Andrew Breitbart Accuses Dems Of Racism, Debates Daryle Lamont Jenkins

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Sources: TPM, One People's Project, Youtube, Google Maps

ACORN Disbands After Congressional Defunding, Prostitution Scandals (Videos)

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ACORN Disbands Amid Scandals, After Defunding



The once mighty community activist group ACORN announced Monday it is folding amid falling revenues — six months after video footage emerged showing some of its workers giving tax tips to conservative activists posing as a pimp and prostitute.

"It's really declining revenue in the face of a series of attacks from partisan operatives and right-wing activists that have taken away our ability to raise the resources we need," ACORN spokesman Kevin Whelan said.

Several of its largest affiliates, including ACORN New York and ACORN California, broke away this year and changed their names in a bid to ditch the tarnished image of their parent organization and restore revenue that ran dry in the wake of the video scandal.

ACORN's financial situation and reputation went into free fall within days of the videos' release in September. Congress reacted by yanking ACORN's federal funding, private donors held back cash and scores of ACORN offices closed.

Earlier this month, a U.S. judge reiterated an earlier ruling that the federal law blacklisting ACORN and groups allied with it was unconstitutional because it singled them out. But that didn't mean any money would be automatically be restored.

Bertha Lewis, the CEO of ACORN, which stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, alluded to financial hardships in a weekend statement as the group's board prepared to deliberate by phone.

"ACORN has faced a series of well-orchestrated, relentless, well-funded right wing attacks that are unprecedented since the McCarthy era," she said. "The videos were a manufactured, sensational story that led to rush to judgment and an unconstitutional act by Congress."

ACORN's board decided to close remaining state affiliates and field offices by April 1 because of falling revenues, with some national operations will continue operating for at least several weeks before shutting for good, Whelan said Monday.

For years, ACORN could draw on 400,000 members to lobby for liberal causes, such as raising the minimum wage or adopting universal health care. ACORN was arguably most successful at registering hundreds of thousands of low-income voters, though that mission was dogged by fraud allegations, including that some workers submitted forms signed by 'Mickey Mouse' or other cartoon characters.


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Sources: NY Daily News, MSNBC, Youtube, Google Maps

ACORN Broke No Laws According To Congressional Research Report

Report Finds Acorn Broke No Laws


The controversial community organizing group ACORN has not broken any laws in the last five years, according to a Congressional Research Service report released Tuesday evening.

The report, requested by Representative John Conyers, Democrat of Michigan, said that federal agencies, mainly the Departments of Justice and Housing and Urban Development, have awarded money to the group 48 times since 2005. But, in none of those instances did Acorn violate the terms of their funding, the report said.

Since the 2008 elections, the group, which works primarily to expand voter registration and affordable housing, has become a key Republican target. A series of scandals brought to light by conservative activists led to multiple Congressional hearings and repeated attempts to deny it taxpayer funding.

Acorn has been the subject of scores of investigations—a total of 46 inquiries by federal, state, and local agencies, including the FBI and the Treasury Department, and five by Congress as of October 2009, according to the report.

The report found no evidence that voters attempting to cast ballots at the polls had been improperly registered by Acorn, a chief Republican accusation.

The report also said that a sting-style effort to publicize the group’s allegedly illegal activities, may have broken state laws. Two conservative activists set off a firestorm in September when they posed as a pimp and a prostitute seeking financial advice and secretly videotaped Acorn employees offering advice on how the couple could hide their illicit activities and avoid paying taxes.

Also on Tuesday, a Federal court in Brooklyn, New York, rejected the administration’s request to reconsider its ruling that a House resolution barring the group from receiving federal funding was Unconstitutional.

Earlier this month a judge ruled that the law constituted a “bill of attainder,” legislation intended to punish specific people or groups.

In November the US Justice Department also concluded that the Obama administration can legally pay the group.



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Sources: NY Times, ACORN, Google Maps

ACORN As We Once Knew It Is Gone...A Rebound Seems Impossible

(Here is video of ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis appearing on Fox News Sunday recently where she was questioned by Chris Wallace. GOP Rep. Darrell Issa also appeared on the show.)




(ACORN Prostitution Investigation)




(ACORN's ties with the American Federated of Teachers Union.)







Acorn’s Woes Strain Its Ties to Democrats

Last December, in one of his last acts as New York City’s top urban development official — and just days before President Obama nominated him as the federal housing secretary — Shaun Donovan attended a groundbreaking ceremony in the South Bronx.

