I was wondering this morning, shaking my head between sips of coffee and watching James O'Keefe and 'nem get hustled into cop cars outside the Hale Boggs Federal Building on the CBS Early Show.
Why in hell did these guys want to bug Mary Landrieu's office?
When one needs answers, it pays to go directly to Lou'zana blogs. I went to two, Your Right Hand Thief and Humid Beings, and already I have a pretty interesting idea how it might have happened, thanks to Oyster's article, "Big Pimpin' [Pimpgate]."
Says Oyster:
Umm, but an inquisitive person might wonder: what would motivate this celebrated conservative "investigator" to work with a team to allegedly bug Mary Landrieu's New Orleans office, and why would they attempt to do it right now? (A complimentary magic jack installation? I doubt it.) Hmm... Well, Mary's brother Mitch is running for mayor of New Orleans, and despite absolutely no evidence, it's an article of faith among conservatives that Mary Landrieu has made a deal with national Democratic party party interests to assist her brother's election. Although lack of proof never stopped them before, perhaps they wanted to uncover evidence of some coordinated plot, in order to throw the race in a tizzy. The latest poll on the mayoral contest showed Mitch doing well in every demographic, including 37% of GOP voters (who voted for against Landrieu and for Nagin last time around, based on some of the stupidest "rationales" that I'd ever seen). Unless something fairly dramatic happens, the current campaign dynamics are very favorable for Mitch. Isn't it conceivable that this alleged attempt to bug Mary Landrieu's New Orleans office had something to do with derailing her brother in the mayor's race?
Feel free to offer other speculations in the comments. But it's difficult for me to believe a couple things about this deal:
- that you would coordinate with a team of people on an operation like this, and absolutely no one else would know about it.
- that you would take the risk of trying to bug a Senator's office in a Federal Building, just to do a random "fishing expedition" for politically useful material. Surely, this pimp and his buddies had some theory about what they hoped to find.
Proof how strong the New Orleans' GOP suspicions were? Check out an article on January 5 about Ed Murray's volte face from the mayoral race. Read the whole thing. These guys must have been absolutely paranoid that they have some proof that the Landrieus were up to something low and underhand, which is exactly what Nixon's plumbers were trying to find out about the 1972 Democrats. Humid Beings lays it all out.
In an email, Jeffrey tells us that during a Tuesday interview on WWL 870am, demographer Elliot Stonecipher claimed that national Democratic interests pushed Murray out on behalf of Mary and Mitch Landrieu. Other conservative pundits are closely hewing to the line, as well.
For example, The Hayride (a conservative LA blog) opines:
So why would Murray pull out? The most obvious answer is the fix is in.
Many had suspected a strong interplay between Mitch getting the mayoral seat in New Orleans and Mary’s use of the political machines to manufacture the votes to get re-elected again in five years; she’s managed to squeak past three Republican opponents so far despite being continuously regarded as vulnerable, and it’s been the Orleans Parish vote which has saved her every time.
And up to the time of Katrina, Orleans Parish was solidly and predominantly black.
The Landrieu family is regarded with particular affection among blacks, since it was Moon Landrieu, the patriarch, and the last white mayor of New Orleans, who brought in blacks into New Orleans government and city bureaucracy for the first time. Right now, Mitch Landrieu is the favorite to win the election on February 6 (the day before the Super Bowl) to succeed the vastly unpopular Nagin; he looks unbeatable.
Now if all of this is true, this is probably why they contacted the star filmmaker of the moment, O'Keefe, and brought in their boys from out of town, including the son of an acting U.S. attorney for Shreveport,and a Bush appointee, to help him find the proof by wiretapping Senator Landrieu's office.
Now I got this from two Nawlins blogs that I'm happy to access for information. I don't doubt that there's even more information out there, especially about the Pelican Institute and how it's on the outs with the Louisiana Secretary of State. The Institute bankrolled O'Keefe's now cancelled talk on Thursday, and Flanagan is an Institute employee. O'Keefe was recently interviewed saying that he had a number of stings planned. Maybe a little jail will work off some of that anger.
Three of their punk asses showed up in court today.
All I am saying is that during this election season, campaign workers had better be on the lookout for their candidates for any dirty tricks.