This week's arrests in New Orleans of four people for allegedy trying to bug the office phone system of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) have led TPMMuckraker to examine an organization that it believes could be "key to the story."

Located at 400 Poydras St. in downtown New Orleans -- half a block from Landrieu's office at 500 Poydras St. -- [the Pelican Institute] describes itself as a state policy think tank dedicated to advancing "sound policies based on the principles of free enterprise, individual liberty, and limited government."

James O'Keefe, the conservative filmmaker behind the ACORN stings who has been charged in the Landrieu case, was scheduled to give a talk at Pelican last Thursday on "Exposing Truth: Undercover Video, New Media and Creativity."

... Another of the charged men, Robert Flanagan, works for Pelican, his attorney told the Times-Picayune. Flanagan allegedly dressed up a telephone repairman to infiltrate Landrieu's office.

In August 2008, the Wall Street Journal published this profile on the Pelican Institute, noting that the group wants state legislators to focus on "better government transparency, lower corporate taxes and improved schools."

The Senate Ethics Committee doesn’t operate on warp speed. Nearly two years after CREW asked the committee to look into a case involving Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), the panel finally concluded its investigation. CREW received the committee’s letter yesterday.

The letter cleared the senator of any wrongdoing related to an earmark she obtained for a company called Voyager Expanded Learning. But there’s a very interesting footnote to this case.

Political campaigns do not routinely make "donations" to the U.S. Treasury for the good of the country. So what explains why Landrieu’s campaign contributed $25,300 to the U.S. Treasury on August 7, 2008? (See page 233 of this FEC report.)

Why the Landrieu campaign made this “donation” is a mystery. And its timing is very interesting – only a few months before the ethics panel reached its conclusion. Did this donation make it easier in some way for the Senate Ethics Committee to declare the issue "resolved"? It would be interesting to see how Landrieu’s office answers this question.

By the way, the Ethics Committee letter is completely devoid of any analysis as to how it reached its finding. The letter simply states that whatever response the committee received from Landrieu led it to declare “the matter to be resolved.”

CREW’s Melanie Sloan had this take on the committee's decision:

“What a relief to know the Senate ethics committee did not completely forget about CREW’s complaint – filed nearly two years ago – against Sen. Landrieu for accepting campaign donations from someone for whom she earmarked funds. No grass growing under the committee’s feet. We are shocked, shocked to see Sen. Landrieu absolved of wrongdoing.”

Click here for CREW’s original Jan. 8, 2008 complaint, which detailed our concerns.