New Orleans Everyone else on the right, including his old partner-in-crime from the ACORN stings has thrown him under the bus, except Andrew Brietbart, James O’Keefe’s employer and prime contractor. I was wrong about Briethart’s dancing, since he seems to be more committed to screaming it seems.
The twist from both Briethart and some of the teabuggers, which was one funny handle I read, seems to have been that this was so obviously a satire and in Briethart’s words a “clown-nose-on” spectacle that it should be seen as a prank. Wow!
When even Glenn Beck knows that there are lines you have to draw and Hannah Giles is claiming they need to be “accountable,” this is way out there. Beck’s zinger was essentially, hey, this is a Senator. Good point!
Furthermore the “clown nose” defense is absurd. Just as any CWA member in good standing who ever repaired a phone would have been embarrassed, so would any pimp who had ever worked on the streets and then observed the ridiculous appearance of O’Keefe and his racist get up as he and Hannah tried to fast talk and trick unsuspecting, way too helpful, low level staffers and receptionists that they encountered in some ACORN offices. The very fact that it was soooo obvious in any picture of O’Keefe that he could NOT have been a pimp in this world or any other is part of what made the videos so powerful.
Ironically, Briethart seems to be taking the first false step with his charges that ACORN did when confronted by the video. He’s focusing on the weeds, rather than realizing the “do right” rule has been broken. ACORN was justly upset about the gotcha tactics and other issues, including the editing and misstatements by O’Keefe and Giles, but didn’t realize immediately that that was secondary to how it looked and how it all seemed to the regular viewer. Briethart seems to be making the same mistake here of trying to hide behind the question of whether or not the federal offense was wiretapping and phone bugging or phone dismantling.
He should realize while he’s screaming that if Glenn Beck knows it’s over the line, then brother, it is way, way over the line!