If I ever get busted trying to tamper with a Senator’s phone — and I’m not too proud to admit that this could very easily happen — I want my lawyer to come up with something better than this:
Michael Madigan, O’Keefe’s lawyer, told POLITICO Tuesday afternoon that he was still unclear exactly what happened at the senator’s office.
“I don’t know the facts yet of what exactly happened, but at heart James O’Keefe is a good kid,” said Madigan, a white-collar criminal defense lawyer who served as counsel to Sen. Howard Baker during the Watergate investigation and helped run former Tennessee Republican Sen. Fred Thompson’s investigation of the Clinton administration.
O’Keefe’s dad is an acting US Attorney (EDIT: actually one of his co-defendants has the acting US Attorney daddy). Can’t he get someone better than this? I’ve watched enough Law & Order to know this is not good lawyering.
You know, part of me feels a little bad piling on a 23 year-old white pretend pimp like this, but all that ACORN pimp-and-ho bullshit had real political consequences. So this story needs to be played up.
Admiral_Komack
Throw his ass in jail.
Linkmeister
Madigan
Thompson is an alum of L&O, so you’d think Madigan might have called his old buddy to ask for advice. OTOH, Thompson was a prosecutor, not a defense attorney, so maybe Madigan thought he’d get bad advice if he did that.
Keith G
Are you dipping into John’s stash?
chopper
i thought it was one of the other four whose dad was a US attorney. for western louisiana i think.
General Winfield Stuck
That’s what they say about all the snot nosed white wingnut spawn.
Send the felonious brat to Gitmo.
And fuck him till the Mayan’s return.
jenniebee
Personally, the worst thing about this for me is that when he lands in prison and tries to “relate” to his fellow prisoners by trying an Eddie Murphy impression of “Bitch betta have all my money,” there will be no live webcam of the ensuing beatdown.
Joseph Nobles
Imagine if the Teabuggers had been Muslims! Our friends on the other side of the aisle wouldn’t be able to talk about anything else.
Midnight Marauder
It shouldn’t.
Crush him.
Will
This guy is so arrogant, he thinks his “pranks” are so important to his “movement”, they’re worth breaking serious laws over.
Explain it to him. Throw the fucking book at him.
JK
tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/landrieu_phone_bugging_case_what_is_the_pelican_in.php
General Winfield Stuck
testing
DougJ
Personally, the worst thing about this for me is that when he lands in prison and tries to “relate” to his fellow prisoners by trying an Eddie Murphy impression of “Bitch betta have all my money,” there will be no live webcam of the ensuing beatdown.
Funny. Awful in a way, but funny.
Jay B.
Yeah, if it wasn’t for materially hurting one of the few organizations that give the poor a voice, it would be tough to prosecute 23-year olds, who have only been legally adults for five years, for allegedly attempting to wiretap a Senator’s office.
Actually, the more I think about it, the less I care. I think this particular fuck deserves jail — but not about the wiretapping. Just for being a monumental shit to volunteers and lying about how he selectively edited their responses.
I think crooked Senators like Landrieu deserve the same treatment they’ve been so willing to afford us: The world listening to their phone conversations.
Now that I think of it, without the ACORN thing, I’d be inclined to support the effort. Senators need to be put on notice, the scumbags.
Edit: Also, I’m the farthest thing from overly sensitive, but even I know rape jokes aren’t funny. Why are they funny when it has to do with prison rape? Just wondering.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Yeah, a 24 year old “kid” should only get a few weeks in juvenile detention for a gag like this, right? I am sure that the Defenders of White Liberty (aka:Republicans) will fire up the White Man’s Wingnut Welfare Express and raise the cash that these poor little boyz will need to fight the Great Liberal Beast that is attempting to devour them.
These fuckers better end up with felony convictions and nice long prison sentences to go with them.
Origuy
Actually, it’s his co-defendant Flanagan who is the son of the acting US Attorney, not O’Keefe. Oh, and O’Keefe is 25, not 23, according to his Wikipedia entry, which has already been updated, vandalized, and fixed.
JK
TeaBuggerGate, Part One
emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2010/01/26/teabuggergate-part-one
demkat620
I don’t feel sorry for this kid at all. The shit he pulled cost people their jobs and hurt alot of people who did nothing wrong.
