Filmaker Behind ACORN Sting Arrested. Does It Really Matter At This Point?

While I certainly hope this sheds some light on the right’s tactics, I doubt it will make a difference:

James O’Keefe, the young conservative filmmaker who was behind the undercover operations that led to the ACORN scandal last year, was arrested with three others for allegedly trying to bug the New Orleans office of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) yesterday.

Right wing strategists don’t give a shit about evidence or right and wrong. They just want to establish a narrative and taint their opponents’ images before anyone has a chance to get the facts straight.

As Jonathan Bernstein writes:

Republicans are attacking Democrats for taking away people’s guns, even though the Democrats basically surrendered on that issue fifteen years ago. They are attacking Democrats for cutting Medicare and for allowing Medicare to grow so fast that it’ll bankrupt the nation — sometimes in the very same speech (I’ve seen it in the same paragraph). Republicans have, repeatedly, attacked Barack Obama for not using a word he uses all the time. Last I heard, they were still attacking the Democrats for bringing back the Fairness Doctrine, something that as far as I know not a single elected Democrat has any interest in doing. No, it didn’t make sense, but if they don’t have attacks ready that make sense, they’ll use ones that don’t.

And don’t forget about death panels.

So, even though they were exonerated by a Congressional Research Service report, and even though portions of O’Keefe’s film were substantially edited, and even though O’Keefe has now shown a pattern of unlawful tactics, ACORN was, is, and will remain a boogeyman.