Bayou Blunder

Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Flanagan of the Western District of Louisiana, a member of the Rove Republican Racket, is full of embarrassment this week.

His son, Robert Flanagan, along with three other men, were arrested by federal authorities for attempting to tamper with U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu's telephone lines on Monday.

The Associated Press reports today:

[Robert] Flanagan recently criticized Landrieu for her vote on the Senate health care bill after securing a Medicaid provision estimated in value at up to $365 million for Louisiana. Conservatives accused her of selling her vote but she insisted no "special deals" were made.  "Do not be fooled into believing Landrieu is helping the state of Louisiana," Flanagan wrote in a Nov. 25 post on the Pelican Institute's Web site. "If the proposed healthcare legislation were to be signed into law, the $300 million allocated to Louisiana will pale in comparison to the long-term debt Louisiana citizens will ultimately shoulder."

His father, Bill, is the acting U.S. Attorney based in Shreveport. He was first assistant under Republican President George W. Bush appointee Donald Washington before Washington stepped down this month. President Barack Obama recently nominated Stephanie A. Finley for the post. Bill Flanagan's office declined to comment.

The other men include the now infamous James O'Keefe, the right-wing "journalist" who brought down ACORN, when he posed as a pimp trying to get job training for fictious sex slave business.