Four charged in incident at Mary Landrieu’s office. Watergate 2?

Even websites like the Thomas Jefferson Street blog, which had applauded O’Keefe’s work, said the charges will color the ACORN investigation. “It sounds like something out of the tritest kind of television script,” writes Robert Schlesinger on the site. “Judging by the ACORN caper, O’Keefe’s style isn’t simply to prove corruption but stupidity. It’s ironic, then, that the rank lack of sense in his latest alleged stunt calls into question his ACORN charges.”

Below the surface of this alleged stunt, the story has a darker edge. One of the men, Flanagan, is the son of Acting US Attorney Bill Flanagan, who heads Louisiana’s Western District. Landrieu opposed him in a recent nomination.

Robert Flanagan recently criticized Landrieu for her role in what conservatives call the “Louisiana Purchase”: She provided a key vote for the Senate healthcare bill after securing a Medicaid provision for Louisiana estimated to be worth as much as $365 million. “Do not be fooled into believing Landrieu is helping the state of Louisiana,” Flanagan wrote in a post last November on the Pelican Institute’s website site, according to The Associated Press.

One of the other alleged perpetrators, Dai, has been a “freelance consultant” for the Junior Statesmen program of the Central Intelligence Agency, according to AP.

Those shades of the Watergate break-in – whether justified or not – have captivated especially liberal media outlets and conspiracy theorists.

“Their punishment? It should be unending viewings of ‘All the President's Men,’ ” writes paulw, a commenter on a blog for The Atlantic.

MSNBC host Chris Matthews also drew comparisons to Watergate. “The attempted bugging,” he said, “is a throwback to the 1972 break-in and similar attempted bugging at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington.” That incident and attempt to cover it up led to the resignation of Republican president Richard Nixon, Mr. Matthews noted.

On the other hand, conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart, owner of the Biggovernment.com blog where footage of ACORN was released, criticized media reports about the arrest. He also said he had no knowledge of O’Keefe’s latest incident.

"Mainstream Media, ACORN, Media Matters (all the supposed defenders of due process and journalistic ethics) are jumping to conclusions over the arrest .... MSNBC and other 'news organizations' are even billing this developing story as 'Watergate,' " he wrote on his blog. "What do Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow know? And when did they know it?"

-----

Follow us on Twitter.

Previous

1 | 2