A complex of 125 apartments had fallen into such disrepair that Bush administration housing officials had foreclosed on the building and transferred it to a group they and Mr. Donovan had come to trust: the New York Acorn Housing Company.

“These renovations will transform this once-troubled property into a remarkable asset,” Mr. Donovan declared in a city news release trumpeting the apartments’ “rescue” by Acorn and its development partners.

Now in Mr. Obama’s cabinet, Mr. Donovan is unwilling to speak publicly about that project or any other work with Acorn, a group with which he at times worked particularly closely during his five years as Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s housing development commissioner but whose missteps have allowed conservatives to cast it as a symbol of liberalism run amok.

Congress is pushing legislation ordering Mr. Donovan to cut off all Acorn-related grants, something he has declined to address. And he is staying clear of the organization’s leaders.

“I can’t get near him,” said Bertha Lewis, the Acorn chief executive, who frequently interacted with Mr. Donovan as Acorn’s New York leader until 2008.

The arc of Mr. Donovan’s relationship with Acorn traces the broader trajectory of its affiliation with the Democratic Party, exhibiting how deeply the group has been enmeshed in urban politics in New York and other large cities and how members of the Obama administration have been put on the defensive over past relationships with the group.

The relationship between Democrats and Acorn has always been as productive as it has been uneasy. In Acorn’s 40-year history, its voter registration drives and policy proposals on behalf of mostly poor and minority constituents have often redounded to the benefit of Democratic politicians and policy makers.

But its hot rhetoric, frequently heavy-handed approach and occasional legal stumbles have just as often proved an alienating liability easily exploited by Republicans.

That is especially the case now, with the presentation of videotapes in which conservative advocates posing as a pimp and a prostitute elicited advice on tax evasion at Acorn-affiliated offices — including one in New York — bringing a new round of recriminations and investigations. Many of Acorn’s onetime Democratic allies, including Mr. Obama, appear to have fled its side.

In publicizing Acorn’s foibles, conservative radio and cable television hosts frequently mention Mr. Obama’s previous interactions with its affiliates in Illinois, including a 1995 ballot-access lawsuit where he represented the group alongside the Justice Department. Mr. Obama’s campaign also hired an Acorn-affiliated get-out-the-vote subsidiary last year.

Yet the Obama administration’s closest contacts with Acorn come by way of New York.

Patrick Gaspard, the White House political director, worked with Acorn in New York to set up the Working Families political party and sat on the party’s board with Ms. Lewis when he was the top strategist for its ally, 1199 S.E.I.U. United Healthcare Workers East. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in her campaigns for the Senate, and the White House urban policy czar, Adolfo Carrión Jr., formerly the Bronx borough president, ran on the party’s ballot lines.

Perhaps no administration official has had more interaction with Acorn than Mr. Donovan, Mr. Obama’s secretary of housing and urban development.

“We grew to respect him, and he grew to respect us,” Ms. Lewis said in an interview.

Mr. Donovan’s work with Acorn’s New York housing arm, glimpsed through two dozen interviews and a review of city documents, was by most accounts mutually beneficial, and showed a side of the group at variance with depictions of it by opponents as a “criminal enterprise.”

Even Bush administration HUD officials came to view some Acorn divisions as credible, awarding more than $40 million to national affiliates.

But throughout, there were hints of the side of Acorn that has made it politically toxic, “a less tightly run ship” — in the words of one city official — that engendered the same sort of suspicion and resentment dogging it now.

By the time Mr. Donovan joined the Bloomberg administration in 2004, Acorn’s housing wing was a well-established partner with the city in rehabilitating its affordable housing stock.

Under its leader, Ismene Speliotis, New York Acorn Housing Company Inc. developed an expertise that even officials in the Republican administration of Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani — no fan of the group — grew to respect during the 1990s.

“These affordable-housing deals get really complicated, and you need a partner with a certain level of financial sophistication,” said Jerilyn Perine, a commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development under Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Bloomberg. “Ismene’s one of the best people for that.”

Mr. Donovan included Ms. Speliotis in a group of affordable housing specialists with whom he consulted frequently, current and former city officials said.

They worked closely to keep Starrett City in Brooklyn the nation’s largest federally supported middle-class housing complex when it went up for sale last year.

And she and Ms. Lewis appeared to help Mr. Donovan deliver a coup for Mr. Bloomberg in 2005 when Acorn endorsed a huge Brooklyn development he was supporting in the face of local opposition.

