\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span>
<\/span>The re\u00adport\u00aders (in\u00adclud\u00ading me) ap\u00adpeared con\u00adfused about how they got to the press con\u00adfer\u00adence hos\u00adted at the Na\u00adtion\u00adal Press Club. Present at the press con\u00adfer\u00adence were five to 10 video cam\u00ader\u00adas, along with a room of 30 or so re\u00adport\u00aders, all ob\u00adli\u00advi\u00adous to the fact that we had been snookered in\u00adto an\u00adoth\u00ader sup\u00adposedly sa\u00adla\u00adcious re\u00adlease from O\u2019Keefe\u2019s or\u00adgan\u00adiz\u00ada\u00adtion.<\/span>
<\/span>Clin\u00adton staffers have already been put on alert for hijinks from O\u2019Keefe\u2019s con\u00adser\u00advat\u00adive group, which gained no\u00adtori\u00adety around the ACORN scan\u00addal, and put out a video last week show\u00ading a Clin\u00adton cam\u00adpaign staffer en\u00adcour\u00adaging a \u201cvo\u00adlun\u00adteer\u201d to ask Iow\u00adans if they are Clin\u00adton sup\u00adport\u00aders be\u00adfore re\u00adgis\u00adter\u00ading them to vote.<\/span>
<\/span>\u201cWe have journ\u00adal\u00adists across the coun\u00adtry in\u00advest\u00adig\u00adat\u00ading in\u00adside the cam\u00adpaign. Not just this cam\u00adpaign,\u201d O\u2019Keefe said on Tues\u00adday.<\/span>
<\/span>On Tues\u00adday, the group teased its second re\u00adlease as \u201ca power\u00adful new un\u00adder\u00adcov\u00ader video con\u00adfirm\u00ading that cor\u00adrup\u00adtion has per\u00admeated Hil\u00adlary Clin\u00adton\u2019s cam\u00adpaign at the highest levels.\u201d The video pur\u00adports to show Molly Bark\u00ader, the dir\u00adect\u00ador of mar\u00adket\u00ading for Clin\u00adton\u2019s cam\u00adpaign, ac\u00adcept\u00ading a cam\u00adpaign dona\u00adtion from a for\u00adeign na\u00adtion\u00adal. Sounds pretty bad, right?<\/span>
<\/span>Then you find out that the \u201cfor\u00adeign na\u00adtion\u00adal\u201d is a Ca\u00adna\u00addian wo\u00adman who was simply try\u00ading to buy a T-shirt at Clin\u00adton\u2019s kick\u00adoff rally, and that Pro\u00adject Ver\u00aditas Ac\u00adtion\u2019s own \u201cjourn\u00adal\u00adist\u201d ac\u00adted as an in\u00adter\u00adme\u00addi\u00adary straw buy\u00ader to make the trans\u00adac\u00adtion, tak\u00ading the Ca\u00adna\u00addian wo\u00adman\u2019s money to pur\u00adchase the shirt for her.<\/span>
<\/span>In the video, the Ca\u00adna\u00addian vis\u00adit\u00ador (who, O\u2019Keefe says, Pro\u00adject Ver\u00aditas Ac\u00adtion did not find the name for) says, \u201cCan I give her the money? She\u2019s Amer\u00adic\u00adan. Can she buy it for me?\u201d<\/span>
<\/span>\u201cShe could make a dona\u00adtion,\u201d Bark\u00ader says.<\/span>
<\/span>\u201cCan you buy it for me?\u201d the Ca\u00adna\u00addian wo\u00adman asks the Pro\u00adject Ver\u00aditas Ac\u00adtion op\u00ader\u00adat\u00adive.<\/span>
<\/span>\u201cSure, I\u2019ll buy it,\u201d the Pro\u00adject Ver\u00aditas Ac\u00adtion op\u00ader\u00adat\u00adive says. \u201cSo Ca\u00adna\u00addians can\u2019t buy them, but Amer\u00adic\u00adans can buy it for them?\u201d<\/span>
<\/span>\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span>
<\/span>Pro\u00adject Ver\u00aditas Ac\u00adtion is com\u00adfort\u00adable con\u00adduct\u00ading its op\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtions un\u00adder eth\u00adic\u00adally du\u00adbi\u00adous cir\u00adcum\u00adstances. The Wash\u00ading\u00adton Post\u2019s Dana Mil\u00adbank got at that in an ex\u00adchange dur\u00ading the press con\u00adfer\u00adence with the group\u2019s leg\u00adal ex\u00adpert, Ben\u00adjamin Barr.<\/span><\/p>\nMil\u00adbank: \u201cI\u2019m no ex\u00adpert on cam\u00adpaign fin\u00adance law, but was that leg\u00adal for your per\u00adson to take that cash?\u201d<\/span>
