McCarthyism 2.0? Inside the Right’s Battle With ACORN: Interview with Bertha Lewis
by PubliusEsquire has an interview with ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis:
I called ACORN to get a response from Bertha Lewis, the group’s CEO. “I don’t think the conservative right will ever be satisfied,” she told me. “They’re not going to stop because they’re raising money on us every day — we’re a nice, simple convenient bogeyman.”
Still, Lewis seemed almost shell-shocked: “We can’t understand this obsession, and the vehemence. They just make up something and keep repeating it over and over — yesterday, I’m cleaning my house and I get a call, someone from my office saying ‘This guy from Breitbart is going crazy saying you were in the White House!’ Apparently some woman named Bertha Lewis visited the White House in September, so automatically they assumed — but it wasn’t me.”
Lewis says the trouble started in 2000, when ACORN began to register massive numbers of voters. “If we had been a nice little community group that maybe registered a couple thousand people, there would not be this furor.” Often, ACORN registered those voters around explicitly progressive issues. “In 2000, we registered almost a million people in Florida around raising the minimum wage,” she notes.
ACORN also became aggressive about fighting voter suppression. “They were doing it very unabashedly,” Lewis told me. “You go to the poll and you’re not on record, your name’s not on the rolls, you didn’t re-register, you didn’t vote in this last election cycle, you used to be a felon. Voter lists were purged and folks were turned away or asked for multiple forms of identification. It was all about suppressing black and brown and poor votes.”
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122 Comments
No Ms. Lewis, the real problem began when your group started registering Mickey Mouse and Elmer Fudd et al.
Andy… you better be setting up a wonderful elaborate trap for these people. If not, you have serious apologizing to do to your readers and supporters.
Hey Ms. Lewis it's about suppressing ILLEGAL votes! Now on to you not being at the WH… Right, of course it wasn't you *wink wink*…
Poor Bertha! Her important work with real pimps and hoes is being impeded by the evil right.
Why can't SOMEONE hang a garlic necklace around her neck, and drive a wooden stake through her heart?
"You go to the poll and you're not on record, your name's not on the rolls, you didn't re-register, you didn't vote in this last election cycle, you used to be a felon. Voter lists were purged and folks were turned away or asked for multiple forms of identification. It was all about suppressing black and brown and poor votes."
No Bertha, it's about voter registration & voter fraud, you know, the tactics your organization, along with SEIU practice.
“You go to the poll and you’re not on record, your name’s not on the rolls, you didn’t re-register, you didn’t vote in this last election cycle, you used to be a felon. Voter lists were purged and folks were turned away or asked for multiple forms of identification. It was all about suppressing black and brown and poor votes.”
1: Well re-register!!! Done
2: I didn;t vote every election cycle and voted jsut fine when I did.. My parents moved years ago and they were still in the books !!!
3: Yoru a felon … go figure out what you need to do ! It's not up to me to do ti for you !
4: I alwyas have my license on me when I go to vote. (Who is aganist voter ID cards again?)
The truly sad part is she reeally thinks nothign is wrong … corruption at it's finest.
If your to stupid to figure out how to vote then your really do nto need to be boting anyways…Stay in school !!!!
"…or asked for multiple forms of identification. It was all about suppressing black and brown and poor votes."
I've never understood this argument. How does requiring ID suppress the voting rights of anyone except non-citizens?
Good ol' Dirtie Bertie. She just keeps rolling out the hits. She is nothing but an angry, uppity, militant biatch. She does the heavy lifting and carries the water for the Dinky Dao Mau Mau, Barrack……..
If ACORN were concerned about votes, then where are they when it comes to counting military ballots?
Linked to your post from
Hell if this is the least of his mis-quotes in this Amerinca he will be fine… Hello .. K Street Whore comment… the free use of calling everyone a racists if your aganist this president.. I could go on and on…
I'm with ya Andrew all the way .. keep it up … ACORN is corrupt and the government knows it and Obama is in deep and the governement knows it….
I put a statement on say page 45 of the NY times like everyone else does …..That would be funny…
Oh poor Bertha… yes, we understand it was some OTHER Bertha Lewis who got 1 on 1 time with Obama at the drop of a hat. And we also understand how you're the victim here,– what with those crazy right wingers trying to stop you from continuing to use BILLIONS in taxpayer dollars to register illegals, dead people, cartoon characters, etc., and helping them vote for your party of choice…plus help pimps and hoes evade the IRS, set up child prostitution rings, and having stimulus funds sent to non-existent ACORN offices, etc. etc. etc. You poor dear.