Acorn backed the plan in return for an unusual promise from the developer, Forest City Ratner, to make half of the 4,500 rental apartments that it was proposing — along with a new Nets basketball arena — available to poor and middle-class families at below-market rates.

The city’s agreement to help finance the plan, hammered out among Mr. Donovan, Ms. Speliotis and others, was hailed as a breakthrough for subsidizing a substantial amount of housing for an unusually broad range of middle-class tenants.

Ms. Lewis — a supporter of Mr. Bloomberg’s challenger that election year, Fernando Ferrer — celebrated by exuberantly kissing the mayor at a public ceremony.

The project’s opponents accused Acorn of selling out. (More recently, Forest City Ratner — a development partner with The New York Times on its new Manhattan headquarters — complied with Acorn’s plea for $1.5 million in grants and loans to help it restructure after an internal embezzlement scandal involving Dale Rathke, the brother of its founder, Wade Rathke.)

Friends said it was not the only time when Mr. Donovan felt as if Acorn had forced itself into an outsize role in development negotiations because of political power derived in part through its Working Families Party; the party was affiliated with many officials the developer was wooing.

“One difference with Acorn was their strong political connections to the influential Working Families Party,” said Ingrid Gould Ellen, a professor of public policy at New York University who is friendly with Mr. Donovan and served on the presidential transition team that selected him. “That sometimes helped in creating affordable housing, and sometimes made negotiations more difficult.”

Soon after Mr. Donovan left for Washington, a city-supported nonprofit he helped the mayor and the City Council start to stave off home foreclosures suspended a grant to Acorn’s mortgage counseling center based in Brooklyn because of incomplete record keeping.

It would become the least of the Brooklyn office’s troubles after the conservative filmmakers posing as a pimp and a prostitute — James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles — elicited advice from two of its counselors on how to secure a mortgage for a brothel.

Acorn fired the counselors and is reviewing its supervisory structure; the counselors reported to Acorn Housing’s national branch in Chicago, but fell under the supervision of Ms. Speliotis, in spite of her primary focus on development issues.

With the Brooklyn district attorney’s office investigating, one longtime Acorn ally, the City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, has suspended all of its Council money.

Some friends, like Councilman Bill de Blasio of Brooklyn, called on Mr. Donovan to speak out. “It’s time for people to say, ‘Wait a minute, Acorn has played a crucial role here,’ ” he said.

Ms. Lewis said she had no such expectations.




ACORN activists mobilize after video scandal

Armed with little more than pen and pad, ACORN organizer David Mazariegos hits inner-city streets to save his embattled employer rather than his usual mission of saving homes from foreclosure.

Mazariegos approaches Jose and Maria Rodriguez on their patio surrounded by overflowing potted plants and a Virgin of Guadelupe statue and asks if they would speak at a news conference about how ACORN saved their house.

Maria Rodriguez doesn't hesitate.

"The only people who helped us were ACORN. We tried to negotiate with the bank, but they wouldn't listen," she says. "We paid $5,000 to a company to help us fix the loan. They took the money and didn't do anything."

As the nonprofit strives to survive the worst scandal in its 39-year history — videotapes of staffers counseling a faux pimp and prostitute how to run a brothel — the organization is doing what it does best: mobilizing low-income people. In this case, the goal is to restore the organization's credibility.

Rallying to the organization's defense

The mobilization effort is unfolding on several fronts. People like Rodriguez are being asked to speak up about how ACORN saved them. She and her husband also agreed to work a phone bank and bring five new people to the next community meeting. And ACORN officials say people are donating more money as they rally to the organization's defense.

"The truth is it broke my heart," Mazariegos said of the scandal. "But it doesn't faze me. It was just a couple people who did this, not the organization."

ACORN activists across the country say being the voice for the voiceless is the real story of their organization. That's why they refuse to buckle to what they see as right-wing detractors trying to bring down the group because it teaches poor people to stand up for themselves.

Their work continues, whether its stopping bulldozing of flooded homes in New Orleans, building housing for the working poor in New York City or protesting teacher layoffs in Los Angeles.

"Most of us have the understanding that we can't not do what we do," said Tanya Harris, the New Orleans chief organizer who was featured in Spike Lee's 2006 Katrina documentary "When the Levees Broke." "If we're taken out of the equation, what is to happen to those people? Who steps in there and fills that void in the way we've done? How are they heard?"