I can only hope a bunch of right wingers who supported this clown are having nightmares tonight.
Unintended consequences bitches. You go to bed with a crazy person you take your chances.
Brian J
Why should you feel bad? Nobody is suggesting that he be hung for days before his body is dragged through the street, like Mussolini.
As you said, his last plan did a lot of damage. My guess is, he didn’t have anything positive in mind here, and instead of sticking with legal tactics, he did something illegal, something that was beyond getting caught with a dime bag or urinating in public while walking home in a drunken stupor. He’ll be punished accordingly and then he will hopefully move on. What’s the problem?
beltane
Rich Republican white kids are all good, so good that even when they rape, rob, murder, embezzle, extort, wear diapers, hike the Appalachian Trail or shit on the salad bar at Applebee’s they’re still fine, upstanding citizens.
Will
@jenniebee:
“So, what’re you in for, fish?”
“I make a living imitating horrifying caricatures of people in the inner city, in order to bring down the few remaining institutions that exist to help struggling people in the inner city.”
“Don’t tease us like that.”
SpotWeld
Let’s see, he was sitting there filming with a cell phone cam.
His only out here is to claim he had nothing to do with the two guys who were getting their hands dirty.
And now daddy has come to bail him out.
Countdown until his co-conspirators flip on him?
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Olbermann just reported that a “listening device” was found in a car a few blocks away.
Heh.
Lev
I think he should go to jail, because he broke the law. Apart from that, I do think he’s a real scumbag. Unfortunately, you can’t be put in jail just for that.
Will
@DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal):
Like Henry Hyde, it was just a youthful indiscretion.
beltane
@Will: If Republican parents are too lazy and dissolute to teach their kids right from wrong, the criminal justice system will just have to do the job for them.
Violet
Apparently the lawyer is from the same school of thought that produced George W. Bush’s “youthful indiscretions” defense for all his drinking escapades before he turned 40 years old.
Sorry, but a 23-year-old is not a kid. He’s in his fifth year of adulthood. He doesn’t get to pull the “kid” defense.
jenniebee
Olbermann just announced the cops found the “electronic listening device” in a car nearby.
So partly I guess they have the defense that they weren’t really going to bug the office because they didn’t bring the bug in with them. Or possibly, these guys just set a new world’s record for fucking incompetence.
AkaDad
Is Grover Norquist behind this? It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
Jay B.
My hunch is that Landrieu will start burnishing her civil liberties pitch right about now. Just like Jane Harman did when her phone calls were intercepted in an anti-terrorism sting.
We should wiretap every single one of them and broadcast their phone calls on C-SPAN.
Laertes
That affidavit sure has the perps doing a lot of admitting to stuff. You’d think that the son of a prosecutor would know enough to shut the hell up when being questioned by law enforcement.
Brian J
@AkaDad:
Oh, come on, you know the real devious characters behind this, don’t you? ACORN. Wait, what’s that? You say these people were known in the past for trying to hurt ACORN? That’s all part of the plan, see? ACORN simply bribed these guys, or their twins or something, to get caught to make the people who messed with ACORN look bad. Or something. Isn’t it obvious?
Calming Influence
@General Winfield Stuck:
Consider that stolen. And he should have been jailed for that pimp outfit long before this. This is just the O.J. sports memorabilia armed robbery form of karma coming back around.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@jenniebee:
I think the listening device is just that, the receiver, not the transmitter(s). This confirms that they were engaged in illegal wiretapping, no doubt about it.
These morans aren’t just criminals, they’re criminally stupid.
kay
@Violet:
He may be a good…something, but he’s not a “kid” and in any event, it doesn’t really matter, now does it?
Remember how conservatives were parsing that disorderly statute in the Gate’s insanity?
I expect the same strict reading here.
hmd
Most wingnuts only go up to 10 on the dumb scale, but ours go up to 11.
Task Force Ripper
Rachel’s guest just looks like a skeevy bastard. Wouldn’t get in an elevator with him, much less put him on air.
tavella
Criminally stupid is right. The son of a US attorney hadn’t clued that wiretapping senators is the sort of thing that the FBI takes seriously? This isn’t Maryland state charges that you can slide on or pretend is just a prank.
khead
The judges would’ve also accepted “Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy”……
Cat
He wants to play on the national stage he takes teh good with the bad.
