Amazing. In one fell swoop, the lawsuit (a) gives Fox a reason to keep covering the story, (b) presents a thorny legal issue that’ll attract media to the scandal who might not otherwise have touched it, and (c) makes ACORN look like they’re trying to punish people who exposed taxpayer-funded corruption. Which, of course, they are.

Remember, Bertha Lewis told CNN she was grateful to O’Keefe et al. for rooting out those “few bad apples,” but as the boss reminds us, shooting the messenger is the ACORN way. Here’s her gratitude:

ACORN, taking a break from its apology tour, said today that it’s filing suit against James O’Keefe, Hannah Giles and Andrew Breitbart’s Breitbart.com.

The complaint: “The video and audio footage was taken without the knowledge of Williams and/or Thompson and in violation of Maryland’s Courts and Judicial Proceedings Code §§ 10-402(a) and 10-410, which requires two party consent to all electronic surveillance. Violation of the law is a felony, and entitles parties whose rights were violated to sue.”

No word on the damages they’re seeking but the AP says it’s in the multi-millions. Ken Blackwell wrote an op-ed for Politico over the weekend speculating that ACORN would never sue for the simple reason that pre-trial discovery would turn into a treasure hunt for Breitbart. Minor detail, though: Blackwell assumed they’d be suing for defamation, not wiretapping. Any litigators want to weigh in on what the defense is entitled to demand for a suit on the narrow question of whether ACORN had consented to being videotaped?

My guess is that this is just an arm of their new PR offensive, aimed at proving that the group’s still alive and kicking and ready to rally the left to its side before it gets defunded, but if even Barney Frank’s ready to flush the toilet, the prognosis of success is grim. Stand by for defense fund donation information if/when Breitbart posts it.

Update: Belated exit prediction: 99 percent chance that ACORN quietly drops the suit a few weeks or months from, one percent chance that they go to trial and the jury awards them a dollar.