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If it looks like an ACORN...

by Kenneth Tomlinson

Fri, Oct 9, 2009, 09:49 PM

Two weeks ago, when Minority Leader John A. Boehner was leading the House move to eliminate federal funding for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, he also declared war on those politicians who have benefited from the largess of ACORN's political arm.

"I think this [cutting off ACORN's federal funding] will have a chilling effect on their election activities and anyone that has a relationship with them," Mr. Boehner asserted.

Yet within an hour, Mr. Boehner was orchestrating support for the Republican nominee for the Nov. 3 special election in New York's 23rd Congressional District - liberal state Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, who has a long and close relationship with ACORN's political front. (The special election was set after the Obama White House named Republican Rep. John M. McHugh to be secretary of the Army.)

Three times Mrs. Scozzafava has run for the Assembly on ACORN's Working Families Party line, appearing with John Kerry in 2004 and President Obama last year. The left-wing political Web site the Daily Kos has endorsed her for Congress - and with good reason. She is pro-card check, pro-abortion and twice voted in the Assembly to legalize gay marriage.

When upstate businessman Doug Hoffman, a lifelong Republican, learned just how liberal Mrs. Scozzafava's record is, he won the New York Conservative Party's nomination to oppose Mrs. Scozzafava and Democrat lawyer Bill Owens, who enjoys the support of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

Mr. Hoffman, an accountant, is running against congressional pork earmarks and corporate bailouts and massive federal deficits. "If ever there was a time when we need people in Congress who can read a balance sheet, it is now," he declares. Mr. Hoffman grew up in the Adirondacks, working from age 8 to help support his single-mother family. Today, he and his children have small businesses throughout the 23rd district.

Conservatives like American Conservative Union Chairman David Keene say they are puzzled that National Republican Congressional Committee operatives are pouring massive efforts into Mrs. Scozzafava's campaign. NRCC Chairman Rep. Pete Sessions says it's because Mrs. Scozzafava would one day vote for Mr. Boehner for speaker, as if the lifelong Republican Hoffman would not.

But in the district, polls show Mrs. Scozzafava has nothing approaching a lock on this election. One poll shows Mrs. Scozzafava with a narrow lead. A Club for Growth poll shows the candidates in a three-way split for support with a large batch of undecideds. And this is before planned Mr. Hoffman ad buys to contrast his record with that of Mrs. Scozzafava and Mr. Owens.

A John McLaughlin poll, conducted for the campaign, also shows a close race, but one question reveals why Mr. Hoffman has every chance of winning the seat. Last year the 23rd district voted narrowly for Mr. Obama. But this year the McLaughlin poll shows 56 percent of likely voters want to elect a conservative Republican. Only 24 percent said they would vote for a Democrat. A minuscule 8 percent said they wanted a liberal Republican.

One political insider says this race will be a real test of the strength of the conservative movement. "If Hoffman can raise enough money to really get on the air, there is no way politicians with the records of Scozzafava and Owens can win."

Meanwhile, NRCC leaders are boasting that concern over the Obama economy is resulting in a wave of contributions to help the Republican Party regain the House in 2010. Little do those contributors know that at least some of their money is flowing to a New York liberal with the kind of record Washington Republicans are vowing to defeat.

Kenneth Tomlinson is the former editor-in-chief of Reader's Digest.

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written by Tom Pauken , October 10, 2009

It is very disappointing that our own Congressman Pete Sessions, who heads the RNCC, is pouring money raised from conservative donors into the campaign of a Republican more liberal than many Democrats currently serving in Congress. Adding to that disappointment,as Ken Tomlinson points out, Republican dollars are being used to run negative attack ads against the only conservative in the race. Republicans are in the trouble they are in today because they abandoned principle in favor of short-term expediency in order to maintain power. Why don't we learn from the lessons of the post-Reagan era of Republican politics--once you start compromising your principles, you lose your reason for being. I am sick and tired of us having to choose the lesser of two evils. That approach has gotten the Republican party in the mess it is in today as we have squandered the political capital that Goldwater-Reagan conservatives took three decades to build up. Pete Sessions ought to know better.