Mitch Guthman
@DougJ,
Why do you say that O’Keefe is a “pretend pimp”? He claimed to be a pimp, just as the young woman who accompanied him indicated that she was a prostitute. Insofar as I am aware, neither he nor the woman have ever been asked directly to deny that they are a pimp and a prostitute, respectively.
Unless you are in possession of some facts not on the public record, I don’t think it is fair to call Mr. O’Keefe a “pretend pimp”. It is only good manners to take people at their word until they are shown to be unworthy of your trust. There are no facts on the public record to prove that O’Keefe isn’t a pimp. Accordingly, I think that until that facts are properly established, Mr. O’keefe should be properly described as a “self-proclaimed pimp” and the young lady as a “self-described prostitute”.
A small point but I do believe it’s important to treat people with the respect that they deserve.
AkaDad
@Brian J:
I can haz noozletter?
jenniebee
@DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal): shit, he’s toast, and it’s not unlikely he ruined his dad the US Attorney’s career with him.
Sunday dinner this week is going to be awk-ward!
demkat620
@Task Force Ripper: There’s a reason for that.
Incertus
@tavella: The son of a US Attorney probably figured the rules didn’t apply to him, and that daddy could cover any bet his ass decided to make.
Task Force Ripper
@demkat620: Rachel was clear on who he was – just commenting that I would not have put him on my air.
Surely there was an LEO who could speak about busting someone for something similar.
SpotWeld
@Incertus: Perhaps …. or a few months of tea-baggers and Fox News pundits telling him how awesome he was convinced him he could do no wrong
Brian J
@AkaDad:
Good, good. You’re now seeing the light. Come with me…
demkat620
@Task Force Ripper: Oh sorry, I missed where she said that. Was throwing the kids in bed.
I think this story is going to be highly entertaining. If there is a tape oh well, look out. And even Howard Fineman hinted tonight there is probably more under the surface.
Where’s Michael Isakoff when you need him?
darryl
Ye’s I do.
Wonk Hussein
@General Winfield Stuck:
Isn’t that, like, only 2 years from now?
Surely we can do better than that?
.
JGabriel
SpotWeld:
According to the affidavit, O’Keefe has already admitted to conspiring with them.
.
twostepcub
how could it be better?
Watching the Rachel Maddow show, and Flanagan’s dad, the US Attorney, is one that President Obama is trying to replace, however David “Diapers” Vitter has a hold on the nomination of the new atty.
Just sayin’….
Incertus
@JGabriel: Yeah, but the Freepers are saying that the liberals have already infiltrated and turned the FBI, so you can’t believe anything that agent is saying. He’s on Obama’s payroll, dontchaknow? Free the New Orleans 4!
Ella in NM
Two “O’Keefe” posts in a row BJ? Too much trying to figure out what the fuck you’re talking about now.
maus
“Shucks, I’m a good old fashioned southern lawyer, but what I DO know is that boys will be boys your honor…”
Incertus
@maus: I’ve always preferred “Now I may be just be a simple Hyper-Chicken, but I know when we’re finger licked,” but that’s just me.
preston
Whoop That Trick!
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@jenniebee:
From what I have heard they did successfully tap Landrieu’s phone and were working on the main phone bank when they were arrested. If this is the case then they are in shit so deep that there is no saving the watch. One guy waiting in the getaway car with the listening device, two guys impersonating phone company employees doing the tapping and O’keefe there recording it all for posterity.
I bet these fuckwits thought that if they could successfully tap her lines and come up with something good that there would be tremendous pressure from the public to drop any prosecution of the
Four White Heroes of Freedom and Truth(R)criminals for exposing a corrupt Democratic Senator.They seem stupid enough to believe in something like that, after all they are only “kids”, right? They probably still believe in Santa, Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy and get tucked into their cribs every night by doting mothers.
SpotWeld
@JGabriel: Was his lawyer present for that? Expect a recant
wvblueguy
Hey… remember Lee Atwater. This guy is definitely an Atwater wannabe.
Chad N Freude
@Brian J: Actually, I think that’s a good idea.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@Wonk Hussein:
How about “And fuck him until Jeebus returns”?
Works for me.
@twostepcub:
It’s Senator Diaper Dave Vitter you lame BJ Minion(TM)! Get with the program! ;)
Chad N Freude
@Mitch Guthman: FTW.
