Read The Rise and Fall of Joe Basel

​James O'Keefe, Joe Basel and two other conservative street theater activists arrested in January at Sen. Mary Landrieu's New Orleans offices will be charged with misdemeanors rather than felonies, The Associated Press is reporting.

It sounds like the four men agreed to plead guilty in return for the reduced charges, according to MSNBC. The misdemeanor carries the maximum sentence is six months in prison and a $5,000 fine.

We've been following Basel's antics ever since the Landrieu incident. Check out our cover profile of him here.

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Mug Shot

​Nearing the two-month anniversary of "Louisiana Watergate," federal charges that could carry a hefty prison sentence still loom over Joe Basel. For his part, Basel seems confident that all will be forgiven as soon as the courts and public view the hidden-camera video taken with James O'Keefe's cell phone.

"My defense of what happened in New Orleans is going to be: just play the video," says Basel. "Play the video in court and let the jury or judge or whatever decide if we did anything wrong."

Basel and his cohorts have been filming hidden-camera investigations similar to the stunt in Sen. Mary Landrieu's office for years, many posted under the Youtube username "Veritas Visuals" (Check out Basel and crew's Greatest Hits on Youtube for more examples).

"We've never run a correction," says Basel. "We've never lied."

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Long before his arrest in Louisiana, Joe Basel and his cohorts were already traveling the country performing political street theater. Here are a few of the greatest hits found on YouTube:

A Gulag at Washington University

Joe Basel and James O'Keefe help erect a mock Soviet prison camp on the lawn of Washington University in St. Louis. Basel dresses up in a tan jumpsuit, covers his face with -- presumably -- fake blood and protests about war-mongering Capitalists as students meander by. Campus police eventually shut the spectacle down, but not before Basel argues with a few unsuspecting passersby.

Read an article about the gag at the school's newspaper, Student Life, here.

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Federal agents in Louisiana arrested four men in late January for allegedly entering a federal building under false pretenses and tampering with the phone lines of U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu. The four accused claimed it was a harmless stunt of hidden-camera journalism gone wrong, but the courts saw something more sinister. Collectively, the media dubbed them "teabuggers," though they're quick to say they had no plans to bug the senator's phone.

​Joe Basel

Joe Basel, the subject of this week's feature, "The Rise and Fall of Joe Basel," is the son of a Lutheran pastor. Basel grew up in Mankato, Minn., a small college town one hour south of the Twin Cities. He attended the University of Minnesota-Morris campus as an undergrad, where he started a right-leaning monthly newspaper called the Counterweight. In college, Basel made a reputation for himself as Morris's loudest conservative presence. His taste for subtle political satire often landed him on the wrong side of an outraged student body and faculty, particularly the time he posted signs around campus that read "End Racism and Sexism Now: Kill All White Males."

Well known for: Bragging on Facebook about landing a date with Arianna Brown, daughter of U.S. Senator Scott Brown, only to have Arianna tell everyone she's never heard of him.

Role in the Landrieu stunt: Dressed as a phone repairman, he asked for access to the federal building's main phone closet but was denied.

National ties: Received a grant from The Leadership Institute to start the Counterweight, apprentice of conservative activist Ben Wetmore.

​James O'Keefe

Born in 1984, James O'Keefe grew up in Bergen County, N. J. He attended Westwood High School and was a member of the Eagle Scouts. O'Keefe went to college at Rutgers University, where he became the editor of the campus's conservative magazine, the Centurion. In 2005, he and other Centurion staff members launched a campaign to ban Lucky Charms cereal from the cafeteria on the basis that the Leprechaun mascot was racist - a satirical jab at some perceived hyper-politically correct students on campus. O'Keefe found his way to conservative stardom last year after he released a video of himself posing as a pimp and receiving some creative legal advice from ACORN employees. The stunt earned him praise from ACORN opponents across the country, as well as the nickname "pimp."

