A right wing group called Steward for Prosperity had an ostensibly nonpartisan event in Manchester, NH. It was in fact totally partisan, but I went anyway. I am one of NH's 400 state reps, and the organizers mistakenly invited all of us. And I accepted.
I scared one of my fellow state reps a little, whom I know from a recent hearing to be a gun-toting Second Amendment Sistah, but she laughed it off and there was no gun fire. I only stayed for the speech by Newt Gingrich which is actually not what I will comment on.
I will say that the conservative movement in America has devolved to the point where Newt Gingrich is now a voice of reason. And part of that may just because he has mellowed with age. He almost sounded like a liberal at times: like a liberal he just says what he thinks and only occasionally bothers to tell us what he thinks the other side thinks. The typical conservative polemicist, unlike Gingrich, is obsessed with liberals and spends most of his or her time telling the audience (very inaccurately) what liberals think.
Andrew Breitbart apparently took some time off during his speech in Manchester from explaining what liberals think, and used part of his timeslot to blast us liberals for our hypocrisy regarding a recent incident in New Orleans. His stooge James O'Keefe (who made the infamous Acorn videos) kinda confessed to several felonies: he was caught trying to bug Sen. Landrieu's phone.
It is unclear how "liberal hypocrisy" is supposed to be relevant to James O’Keefe’s arrest for wiretapping Sen. Landrieu’s office, which is a felony regardless of what Acorn or MSNBC or even the Senator herself did.
How does "liberal hypocrisy" justify breaking into a Senator’s office and tapping her phone, which is a pretty serious felony? Breibart maybe might have been justified in pointing out that O’Keefe has not even been indicted yet. Breitbart might have been justified in saying that we don’t know what really happened yet, although the news stories I have seen indicate that O’Keefe & his buddies were caught redhanded and O'Keeefe has confessed. Breitbart certainly could claim that he didn’t have anything to do with the New Orleans incident. And even if O’Keefe turned out to be a felon, and even if Breitbart was actually involved, that wouldn't automatically invalidate their ACORN reportage. (Although it was debunked even before O'Keefe got his dumb butt busted.)
It is interesting that Breitbart is taking such an aggressive approach.
O'Keefe's confession is amusingly demented. I am reposting it here because I expect the young man's lawyers (unless they are dumb as their client) will be taking it down soon as they try to keep him out of jail.
The government has now confirmed what has always been clear: No one tried to wiretap or bug Senator Landrieu's office. Nor did we try to cut or shut down her phone lines. Reports to this effect over the past 48 hours are inaccurate and false.
As an investigative journalist, my goal is to expose corruption and lack of concern for citizens by government and other institutions, as I did last year when our investigations revealed the massive corruption and fraud perpetrated by ACORN. For decades, investigative journalists have used a variety of tactics to try to dig out and reveal the truth.
I learned from a number of sources that many of Senator Landrieu's constituents were having trouble getting through to her office to tell her that they didn't want her taking millions of federal dollars in exchange for her vote on the healthcare bill. When asked about this, Senator Landrieu's explanation was that, "Our lines have been jammed for weeks." I decided to investigate why a representative of the people would be out of touch with her constituents for "weeks" because her phones were broken. In investigating this matter, we decided to visit Senator Landrieu's district office - the people's office - to ask the staff if their phones were working.
On reflection, I could have used a different approach to this investigation, particularly given the sensitivities that people understandably have about security in a federal building. The sole intent of our investigation was to determine whether or not Senator Landrieu was purposely trying to avoid constituents who were calling to register their views to her as their Senator. We video taped the entire visit, the government has those tapes, and I'm eager for them to be released because they refute the false claims being repeated by much of the mainstream media.
It has been amazing to witness the journalistic malpractice committed by many of the organizations covering this story. MSNBC falsely claimed that I violated a non-existent "gag order." The Associated Press incorrectly reported that I "broke in" to an office which is open to the public. The Washington Post has now had to print corrections in two stories on me. And these are just a few examples of inaccurate and false reporting. The public will judge whether reporters who can't get their facts straight have the credibility to question my integrity as a journalist.