Peter J
From Martha Stewart, I’ve learnt that you should be very careful with what you tell an FBI agent. And if she wasn’t able to recant, I doubt that he will. But then, IANAL.
jenniebee
@DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal): Let’s see… wiretapping (check) on federal property (check) of a US Senator (check) caught in the act (check) and they filmed the whole thing on the pimp’s cell phone (check) just in time to hit the news cycle the day of the State of the Union address (cherry on top).
I think I just had an evilgasm.
Chad N Freude
@jenniebee: Oh, come on. “Regrettably, my son has made some poor choices, but with the love and understanding of his family and friends while he is being rehabilitated [once a week in shrink’s office] and performing community service, he will show himself to be the fine, upstanding young man we know him to be.” Your career is enhanced by that.
demkat620
Well lookee here
Beginning to look like the entire Clown College might be involved.
ETA:Not saying Cliff May was involved. I think it is just fascinating all the ways we are going to find these four losers were running with the movers and shakers in the Wingnut Welfare Circuit.
PaulW
I know “All the President’s Men” isn’t required reading for Republican youngsters, but still and all, someone had to have taught these guys that when you wiretap someone’s office, you need to hire Cubans to do it… Sheesh, you’d think Liddy could have done a better job of mentoring…
Emma Anne
The reason they thought they would get away with it (aside from all the teapartier adulation) was because they got away with faking the tape of the Acorn offices. Even TDS let that one slide. Why would they think anyone would prosecute this?
JGabriel
@SpotWeld:
Didn’t Scalia, et. al., overrule Miranda a couple years ago? I don’t think a “recant” can be effective unless O’Keefe asked for a lawyer and was questioned without one despite his request.
I hope whoever busted them had the presence of mind to tape any questioning.
.
Jebediah
I don’t feel sorry for that racist shitbag at all. Got cocky with the success of his big daring ACORN “sting” and now he’s a felon. I’m sure he will write some very moving letters from jail.
Comrade Darkness
“He’s a good kid. But he’s incredibly stupid. And obnoxious. But he was in the college republicans, so this is to be expected.”
jenniebee
@PaulW: These kids are going to do six years each in a minimum security prison, getting their law degrees and forming study and prayer groups with Jack Abramoff’s client list. When they get out, they’ll write books and consider the lawsuits to try to reclaim the profits as good publicity. Twenty years from now, you’ll see them on Sunday morning TV with titles like “Senior Strategist” and “Fellow” and “Popular Host”.
Meanwhile, Eliot Spitzer paid a Girl Gone Wild for sex. So he’s done for.
Veritas78
The irony: it hurts with delight. His own “new media” taping tricks will convict them all.
Notorious P.A.T.
Why the HECK did he videotape his crimes? What an imbecile.
chuck
@JGabriel:
Not for Republicans. Get with the program.
Brian J
@jenniebee:
Well, at least Spitzer isn’t in jail. He’s still able to be part of the conversation, and if he can have influence behind the scenes and be a voice in the ears of those who have similar convictions, perhaps he can still do some good.
Wile E. Quixote
@Violet
I hate little fuckers like this with all of my heart. He’s 23 years old, when I was 23 years old I had been in the Army for six years. I’d like the judge to give them the choice that a couple of guys I went to basic training had been given, join the big green machine or go to jail. Give these evil little fucks a suspended sentence so long as they enlist in the Army as 11B and successfully complete a six year enlistment.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Fix’t. :)
Nope, lock their asses up. If you were in a foxhole with these fuckwits, would you trust them to back you up?
Not. A. Chance.
Liberty60
Yeah, part of me does too.
But then I think on that 12 year old black kid in Florida a few years ago who accidently killed a neighbor girl while playing wrestling.
He was sentenced to life in prison. At 12 fucking years old.
You don’t have to be a DFH to see that there are two types of justice at work here.
Stanley Fish wrote a great article in the NYT a few years ago about the Ivy League and how the scions of the rich and powerful are on an endless buffet line of second chances, re-dos, mulligans, gentlemen Cs and new starts.
The same guys who later pull the John Galt card and give us lectures on bootstraps and responsibility.
