Intelligence, Please…

So James “ACORN-buster” O’Keefe III – paid employee of CPAC 2010 Journalist of the Year Nominee Andrew Breitbart of BigGovernment.com, Big Hollywood, and Breitbart TV fame – got nailed by the FBI trying to wiretap phones and was charged with a felony at the offices of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA). *If he is guilty of a felony,* then “what an ass.”

That being said, the Netroots are going nuts over this, treating it like they’ve taken a scalp of a major conservative thought leader, and seem to be insinuating with their vitriolic gestations that ACORN is somehow now off the hook for helping someone (O’Keefe’s pimp character) get tax relief for a home purchase where he and his fictitious hooker harem would ostensibly reside, or for offering tax filing help for prostitutes in states where prostitution is illegal. Judging by the Left’s reaction to O’Keefe’s sting, you’d think we had finally found Osama bin Laden.

Apparently ACORN is still a wee bit bitter about O'Keefe's investigative journalism

Here are a few things I think are worth noting, to help keep things in perspective:

1. Republican strategist Patrick Ruffini once predicted that ACORN would be the most damaging past association of President Obama (moreso than William Ayers or Jeremiah Wright). The Obama administration refused to distance itself from ACORN until O’Keefe’s video piece broke, and ACORN subsequently lost its contract to perform work for the Census Bureau on the precipice of a key midterm year for Republicans. Edge: Rightroots.

2. Until O’Keefe’s video work broke, nobody knew who he was – and some people STILL don’t know who he is. They just know about “that goofy white pimp that busted ACORN.” Sure, people know who Andrew Breitbart is – especially political operatives and the tech-savvy with their own web presences – but it’s not like the name “Breitbart” carries the same name notoriety for John Q. Conservative that the name “Palin” or “Gingrich” or even “Reagan” does; certainly it doesn’t carry the same notoriety/daily relevance as the name “Obama” does for John Q. Liberal. Even IF the Left can find some credible connection between Andrew Breitbart and the Landrieu wiretapping, and they manage to bring him down, there isn’t another first-ever black president laying around. So, regardless of O’Keefe’s arrest, the long-term credibility edge still goes to Breitbart and the Rightroots.

3. The Left’s (over)reaction to O’Keefegate can be (and probably should be) taken two ways: a) Andrew Breitbart (and, more importantly, the way in which the Right has learned to organize and drive messaging online, well outside the scope of FOX News and talk radio) is a HUGE threat to the 21st century liberal movement, and/or b) the Hope-n-Changers are still stinging from the electoral defeats of John Corzine, Creigh Deeds, and Martha Coakley and are REALLY nervous about losing whatever momentum they thought had. This O’Keefegate thing is a drop of blood in a very wide and deep ocean, and the number of sharks ferociously circling shows us just how hungry the Netroots are for ANYthing bad to happen to the Right right now. Again, edge: Rightroots.

So keep your pants on, Left. It’s going to be a looooooong 2010.