Fallout from the videotape scandal has been harsh. ACORN lost millions of dollars in federal funding and associations with institutions such as Bank of America and the U.S. Census Bureau. Several states, including California and Louisiana, are investigating the group's operations.

Charges of voter-registration fraud

In recent years, it has also weathered charges of voter-registration fraud and a $948,000 embezzlement by the founder's brother. But the widely broadcast videotapes, recorded on hidden camera, have damaged the organization's credibility, perhaps irreparably.

The scandal has shaken the group. ACORN has suspended its tax preparation service and housing assistance program. Foreclosure clients are now referred to counselors at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Yet the group continues to operate. Staffers are being retrained and procedures reviewed. Activists are working on other types of issues, such as the case of a New York City woman who says she was assaulted by a police officer.

They're also trying to drum up cash. Last week, headquarters sent a fundraising plea to field offices under the title "Will ACORN survive?" in a bid to make up the loss of some $2 million in government money. Most of the nonprofit's $25 million annual budget, however, comes from the 500,000 active members. They're asked to give $10 a month, but not all pay dues regularly.

People are responding, said Brian Kettenring, deputy director of national operations. He reported a huge outpouring of online donations, but said the dollar amount was not yet available.

In New Orleans, a woman walked into the ACORN office and donated a $100 bill, said Beth Butler, executive director of that city's chapter.

Community feels indebted to ACORN

Lower Ninth Ward resident Isaac Ray said the community feels indebted to ACORN for saving their neighborhood from a plan to turn it into wetlands.

"The city basically wanted to make this area green space and ACORN was the organization that stepped up and said, 'No bulldozing. Hey, people want to come home,'" said the former teacher. "We can bypass all the stuff we hear about ACORN because we know what ACORN has done for us as a community."

At the nonprofit's Brooklyn office, the waiting room is crammed with winners of a lottery for units in an ACORN-developed affordable housing complex in New York.

But it's far from business as usual in the office where two colleagues were fired for their infamous roles advising the impostor pimp and prostitute about evading taxes and smuggling in underage girls from El Salvador.

"It's frustrating when you work this hard," said Ismene Speliotis, executive director of NY ACORN Housing Co. Inc. "For one incident, your whole world goes topsy-turvy. It's really painful."

Nevertheless, the scandal has sparked a renewed sense of mission and more determination than ever, said lead organizer Jonathan Westin.

"The work we do is too important for this to stop," he said. "We will do whatever it takes to right the ship."

In Los Angeles, organizer Mazariegos stopped at the Watts home of Millicent Hall, a retired school teacher who said she's not about to retire her red ACORN T-shirt.

Surrounded by portraits of civil-rights heroes in her living room, Hall said her days working alongside Martin Luther King Jr. taught her not to give in to pressure.

"Back then, they were jumping off trucks and throwing rocks at us," the 69-year-old recalled. "It's same thing now, but it's politics. We keep on doing what we're doing and we usually win."



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Sources: NY Times, Washington Post, MSNBC, Biggovernment.com, ACORN, Youtube, Google Maps

ACORN Loses Rep. Barney Frank's Support...That's It! They're Through

Frank Turns Against ACORN

In a stunning turnaround, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is distancing himself from ACORN, blasting their response to a string of recent scandals -- and contradicting a staffer who said the congressman would have voted against a GOP-sponsored bill banning the group from federal funding.

In a rambling, contrite, at times bombastic statement to reporters, Frank apologized for "a number of factors, one of which in particular is my own fault, have contributed to my position on ACORN being unclear."

His "biggest error," he wrote was signing off on a recent letter -- jointly written with Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) -- requesting that the Congressional Research Service audit the group.

Frank said he "had not thoroughly read" the letter "which does not accurately represent my own position in all aspects."

Yet later in the statement, Frank seems to imply he still supports the idea of a CRS study, saying, "I cosigned the letter because I do think it is important that we get accurate and complete information on ACORN funding."

An email requesting clarification from his office weren't immediately returned. An email sent to ACORN wasn't immediately returned.

Last week, Frank's office reported that he skipped the vote to attend a White House ceremony bestowing the Congressional Medal of Honor on a fallen Massachusetts soldier. When asked for his position on the bill, Frank's spokesman said the Financial Services chairman would have voted against the "Defund ACORN Act,” which passed 345-75.