Typical Leftist 101 BS.
The problem is not that they are criminals, its the people that point out that they are criminals, they are the real problem.
Simple way to avoid that Bertha, do not perpetrate fraud, do not assist in illegal activities etc. I mean unless that is all that your organization does in which case I suppose thats off the table.
ask her who is aganist "voter id cards?"
Down where I lvie they go to the poor neighborhoods with buses and lunch.. they pick them up, feed them and then tell them which button to push …
Now remember, it was "politician A" that got your here and bought you lunch becuase he cares about you !!!
yea right, then why in the hell has my neighborhood looked like this for the last 20 yrs you've been in office ??? (They never ask that one !)
They've tried, i think it mutates !
She doesn't deny that she was at the white house. It's typical. Has she been at the white house? Point blank question we won't see an answer to.
Sure there are plenty of people named "Bertha Lewis", but maybe she was there and it was covered up.
Being the nations leading vote fraud and election rigging operation it's hard to see what is good about ACORN.
I bet they couldn't list the few R candidates they supported in their neutral stance tax free status.
The proble ACRON has is they have been found out for the fraud that they are.
Voter suppression ? Like the two thugs from the "New black panthers" with night sticks?
Is that who Mzzz Thugly was referring to? If so then maybe she has a point, but she would probably view those two thugs as voter empowerment operations.
Using my lib-talk translator I see that what she really means is stopping or even talking about Voter Fraud which equals Voter Suppression.
She knows that the crack heads and free loaders that get paid by the signature might start to get cold feet after all if they think the jig is up and decide to sit the next one out.
Start becoming more and more concerned about the 2010 elections.
Given the recent behavior of these entrenched despotic, partisan hacks and tyrants who believe they are a law unto themselves, cynically living in the world of realpolitik, referring to We, The People as “Mobs” should be chilling.
These people are not concerned with their standing in the polls. They are not afraid of protest demonstrations. They have their plan to stay in power, come hell or high water.
Their plan has already been tested and they won!!
We need only to look South to the Marxist tactics used by Chavez in Venezuela, Ortega in Nicaragua, Morales in Bolivia
Then look to the North… FRANKEN in MINNESOTA.
If they can succeed in electing an unqualified, radical SNL clown, re-electing any entrenched Leftist is a done deal. All they have to do is mobilize ACORN, the Black Panthers and Union thugs to their districts to lie, cheat and intimitate, then hire the other useful idiot, Jimmy Carter to declare a “fair and legal” election.
(or)
The Obami administration will fabricate another so-called national crisis and declare MARTIAL LAW.
and a down right uuugly one at that….help I've been blinded and can't see…lol….
Remember guys, McCarthy was demonized and destroyed by the left/media and in the end, the Verona papers released after the fall of the Soviet Union, proved that he was right!.
Still no apology from this pathetic website for lying about Bertha Lewis visiting the Whitehouse.
The contempt for your readers is palpable.
"It was all about suppressing black and brown and poor votes"
… because non blacks, non browns and non poor actually registered.
Seriously, I wish I could lie with such confidence.
Someone should check with her hair dresser and see if she had here hair done the day she visited the White House. Could be an indication she was the Bertha Lewis there that day.
Any organization that is tied to voter fraud should be hunted down till there is not a single ACRON nut left!
Bertha Lewis is one angry ugly dude!
…you used to be a felon…
Felons lose the privilege of voting when they are convicted of a crime. Sorry Bertha, but registering felons is voter fraud. Ironically, I think that's a felony…
Her weave is too tight.
Now if you tie this story to the "Al-Qaeda Terrorist May Be Offered Plea Agreement: Administration Defends Decision" story, we know why Bertha is protecting illegal activities, see John O. Brennan must be using all those underage prostitutes as an alternative to the 70 virgins, to secure the panty bomber's plea, if he will just please tell us about his terrorist buddies……all paid for by taxpayer money. Whats wrong with that???
Fact that ACORN is still in play should be everyones concern. Do not be over confident that the 2010 election is sure win. As long as she is there, they all are there and they are in high gear to make sure the progressive liberals and RINOs stay in office that are paying ACORN along with the rest of the special interest groups. The media will not be on them its on you to be on them and do what you can to stop them, dig deep for info and vids to hang them on!