Jackmormon
What the hell did they think they were going to accomplish? This couldn’t have led to any kind of *public* scoop—even if they’d gotten their hands on something scandalous, the means by which they’d gotten it would’ve meant serious trouble for them. The only reasonable goal I can come up with is opposition research.
Alternatively, they’re just stupid megalomaniacs, which is of course a real possibility.
maus
A face that smug cries out to be ground into the dirt.
Man, fuck this “boys will be boys” shit. Republicans get away with everything, a liberal protesting legally would probably find himself gassed and beaten.
NYT
I just can’t believe that after more than a year in office, it turns out Obama hasn’t replaced the US attorneys.
Every one of those attorneys had to be a Republican party appartchik willing to drop prosecutions of their own and trump up prosecutions of their political opponents, otherwise Rove would not have kept them on.
And Obama STILL hasn’t fired them.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@NYT:
Umm… because he’s trying to do just that but LA Senator Diaper Dave Vitter(R) is blocking it?
The Republic of Stupidity
The jokes… they write themselves…
Phoebe
Lawyer is already in sentence hearing mode is what.
Ash Can
Bullshit. This dickless wonder isn’t in grade school anymore. It’s about fucking time he learned something about being an adult.
And think about it — these shit-for-brains were trying to wiretap Mary Landrieu’s office. Mary Fucking Landrieu. One of the Republicans’ best Democratic friends. How fucking stupid are these frat-boy rejects anyway??
Badtux
Maybe he can learn how to be a more convincing pimp from the *real* pimps he meets in the iron bar hotel, yo.
I have difficulty pulling up any sympathy for this jerk, myself. Wiretapping? What’s this, he thinks he’s freakin’ G. Gordon Liddy now? I thought that kinda crap went out with Watergate? What we got here, some retro pimp wannabes or somethin’? Fugheddabout it, yo.
– Badtux the Unsympathetic Penguin
Cassidy
Unless it involves a clown.
parksideq
@DougJ:
This 24-year-old black kid (of the non-pimp variety, I might add) says “fuck that fake pimp.” If this was Chappelle’s Show, it would be another tragic case of “When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong”. Of course, “real” in this sense means “criminal”, and “wrong” means “getting busted by the FBI”.
parksideq +4
Will
If this f*ck doesn’t get jail time, he doesn’t get punished. A huge fine is worthless–he’ll have a legal defense fund from conservative sponsors covering it in no time.
Viva BrisVegas
@Will:
So who will be prosecuting poor snookums, best friend’s daddy?
This case needs to go to the Supreme Court, there is a 5-4 decision waiting there for them, plus a case of Bud.
Mnemosyne
@Viva BrisVegas:
Apparently there are two USAs in Louisiana: eastern and western. BF’s daddy is the USA for western Louisiana. A different guy is the USA for eastern Louisiana.
According to Gawker, this is where it gets complicated. BF’s daddy is only the acting USA — someone else is in the pipeline, but their nomination has been held up by Diaper Boy (aka Sen. David Vitter) who wants Obama to formally re-nominate the guy who’s the eastern Louisiana USA.
A normal senator would be embarrassed to find out that he’s keeping the father of a suspected felon in office out of pique, but this is Diaper Boy we’re talking about. He sees no conflict in claiming to be a God-fearing, family-loving Christian who visits prostitutes, so he certainly isn’t going to feel any shame in this situation.
ETA: In case it wasn’t clear, this case falls under the jurisdiction of the USA for the eastern half of the state, so the one who’s not BF’s daddy is in charge.
Amanda
Always a good idea, after trying to illegally wiretap a politician’s office with your buddies, to hire a lawyer whose biggest claim to fame involves Watergate — so that word is in EVERY news story about your arrest. Smooth…
Toast
I hope this “kid” sees his life completely destroyed. I want him working at McDonald’s when he’s 80. And not in the happy, “Hey, I had a successful career and I just do this to get out and meet people” way. More the “I tried fucking with people in the name of my sick ideology and it ruined me forever” way.
mardam
That’s the same thing I told the bartender when I bought a beer at the age of 14.
“Look, I’m a good guy.”
Worked for me…why not him?
memory bank
Maybe the kid can avoid jail if he joins the Army.
Heh heh…
The Bobs
They need to invoke the “twit” defense.
“Our oh-so-important daddies taught us that there are never any consequences for people like us. Right, your honor? wink…wink”