Secret Agent Pimp's Secret Plan

James "Secret Agent Pimp" O' Keefe has released a statement about his arrest, but he's not going down easy as Dave Weigel notes.

James O’Keefe has issued a statement on his arrest in Louisiana, portraying himself as a maligned investigative journalist who was merely trying to see whether the phones worked in Sen. Mary Landrieu’s (D-La.) office.

I learned from a number of sources that many of Senator Landrieu’s constituents were having trouble getting through to her office to tell her that they didn’t want her taking millions of federal dollars (sic) in exchange for her vote on the healthcare bill.  When asked about this, Senator Landrieu’s explanation was that, “Our lines have been jammed for weeks.”  I decided to investigate why a representative of the people would be out of touch with her constituents for “weeks” because her phones were broken.  In investigating this matter, we decided to visit Senator Landrieu’s district office – the people’s office – to ask the staff if their phones were working.

I noted an error in the statement — the controversy is not over whether Landrieu is “taking millions of federal dollars,” but why the Senate added $300 million in Medicaid subsidies that stood to benefit Louisiana. That’s a legitimate issue — O’Keefe, trying to clear the air, bends it into a bribery smear. That, and his use of the statement to demand retractions from “reporters who can’t get their facts straight,” indicate that he’s going to fight this out.

So, if I've got this straight, the guy caught trying to break into a Senator's office after attempting to manufacture a completely fabricated gotcha story by sabotaging the office phones in order to try to sway her vote is now saying that we should completely trust him, because it pales to the crime of the Senator "taking millions of federal dollars".

Right. "Trust me!"  Worked for Bush.