"[T]hrough a misunderstanding with a member of my staff, it was incorrectly reported that I said I would have voted against the motion to defund ACORN," he said in the statement. "In fact, I would have voted for the motion at that time. I am very disappointed in the actions that were taken by members of ACORN, and I do not believe that ACORN’s response has been adequate for an organization that has received public funding."

That said, Frank seemed to cast his lot with Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), who has argued the measure may be unconstitutional by violating Article 1's prohibition on so-called "bills of attainder."

And he blasted away at Republican critics, who have claimed the embattled group would be eligible for billions in funding under various Obama administration programs.

"The wild claims that ACORN is the potential beneficiary of billions of dollars in programs voted by Congress is similarly a sad example of excessive partisanship," he wrote.

But Frank reserves his harshest criticism for ACORN, a group he's long defended.

"I have previously communicated to ACORN my dissatisfaction with their lax supervision of employees and volunteers. The fact that people who were improperly registered to vote did not actually cast ballots in no way excuses the organization’s failure to exercise better control in this way. Further, the motivation of those who went to ACORN offices and initiated the discussions involving prostitution are wholly irrelevant to the fact that ACORN’s employees’ actions were outrageous and further indication of an organization that is at best poorly run in many regards. The defense against sting operations is not to ban them, but to behave properly so that they do not reveal as they did in this case clear evidence of gross impropriety."

Sources: Politico, MSNBC, House.gov

ACORN'S Bertha Lewis On C-Span...She Needs To Be Fired

(ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis on C-Span.)



Stupid! (ACORN Prostitution Investigation)



(The community group ACORN, breaking into a foreclosed home to move the previous owners back in. This story was reported by WJZ TV in Baltimore.)





Now don't shoot the messenger but somehow I really feel bad for Ms. Lewis.

Although its obvious something went wrong on her end, being the kind-hearted individual that I am makes me just want to shake her and ask "WHY DIDN'T YOU FIX THIS MESS BEFORE NOW?"

Come on folks if you know your a target wouldn't it be wise to get out of the way or protect yourself?

Perhaps a few ACORN employees were disgruntled due to not being paid enough money or for being treated so poorly they intentionally cooperated with people like Mr. O'Keefe to help bring ACORN down.

Breaking locks off the doors of Foreclosured homes, providing a "Pimp" with IRS Business Tax information?

Not a good use of Taxpayer dollars if you ask me.

Its kind of hard to blame this display of stupidity within your ranks on a "GOP Smear Campaign" when your allowing such rogue behavior to be practiced.

Ms. Lewis' inaction or her refusal to clean up the blatant Corruption within ACORN prior to this probe, was a sign of Arrogance, Complacency, Denial or all three.

Nevertheless, the downfall of what may have been a very effective organization is the result.

The ACORN Board of Directors really should consider terminating Ms. Lewis.

If ACORN survives this mess, a new image starting with the hiring of a new CEO will definitely be necessary.

She also needs to stop speaking to the Media. Each time she goes on TV in that dashiki dress, it makes her appear more and more foolish.

Ms. Lewis if your going to be on TV pleading ACORN's case before the general public, can't you at least put on a suit?

This isn't the sixties. Perception is reality.

That Black Panther type stuff makes some people uncomfortable, even Black people.

Put on a suit, a nice dress or stay off TV.

Last but not least please forget about suing FOX News. Your employees were caught red-handed on tape committing crimes for goodness sake!

Just let it go and clean up what's left of ACORN.





ACORN must prove it's squeaky clean

A pretend prostitute and her pretend pimp have rattled ACORN, an anti-poverty group that has grown to become a political target of the GOP. Now it stands to lose federal funding.

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, has a lot of explaining to do.

It blames Fox News shows for hammering the organization over questionable voter-registration practices this decade. And now a couple of 20-somethings, including Florida International University student Hannah Giles, set up a ``sting'' shown on YouTube where ACORN workers in several cities -- from Baltimore to San Bernardino, Calif. -- offered tax advice to run a ``prostitution'' business.

ACORN has been sloppy, and its poor management has hurt the very people it set out to help: the disenfranchised. Its management now promises mandatory employee training. That's too little, too late.

To its credit, Miami's ACORN office turned in 11 former voter-registration canvassers who are accused of faking names on nearly 200 voter forms. Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning says there is no evidence of any ``widespread attempts'' at voter fraud.

