Conservative Filmmaker Begging for Help to Pay Off Credit Cards

Someone famous is begging people for money to pay off his credit cardz. But there is a certain level of irony in who it is:

Say you’re young. Say you’re young and trying to make a name for yourself in the Big City or the little city or Atlantic City or whatever. It’s just you, your (maybe ridiculous; you’re 20something, remember) dream, a credit card, and some credit card debt.

Say you’re James O’Keefe.

O’Keefe, America’s answer to the “What if Michael Moore were thin and more self-righteous?” question, has found himself neck-deep in credit card debt — which translates to around $50,000 (at least). And, as is a fiscal conservative’s want, he’s asking others to help pay it off.

In an email to supporters/subscribers (subject line: “I’ve received death threats” — because the danger counteracts the desperation), O’Keefe opens up about his financial hardships: “Up ’til now, my friends and I have financed all our work on our own — running up major credit card debt. We made a lot of sacrifices — personally and financially — because we fight for what we believe in.” O’Keefe later reveals that it costs his organization — Project Veritas — around $50,000 a pop to make his exposes.

On a possibly unrelated side-note, in 2010 O’Keefe attempted — unsuccessfully — to expose CNN correspondent Abbie Boudreau. Boudreau was working on a piece about young conservative activists, and had requested an interview with O’Keefe. Here’s O’Keefe in his own words about how he envisioned the interview going down: “I’ve decided to have a little fun. Instead of giving her a serious interview, I’m going to punk CNN… This bubble-headed-bleach-blonde who comes on at five will get a taste of her own medicine, she’ll get seduced on camera and you’ll get to see the awkwardness and the aftermath.”

The seduction included a staged “pleasure boat” with various and sundry props to add…well, I guess, veritas, to the bow-chicka-bow-wow proceedings. I’m assuming bear-skin rugs and various throw-pillows could run up a pretty significant tab.

In a post housing-bubble/financial crisis/too-big-to-fail environment, the message everyone should be encouraging is “spend within your means” — whether you’re a writer for an industry newsletter who has a bit of a new-book problem, a mortgage company, or a 26-year-old who isn’t quite sure what journalism is. Collectively, Americans currently owe something like $917 billion on revolving credit lines — and $69 billion of that is past due.

It may be time for Mr. O’Keefe to take a look at his production budget and realize that he could probably achieve the same quality results he’s already getting with a camcorder and a pair of Groucho glasses.

In case you need a refresher on O’Keefe, here he is at the peak of his fame, before things started to fall apart for him: