ACORN gotcha man among four arrested for attempting
to tamper with Mary Landrieu's office phones

From the New Orleans Times-Picayune courtesy of Eschaton:

Alleging a plot to tamper with phones in Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu's office in the Hale Boggs Federal Building in downtown New Orleans, the FBI arrested four people Monday, including James O'Keefe, 25, a conservative filmmaker whose undercover videos at ACORN field offices severely damaged the advocacy group's credibility.

Also arrested were Joseph Basel, Stan Dai and Robert Flanagan, all 24. Flanagan is the son of William Flanagan, who is the acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, the office confirmed. All four were charged with entering federal property under false pretenses with the intent of committing a felony.

According to the FBI affidavit, Flanagan and Basel entered the federal building at 500 Poydras Street about 11 a.m. Monday, dressed as telephone company employees, wearing jeans, fluorescent green vests, tool belts, and hard hats.

More here.

I suppose it's not surprising that these right-wing sting operation vigilantes would strike again, flush with the seeming success of their ACORN adventure, which obviously made them feel comfortable upping the ante by going after a US Senator. What is surprising is the target they chose. Mary Landrieu? WTF? Sure, she's a Democrat, but she's one of those Blue Dogs, a total conservative, one of the last Senate holdouts on health care reform, utterly owned by Big Pharma and other corporate interests, especially Big Oil. Personally, I have no problem with anybody going after her--I've kind of come to hate her after five years in Louisiana. But it's just so counterintuitive that these conservative pranksters would target her. Why not an actual liberal? Why not somebody who's not causing the Democrats to twist and turn uselessly in the wind?

I don't get it. My suspicion is that they're stupid. You know, get the Democrat, any Democrat. Maybe they had some info on her that made them want to follow up with a wiretap. But still. She's their man, doing their work, inside the opposition party. Why fuck that up? Man, conservatives just get weirder and weirder.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$