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written by Jonathan Green , October 10, 2009

It was the 1960s, and after decades following the abolishment of slavery, African Americans were still vying for simple fundamental human rights including the most basic form of involvement in society – voting. Routinely disenfranchised from the process via underhanded tactics such as literacy tests, and more blatant intimidation methods like outright murder and violence, the Black community found itself intricately excluded from actively participating in any discourse that may have altered their lives for the better. Following the murder of voting-rights activists in places like Mississippi and Alabama, the President and Congress finally passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that aimed to ensure equality in our election process. Though we may not be physically attacked at voting stations or forced to pay fees at the ballot box, people of color are once again being excluded from the process in much more underhanded and disturbing ways. And the campaign to end ACORN is the clearest, prime example before our eyes.

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, better known by its acronym ACORN, was established in 1970 and through the years has worked diligently to register individuals from disenfranchised neighborhoods, help construct schools, find affordable housing for the poor and more. It is in fact the largest membership organization of low and medium income people, and it has itself employed more than 13,000 registration assistance workers throughout the country. Its housing corporation has assisted over 50,000 families facing foreclosure, and its tax and benefit centers have helped over 150,000 low-income families receive over $190 million in Earned Income Tax Credits and other refunds. But perhaps most impressive under ACORN’s extensive accolades has been its ability to register some 1.3 million to vote - and hence help give a voice to those who have been silenced for much too long.

For the past few weeks, the media has been fixated on a video that depicts ACORN workers allegedly giving advice to a man and a woman posing as a pimp and prostitute. While the authenticity of this tape is still being investigated, let’s not underscore the fact that the man behind the footage, James O’Keefe, is a longtime right-wing agitator and instigator who has a lengthy history of targeting reform institutions. Let’s not forget that FOX News, upset over its dwindling viewership and simultaneous dwindling advertising dollars, has made it a point to attack anything that may have helped the first Black President win office. And let’s not dismiss the persistent and consistent efforts of conservatives to take down ACORN throughout the years, with trumped up voter fraud charges and more.

Even if we were to pretend that the footage of this tape has been authenticated, it still does not justify a cease of Federal funds to this vital organization. In no way am I condoning the behavior of these ACORN employees if they were in fact violating legal and ethical rules. But a few bad employees cannot account for the elimination of an entire institution that is so integral in our most underserved communities. Without grants from the Housing and Urban Development Department, ACORN would not be able to provide counseling on housing, education and outreach. And without governmental funds, it could no longer work with partners like Health Care for America Now to win the campaign on health reform.

It’s time to be brutally honest about the ACORN debacle. It’s about politics; it’s about the 2010 mid-term election; it’s about power and maintenance of the status quo; it’s about the right to vote; and it’s about the continued oppression of an already suppressed group. I haven’t forgotten about the attempts to juxtapose President Obama with ACORN during the campaign. I don’t ignore the fact that ACORN has consistently been depicted as a Black institution, when in fact it is not. And I shudder to think what would happen if we continue down this dangerous course of eliminating any individual or group that fights for the empowerment of the weak.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was established to level the playing field and remind everyone of our constitutional guarantees. Let us not regress now.

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written by G S , October 11, 2009

Because Democrats kept African Americans from voting fifty years ago is no reason to stomach ACORN corruption today. ACORN is corruption. It’s not a few bad apples. In office after office, Acorn employees didn’t bat an eye as they explained how to finance a brothel using 13-15 year olds from El Salvador. They are guilty of voter registration fraud around the nation. It’s very probable that they have systematically used tax payer money illegally, to promote the election of Democrats; they refuse to open their books to an honest audit, they are going to investigate themselves. Nobody expects ethical behavior from Democrats—it seems that half of Obama’s appointees are tax cheats, you knew Al Franken was going to win once they got through “recounting” the votes, Charlie Wrangle has been being “investigated” for two years now. But ACORN is too corrupt even by Democrat standards.

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