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​Joe Basel, one of four right-wing hacks who tried to screw around with a U.S. senator's phone lines and ended up getting busted by the FBI, is under a federal court order not to travel outside Minnesota ahead of a Feb. 12 court date. But that didn't stop him from showing up in Nashville this past weekend to hear birthers howl and Sarah Palin speak with the aid of crib notes on her hand.

According to the Washington Independent:

One of the credentialed reporters is no less than Joseph Basel, one of the four activists who was arrested -- and let out on bail -- for the mysterious botched sting of Sen. Mary Landrieu's (D-La.) office. "I'm here for myself," Basel told me, after chatting with Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit and Andrew Breitbart of Big Government.

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​It's been called the "Louisiana Watergate"--four conservative activists infiltrated the office of Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and fiddled with her phone. They claim it was stunt journalism, but federal authorities are taking it considerably more seriously--the so-called "teabuggers" have been charged with entering federal property under false pretenses for the purpose of committing a felony, which could net them serious prison time.

Soon after the scandal broke, it emerged that one of the four Teabuggers was local boy Joe Basel, a product of the University of Minnesota-Morris, where he cut his teeth as a conservative agitator by founding the conservative paper The Counterweight as well as plastering the campus with posters that said "End Racism & Sexism Now:  Kill all White Males," a move so disruptive that the campus had to hold a racial unity pow-wow, during which Basel quoted gangsta rap lyrics as an example of liberal orthodoxy, which caused the Black Student Union to walk out in disgust.

Joe Basel's mug shot

​While that caper was unquestionably the lowlight of Basel's nascent career as a college provocateur, we have recently attained a veritable treasure trove of U of M-Morris memories of Joe Basel from his classmate, Donavon Cawley.

I can think of dozens of capers that Joe got himself involved in, though the greatest of these was probably the infamous "End Racism" debacle that you have already reported on.  But what people must understand is that these are not isolated incidents, but indicative of a greater campaign being haphazardly waged by this man to expose the greater liberal conspiracy against young, educated, conservative men such as himself, and along the way, become a martyr for the conservative movement as well.  Compelled by the misguided belief that he was some sort of conservative guerrilla warrior, Joe had long ago embarked upon a very self-destructive path of stunts, capers, and shenanigans, the results of which have now landed him in the big house.  Can't say I'm surprised.

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James O'Keefe: Pimpin' ain't easy

​James O'Keefe, one of the four mopes facing serious prison time for phone pranking a U.S. senator's office (along with local boy Joe Basel), has released a statement explaining the stupid stunt.

O'Keefe claims he was tipped that some constituents (read: Ranting Teabaggers) weren't able to get the Senator's ear, so he decided to go in and check her phones.

"On reflection, I could have used a different approach to this investigation, particularly given the sensitivities that people understandably have about security in a federal building."

Problem is, whatever his intent, the actions were much the same as a foreign enemy would use to compromise national security.

Lesson: Real life isn't Jackass.

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Rachel Maddow is usually ahead of the curve on political stories as they bubble up to the MSM consciousness, and I think that's the case again here. The MSNBC host devotes a sizable segment to the Louisiana Watergate, including our own Joe Basel.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

It's either the lamest boy band lineup you've ever seen, or the official mugshots of the Teabuggers (Feat. Joe Basel), the merry band of fools that executed an epic fail in a buffoonish attempt to bug a sitting U.S. Senator's office which Dems have dubbed the "Louisiana Watergate."

It's the Teabuggers!

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​Joe Basel, the local douche made bad who was busted trying to tap the phone of a sitting U.S. Senator, did not score a date with one of Majority-of-One Scott Brown's daughters.

Basel dated neither the young woman with seashells covering her breasts nor the one in the barely-there bikini in this family portrait. Our boy Joe had bragged on Facebook that he had a date with Arianna (the one without the shells), which turns out to be just the product of his fevered imagination.

"Absolutely not true," Brown's spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom told the Boston Herald. "No one here knows him and Arianna never heard of the guy. It sounds like he needs a good lawyer."

Is there anything this guy doesn't lie about?


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