the most innocent o'keefe explanation

[seeinfweggos]

he and his buddies planned on disabling the phones and then filming the staffers saying things like "i hope they don't fix it so we don't have to hear from those tea-baggers anymore" or something like that. that's the most innocent explanation i can think of based on the affidavit and his lawyer's statement.

of course the problem for o'keefe is that this least nefarious explanation is still a federal felony.

[FBaggins]

1. That's what they're trying to say they were doing.

I don't really care... even if true, it was still incredibly stupid... incredibly juvenile... and very likely illegal.

That's not "investigative journalism" and paying the price is how he learns the difference.

[seeinfweggos]

3. oh, it's incredibly illegal - disabling the communications system in a federal building

you bet your ass it's illegal. and that's my point, the dumbshit's defense is that he was committing a different felony.

[FBaggins]

7. Still illegal... but much easier to get away with.

Especially with a "flexible" prosecutor.

[seeinfweggos]

10. yeah, his dad apparently nt

[gkhouston]

5. Not "very likely illegal"... it's still a felony carrying a 10 year sentence.

So the question is: if that's what they're willing to admit to, this early in the game, what were they really doing? They're either protecting themselves from much heavier sentences or shielding others, or both.

[seeinfweggos]

8. good point.

"if that's what they're willing to admit to, this early in the game, what were they really doing"

[dbonds]

2. That doesn't explain the 'listening device'

[seeinfweggos]

4. to record the staff's reaction. nt

[dbonds]

6. That is still spying.

They could say it was only to get a nursery rhyme that only told from one staff member to the next. Doesn't change the crime, and it is no less a crime because of what they wanted to find.

[seeinfweggos]

9. sure, he's basically saying i wanted to bug their office, not tap their phone.

whatever, right?

[dbonds]

12. Right...

In fact, because they are admitting to a crime but for a weird motive, it only highlights what the real motive might have been.

[gkhouston]

11. So four people with no criminal records decided to risk a felony charge to

possibly catch a Senate staffer say something like, "Take your time fixing the phones. We never answer them, anyway." That story doesn't wash. Even if they get something like that on tape, all Landrieu has to do is denounce her office staff. The risk/reward ratio here is out of proportion.

I know this is the current cover story being flogged by O'Keefe's attorney, but it's incredibly weak.

[FBaggins]

13. Remember that the politically rabid (on both sides, but they're more common on the right)

automatically see nefarious intent in their opponents.

This guy ASSUMES that the Senator is crooked and that just taping some random conversations will prove that to the world. There doesn't have to BE any "there" there for him to KNOW that it exists.

We certainly don't need to assume that she must have done something to deserve his attention.

I happen to be one who thinks that ACORN did PLENTY to attract opposition attention, which of course will bring guys like this running... but the reverse is NOT true. Just because he's running doesn't imply that there's anything to find.

[gkhouston]

15. I'm not assuming she's done anything. I'm merely saying that even if they'd

managed to capture anything, it likely would have been the utterances of low-level staffers and not the Senator herself. "Senator has receptionist with an attitude" isn't political poison.

[seeinfweggos]

16. "Senator has receptionist with an attitude" isn't political poison.

no, but i think it fits a meme the louisiana gop has been cultivating - you can't get through to her office to properly bitch at them. just because it doesn't make sense doesn't mean it makes no sense to people in an echo chamber of crazy.

[gkhouston]

17. You don't have to risk a prison sentence to get material for the folks who live

in the echo chamber of crazy. You can simply make shit up. Something else is happening here.

[seeinfweggos]

18. indeed, what's happening here is

the people who gave these dweebs the technical instruction on how to fuck with a phone system are shitting their pants.

[Arkansas Granny]

14. No, it doesn't. I'm waiting to hear what they have to say about that.