Chris Matthews opened his show last night:

CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Something about Mary. Let`s play HARDBALL.
Good evening. I`m Chris Matthews in Washington. Watergate — federal marshals have arrested a group of conservative activists in New Orleans for allegedly trying to wiretap the offices of Democratic senator Mary Landrieu. The leader of those arrested, James O`Keefe, was the same conservative activist who became a right-wing hero for imitating a pimp at various ACORN officers. He together with three others were taken into custody after being caught trying to bug the offices of Senator Landrieu, a moderate Democratic lawmaker. They had represented themselves as telephone repairmen.
The attempted bugging is a throwback to the 1972 break-in and similar attempted bugging at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington. That incident and attempt to cover it up led to the destruction of Republican president Richard Nixon.

Olbermann’s opening headline:

KEITH OLBERMANN, HOST (voice-over): Which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow?
Watergate, Jr.?
The Republican operative who ran the pimp scam on ACORN is arrested, charged by the FBI, as part of the scheme to tamper with the phones in the offices of Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana. Arrested with James O`Keefe, three others, including the son of the acting U.S. attorney in Baton Rouge.
He, one of two men claiming to be telephone repairmen, quote, “each dressed in blue denim pants, blue work shirts, light green fluorescent vests, tool belts, and construction-style hard hats.” O`Keefe, quote, “later admitted to agents” that he videotaped the others on a cell phone camera.
Mighty oaks from little acorns grow.
The deep felony legal trouble O`Keefe and the others face — with Jonathan Turley; the politics — with Richard Wolffe.

And of course the Washington Post has the story on the front page.

I don’t know what the full story is, but it sure sounds like O’Keefe and his pals are guilty of a serious and stupid crime. If that’s the case it’d be a shame. But I can’t help but get the sense that a lot of folks are much more excited to report on this than they were about the original ACORN story. Heck, it might be news to readers of the Times that O’Keefe even exists.

Update: From a reader:

Apparently O’Keefe and pals did not have any wiretapping equipment with them. They’ve been charged with attempting to “interfere” with phone equipment. Apparently that is still a felony (acc to hot-air) though I’ve read elsewhere that “interfering” may only be a misdemeanor (the felony is wire-tapping)
The only thing that makes any sense to me is that they were deliberately
trying to get arrested for the publicity. If so, it’s worked quite well
so far.