Fenger Pointing
ACORN must be cracked
Becky Fenger | June 17, 2009
ACORN is a big nut to crack. But crack it we must. David Horowitz, Front Page Magazine editor and author of the autobiographical Radical Son, tells us why. Since he was deeply involved in the radical left movement of the sixties, he knows whereof he speaks.
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now is out of control. And convoluted, with so many tentacles that chopping off one rogue outfit won't stop the hundreds more groups that feed the beast.
Horowitz details the interesting story of ACORN's beginnings. ACORN was founded as a national welfare rights organization formed by radicals "who wanted to recruit people onto the welfare rolls to bankrupt the welfare system." Done right, he says, the welfare system originally was meant to help people who had fallen upon hard times. But the radical agenda wanted revolutionary change and maximum confrontation against "the system," whatever the system might be. There are folks out there in the more radical wing of the progressives, as they are wont to be called, who would like to see a catastrophic collapse of the welfare system, believe it or not.
President Barack Obama was the lead attorney for ACORN, and later on an instructor in its methods of operation. He took a case of motor voter registration to court. "People who push that are not concerned about voter fraud," Horowitz warns, "because motor voter is an open invitation to voter fraud." ACORN is concerned about getting raw power by sheer numbers. And not much concerned whether folks register 60 times to vote or are legally entitled to vote by virtue of being citizens of our country.
It is instructive that several Board members of ACORN are begging Congress to investigate its books. Bertha Lewis, CEO and Chief Organizer of ACORN, is one of these brave women who is willing to testify to all the wrongdoings. Money is pouring into a single address for the umbrella organization that has hundreds of "affiliates." Remember when some of us raised a big stink about Stimulus money going to ACORN while it is under active investigation for fraud? Yet Congress could not step up and pass a rule that Stimulus funds won't go to organizations or businesses that have been indicted. It wouldn't make any difference, the women noted, because the money would just find its way to ACORN's affiliates.
One of the more unattractive aspects of ACORN is their willingness to use thug tactics in the field. When Ward Connerly attempts to raise awareness for state initiatives intended to do away with racial preferences in government and educational settings, ACORN members yell, "Road Trip!" They pour into a targeted state and harass petition gatherers and citizens who want to sign their names, even to the point of getting physical. These are scary dudes, man. They get off the hook because politicians have long used ACORN's coffers as cash cows for their reelection campaigns.
One of the zaniest interviews I've seen recently was of an ACORN national spokesman worming out from under accusations that ACORN members in some 14 states are under indictment for fraud. His defense? Those were just employees. The game goes like this: ACORN will often recruit street people in desperate need of cash and force them to gather a minimum amount of voter registrations or else not get paid. When they get caught in fraud, ACORN cuts them loose and claims they are rogue employees. Then the process is repeated, again and again. Even executives who skimmed millions from ACORN have still not been prosecuted. Business as usual in Obama's favorite club has its perks.
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U.S. Supreme Court Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg deserves kudos for stopping the sale of Chrysler Corp. to Fiat long enough to determine whether the government can override signed contracts, and whether junior creditors like the United Auto Workers can get 50 cents on the dollar when senior creditors like the Indiana Pension Fund get 29 cents on the dollar. Our Constitution says that senior lenders must get dibs on any monies. Yet, they take the biggest haircut in this deal. If the Obama administration can ignore this and make up new contracts as they go along, there really is no more capitalism or free enterprise left in the country.
What we have here is the government forcing a deal with Fiat in order to prevent a bankruptcy. But a standard bankruptcy is what should have happened, instead of using the government to reward unions for supporting Obama. If the Supremes OK the sale as is, nobody will be unaffected.