’t suddenly exhonerate ACORN. What O’Keefe exposed was still fact. We have seen it with our own eyes.
The long dormant ACORN Twitter account has resurrected itself to gloat, and ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis will be on the Ed Show to no doubt deemphasize the work that O’Keefe did. Unfortunately, the damage is done for ACORN.
I really think it’s irrelevant, overall. The guy did something really, really stupid. Yeah, he should be punished. But for the Left to celebrate as if all the wrongs of ACORN are now righted is just ridiculous. Get a grip. They’re not any less corrupt now than they were this morning. Sorry guys.