<\/span>Barr: \u201cIt\u2019s a tech\u00adnic\u00adal vi\u00adol\u00ada\u00adtion of the law. It\u2019s akin to jay\u00adwalk\u00ading for cam\u00adpaign fin\u00adance. This is a low-dol\u00adlar threshold con\u00adtri\u00adbu\u00adtion. There\u2019s no re\u00adport\u00ading is\u00adsues at play. It\u2019s less than $200. So at most it would be a small civil pen\u00adalty that\u2019s a few hun\u00addred dol\u00adlars. But what we\u2019re really wor\u00adried about is the Hil\u00adlary cam\u00adpaign that has taken in a wide ar\u00adray of con\u00adtri\u00adbu\u00adtions. Once you ag\u00adgreg\u00adate bey\u00adond $2,000, then you\u2019re with\u00adin the crim\u00adin\u00adal sanc\u00adtions.\u201d<\/span>
<\/span>Mil\u00adbank: So you vi\u00adol\u00adated the law as well?<\/span>
<\/span>Barr: Yes.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
<\/span>\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span>
<\/span>\u201cIs this a joke?\u201d The Daily Beast\u2019s Olivia Nuzzi asked later in the Q&A. \u201cThis feels like a prank.\u201d<\/span>
<\/span>\u201cIs this a joke,\u201d O\u2019Keefe re\u00adpeated. \u201cWell, the Clin\u00adton cam\u00adpaign doesn\u2019t think it\u2019s a joke, be\u00adcause they\u2019re talk\u00ading to The Wash\u00ading\u00adton Post<\/i> about it. And we sent the let\u00adter to the Clin\u00adton cam\u00adpaign, so no, this is not a joke.\u201d<\/span>
<\/span>Not only does O\u2019Keefe have the gump\u00adtion to of\u00adfer to en\u00adtrap a polit\u00adic\u00adal cam\u00adpaign to the tune of $40, his group is now seek\u00ading re\u00address for its own straw pur\u00adchase.<\/span>
<\/span>\u201cThe Clin\u00adton cam\u00adpaign should re\u00adturn their il\u00adleg\u00adal con\u00adtri\u00adbu\u00adtion. I don\u2019t see oth\u00ader rem\u00aded\u00adies. That\u2019s the only rem\u00adedy that we\u2019re seek\u00ading,\u201d O\u2019Keefe said at the press con\u00adfer\u00adence.<\/span>
<\/span>\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span>
<\/span>To quote Charles Baudelaire, \u201cThe dev\u00adil\u2019s finest trick is to per\u00adsuade you that he does not ex\u00adist.\u201d O\u2019Keefe has the op\u00adpos\u00adite in\u00adten\u00adtions. His finest trick is to per\u00adsuade you that he does still ex\u00adist, and is worth listen\u00ading to.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nEven the Washington Post<\/i>, which has never found a Clinton scandal that it would not eagerly pimp, has determined that there is no “there” there<\/a>.<\/p>\nA Canadian tourist wanted a t-shirt, and a member of O’Keefe’s “Wretched hive of scum and villainy” took pity on her and bought it for her, and somehow it’s a big Clinton scandal?<\/p>\n
Dude, you have had your 15 minutes of fame.<\/p>\n
Get a real job, and stop living in your parents basement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I am referring to the evil James O’Keefe, of ACORN infamy, and not my friend who spends a lot of time at the Massachusetts Pirate Party herding cats. In his latest “sting” he had one of His Evil Minions\u2122 buy a T-Shirt for a Canadian tourist: \u2026\u2026\u2026The re\u00adport\u00aders (in\u00adclud\u00ading me) ap\u00adpeared con\u00adfused about how they …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[974,978,982,979],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-182486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hack-journalism","category-politics","category-stupid","category-wanker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182486"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182486\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}