By MARK LEIBOVICH
c.2010 New York Times News Service
WASHINGTON – The arrests of four conservative activists in New Orleans last week on suspicion of tampering with the phones in Sen. Mary L. Landrieu’s office recalls an obscure “Saturday Night Live” skit from the 1970s. It was called “Dangerous but Inept,” and it featured a fake talk show in which the guest (played by Laraine Newman) was Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, the pistol-wielding klutz whose misadventure a few feet from President Gerald Ford landed her in jail for 34 years.
Big-time caveat coming up right here: No one would ever equate messing with phones in a Senate office with trying to shoot the president. Nor is it funny that four young men stand accused of entering federal property under false pretenses for the purpose of committing a felony and could do serious jail time. (They are free on $10,000 bail.)
Still, “dangerous but inept” is a pretty good fit for the New Orleans caper, and its perpetrators are causing some connoisseurs of political mischief to bemoan a lost art.