Loopy had never starred in an internet video before, but her debut performance in a five-minute, adrenaline-charged, profanity-laced tour de force called “Booking Footage,” went viral almost immediately. At last count, it had garnered well over a million hits.
If you haven't seen it you're obviously out of the Loopy loop and probably don't have internet. If you have seen it, but not recently, you might want to give it another look and confirm, as so many others have, its amazing staying power.
In “Booking Footage,” Loopy plays the part of a Texas county official arrested for drunk driving.
“I'm not drunk,” she slobbers with an inebriated imitation of sobriety.
“Get these cuffs off of me,” she orders in a voice so menacing as to make the need for manacles obvious.
Clenching her teeth, glaring into the camera, pointing her finger like a gun at police personnel, Loopy provides an eerily accurate depiction of a hack politician drunk on booze and power.
Why did Loopy's powerful performance seem so real? Because it was.
Loopy is Travis County District Attorney Rosemary “Loopy” Lehmberg, whose April 2013 arrest for drunk driving was captured on video.
With a blood alcohol level three times the legal limit, Loopy nevertheless protested her innocence during the booking process and repeatedly made pointed references to her status as a district attorney. She later pled guilty to drunk driving.
After she refused to resign, Gov. Rick Perry vetoed funding for her public corruption unit. But Loopy struck back, persuading a Travis County grand jury to indict Perry on charges of abuse of official capacity and coercion of a (loopy) public servant.
As expected, our state's highest criminal court dismissed the charges against Perry, but Loopy remains in office, leading a public corruption unit while she herself continues to act in a power-abusive manner.
With each new outrage, Loopy embarrasses the state of Texas anew and drives up the hits on “Booking Footage.”