Having organizations that receive Federal funds -- even if it's a small part of ACORN's budget -- also conduct voter registration with paid canvassers is problematic. The good work ACORN has undertaken to help people find affordable housing, earn a decent minimum wage in Florida and fight predatory lending in Miami-Dade has been shattered.

The US Census Bureau already has said "no thanks" to ACORN helping with the 2010 population count, the Senate has voted to bar housing and community grants for the group and others are calling for a Justice Department investigation.

Any group receiving Federal money must show it's squeaky clean.




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Sources: ACORN, Biggovernment.com, C-Span, Miami Herald, MSNBC, NY Daily News, WJZ_TV, Politico, Youtube, Google Maps

ACORN: The GOP's Newest Weapon Against Dems...White House Rebukes Them, US House De-Funds

ACORN chooses to fight back against allegations of Fraud and Agency Misconduct. Too Late. Now because of complacent, possibly poor Leadership and very little accountability, they've completely lost the agency's federal funding all together. Double Stupid!

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Stupid! (ACORN Prostitution Investigation)




White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said, "Obviously, the conduct that you see on those tapes is completely unacceptable. I think everyone would agree to that."

"The administration takes accountability extremely seriously."






US House votes to De-fund ACORN

The US House, in a Motion to recommit attached to the student loan bill, has voted overwhelmingly to de-fund ACORN.

It was a bipartisan vote, with more than 300 members voting for the measure. (We'll get the full numbers/vote breakdown shortly.)

This goes further than the Senate did; the Senate took money out of one bill. This is to de-fund the group completely -- for any money the House would appropriate.

*** UPDATE *** House Minority Whip Eric Cantor's office just sent around this statement:

“ACORN has violated serious federal laws, and today the House voted to ensure that taxpayer dollars would no longer be used to fund this corrupt organization. All federal ties should be severed with ACORN, and the FBI should investigate its activity. This united Republican effort to defund ACORN is a victory for the rule of law and taxpayers across the country.”

*** UPDATE 2 *** The vote was 345-75.



White House says ACORN must be held accountable

Days after the Census Bureau announced it would cut ties with the organizing group ACORN, and barely 24 hours after the Senate voted to withdraw funding from the lightning-rod activist group, the White House expressed support for measures to hold the group accountable for “unacceptable” behavior.

Referring to video taken by the conservative site Big Government that showed ACORN employees giving advice to individuals posing as sex traffickers, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said, “Obviously, the conduct that you see on those tapes is completely unacceptable. I think everyone would agree to that.”

“The administration takes accountability extremely seriously,” he added.

Characterizing the Census Bureau’s decision as a move based on a lack of confidence in ACORN’s ability to perform its expected duties, Gibbs said he was not sure whether the president would ask Democrats to pull back from any campaign-year collaboration with the group. “I don’t know that I’ve had any discussion with him about that,” Gibbs said.




ACORN -- How Much Danger For Democrats?

The ongoing controversy over the community organizing group ACORN -- spurred by several undercover videos shot for a conservative blog known as biggovernment.com -- has emboldened Republicans to use the group's troubles as a political cudgel against Democrats.

"If the Democrats continue to ignore the apparent fraud taking place with taxpayer money, they will pay a price politically," predicted former Florida governor Jeb Bush (R) in an e-mail exchange with the Fix late Wednesday.

Bush's Republican colleagues are already moving to exact that political price.

Minnesota Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who is widely expected to run for president in 2012, announced on Wednesday that he had ordered all state funds going to the group frozen until a review of the organization had been completed.

Pawlenty's decision comes less than 48 hours after the Senate voted on a measure to restrict all federal funding devoted to ACORN -- a piece of legislation that drew wide bipartisan support with only seven senators (all Democrats) voting against it.

And, Republican leaders in the House continue to push the idea of bringing a similar bill up for a vote in the near future. "Simply put, ACORN should not receive another penny of American taxpayers' money," wrote House Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio) in a letter to his colleagues earlier this week.

The ACORN effect is even hitting the campaign trail. In New York's 23rd district special election, Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman is hitting state Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava (R) for her alleged ties to ACORN.

The efficacy of these attacks remain to be seen -- John McCain attempted unsuccessfully to link President Obama to ACORN during the 2008 campaign -- but it's clear from the reaction of the White House that leading Democrats understand that being seen as defenders of the community group is political suicide.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs called the tapes "completely unacceptable" during his daily briefing on Wednesday, adding "the administration takes accountability extremely seriously."

