So the James O’Keefe Smear Machine is back in business

He was all the rage a few years ago, pioneering the whole “destroy Right Wing Culture War enemies with edited videos” tactic.

Did some damage to ACORN and everybody acclaimed him a hero for nine days.  Various people thought he was a conservative folk hero. He got invited to a soiree that some friends of mine attended. It turned out afterward that he secretly recorded *them* as well. That was when it started to dawn on people that his Soviet Surveillance State for Jesus schtick might be a bit problematic.

After that, he did this weird prank where he tried to seduce some reporter for CNN. It did not go well for him.

And then, it turned out the ACORN videos were junk and he ended up paying the victim of his smear $100,000.

Now, if you are a person of normal intelligence and decency, that is where you say, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” You also ask “How did this clown come up with $100,000?”

And, above all, when he pops up again this year with a brand new batch of October surprise dirt in edited videos alleging that Hillary is an evil mastermind tarnishing the pristine image of Trump, your next two questions are “Who is funding this guy?” and “May I see the raw unedited footage?”

Funnily enough, O’Keefe will not let us see that raw footage.

O’Keefe noisily advertises himself as a Catholic and has been embraced as a folk hero by the undiscerning. And as Catholics rush to credit his latest videos as revelation from Mount Sinai, all the credulity extended to this $100,000 deceiver only makes us look like suckers.

Until he releases the raw footage, what possible reason can anybody have for trusting his latest claims?

Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. “God does not need our lie.” – St. Augustine.