Doug Schoen, a Democratic pollster, said the ACORN controversy poses a "huge risk" to the Democratic party. "Swing voters are almost certainly going to put off by the constant barrage of stories about their abuses, the videos, and their unrepentant approach to the way they operate," he added.

Jon Lerner, a Republican consultant, argued that the ACORN problem is one that plagues whichever party is in the majority in Washington. "When Republicans were in control, their fringe organizations became fodder for the perception that they were too extreme," Lerner noted.

ACORN has long been a hot button issue for conservatives who believe the group engages in shady (at best) voter registration and turnout efforts. But, to date, conservatives have been unable to draw strong enough links between ACORN and the Democratic Party to score real political points.

With more undercover videos allegedly on the way, expect more Democratic elected officials to follow the White House's lead and begin not only distancing themselves from ACORN but also siding with those who are calling for investigations into its conduct.

"Any Democrat who acts or votes to protect ACORN will have an impossible time justifying it, and it will almost be too easy for us to make them pay politically for doing so," predicted Republican strategist Kevin Madden.



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Sources: Washington Post, The Fix, MSNBC, Humanevents.com, NY Daily News, Senate.gov, US House.gov, Politico, Minnesota Independent, Google Maps

ACORN Fights Back: Orders Independent Probe (Too Late)...They Give Black Leadership A Bad Name

(ACORN launches internal investigation. They should have done this long before now. It may be too late. Its organizations like these that give Black Leadership a bad name. NBC's Lisa Myers reports.)

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

(ACORN chooses to fight back against allegations of Fraud and Agency Misconduct.)

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

(ACORN Prostitution Investigation)





ACORN plans independent investigation

An advocacy group under fire after employees were caught on camera appearing to advise a couple posing as a prostitute and pimp to lie about the woman's profession to get housing help said Wednesday it is ordering an independent investigation.

The group, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, known as ACORN, said it is refusing new admissions into its service programs.

ACORN will work with its advisory council, which includes prominent supporters of President Barack Obama, such as John Podesta, president of the nonprofit Center for American Progress, and Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, to name an independent auditor and investigator, ACORN chief executive Bertha Lewis said in a written statement.

The investigation will examine all the systems and processes called into question by the video, Lewis said.

In addition, ACORN won't accept new admissions into its community service programs, effective immediately, and within the next few days will conduct staff training, she said.

Lewis said the steps were being taken in response to "the indefensible action of a handful of our employees."

The moves are among several developments in recent days involving ACORN, a liberal-leaning group that is a popular target for Republicans. In addition to the hidden-camera video, it is under scrutiny for several voter-registration fraud cases.

Some Republicans are urging the Justice Department to investigate ACORN. The Senate voted Monday to block the Housing and Urban Development Department from giving grants to ACORN, and the Census Bureau last week severed its ties with the group for the 2010 national head-count.

Asked Wednesday about the controversy, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said that "obviously the conduct that you see on those tapes is completely unacceptable."

"I think everyone would agree with that. The administration takes accountability extremely seriously," Gibbs said. "I think the US Census Bureau evaluated and determined that this group could not meet the bureau's goal of achieving a fair and accurate count in 2010."

Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., said he's asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency to repeal a nearly $1 million grant it awarded to ACORN earlier this month.

FEMA awarded $997,402 to ACORN in New Orleans on Sept. 4 as part of its Fire Prevention and Safety Grants program. The group plans to use the money to assess fire safety in the homes of low and moderate-income families and hand out smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and other fire prevention gear, ACORN's Brennan Griffin said.

FEMA had no immediate comment on Bilirakis' request.

Gibbs said he assumed that Federal agencies "constantly evaluate to ensure that any grantee is living up to what has to happen in order to fulfill that grant application."

The video released Monday was among several that have prompted the firing of at least four ACORN employees in Baltimore and Washington. It was created by James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles and posted on BigGovernment.com, where O'Keefe identifies himself as an activist filmmaker.

In the film, O'Keefe and Giles enter an ACORN office in Brooklyn and O'Keefe can be heard stating that "we have a unique life situation" and asking if the pair qualify for housing help.

The ACORN housing coordinator and office administrator apparently urge the couple to lie about the woman's profession, with the housing coordinator suggesting that the woman launder the money.

"We have all been deeply disturbed by what we've seen in some of these videos," Lewis said, adding that the group "will go to whatever lengths necessary to re-establish the public trust."



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Sources: MSNBC, Washington Post, Biggovernment.com, Youtube, Google Maps