How are those emails, phone calls, faxes and protests working out for you America? They aren't! Your playing their game… STOP and play your game through Saving the Republic
Recently I heard that if you don't return the yearly city/town census to your city/town of registration you're also taken off the rolls.
What the hell is wrong with this stupid idiot. Nothing like admitting to all their wrong doings!
Apology? Nothing coming from this White House can be believed.
I feel real bad for her.
[...] Read the whole thing at Big Government. [...]
ACORN and it's tentacles will never go away during this administration. Re-distribution is criminal friendly.
Actually, in many states your voting right is restored right away after completion of your sentence. Some states have a waiting period before restoring that right.
Here in VA, where I was convicted of a felony for selling weed in college, my right to vote is suspended PERMENTANTLY.
The only way I can get my right to vote back, is to petition the Governor. I had to wait 5 years after completion of my sentence.
She's overflowing with empathy… That means she's got backup hearts.
Or she's a Zombie.
Go for the head. It's the only way to be sure. What was the rule? #2: Double Tap.
Obama hardly raised an eyebrow at the mayhem in Kenya after the most recent presidential election, orchastrated by a fellow Luo, self-identified Marxist and claimed COUSIN to Obama, Mr. Odinga. Odinga LOST and went to FIX that mis-vote by violence. Obama appeared with Odinga, lending his prestige as a new US Senator to a communist, so one would THINK that Obama would have more robustly CONDEMNED the violence, but he mealy-mouthed platitudes and the media obligingly buried it. Over 2,000 Kenyans dead, hundreds of thousands displaced. Not a peep about it to the US public to cast even the hint of a shadow over Obama's own campaign.
Odinga is the most recent example that an organized group could be mobilized to beat, pillage, murder and burn a politician's way to election "correction."
Very dangerous.
(Obviously) I did not know that. Is that a recent development in those states that restore it? Does it affect national elections or just local/state ones?
I always thought that the only ways a person could lose his voting privilege were: A) commit a felony, B) renounce his citizenship.
'Tone Loc"… I'm on Andy's side too…. I just want to be better than they are…. especially if BigJournalism is going to succeed…. he needs credibility. For example, there really is a Malik H Shabazz who probably did go to the White House on a group tour, so he shouldn't mention it…. If he can prove the real Birtha, let's do it… if not don't mislead us… his supporters.
Be careful, if you criticize Birtha, you are racist.
I'm opting out for both tactics. You KNOW they will be doing illegal things to manipulate the November elections and if the polls show that the Demonazi's will lose in key states, he will find another terrorist to bomb us and call Martial Law (for our own safety of course). Do not put anything past them because they know they will lose half of Congress.
Lying bitch.
This site lying????? Are you delusional??? There are more than 150 documented lies that have spouted from yout "dear leader's" lips since he opened his mouth in 2008. They all freaking lie, the whole administration. Nothing is believable in DC and you hone in on Bertha "big fat lying" Lewis??? LOLOLOL.
You lie. There was a front-page story about it yesterday.
The oak is one of the most grandest trees on this planet and it's a blasphemy those corrupt cockroaches called themselves acorn nuts. They just should've stuck with NUTS.
If you didn't vote for Obama and your white you are a racist. If your black and didn't vote for him your and uncle tom.
It's called an Acorn executive facelift.
I gave up worrying about that over a year ago. That is when the term began having no meaning.
~How are those emails, phone calls, faxes and protests working out for you America?~
They know we are alive and breathing fire. Also, it's not only one group that will save this country, but many many groups that will.
Al Sharton without hair.
During college I was told by an ACORN worker that military ballots were ignored by the Republican administration intentionally because most people serving in the military were registered Democrats. I guess she thought I was an idiot and would sign her petition blindly. The funniest part about the situation was the Petition had nothing to do with military ballots. Incredible.
Throw a bucket of water on her and see if she melts?
Our contempt for you lefty libs is palpable too!
We don't do a yearly census around here, just the Federal every 10yrs., I don't know about other states. Indiana, we require state issued photo ID to be shown at the polls before your allowed to vote so we register to vote when we get/renew our drivers licenses &/or state ID every four years, they will also ask you if you want to register when you go to license branch to get your plates or you can go to the county registrar office. It is actually easier to register now than prior to the change.
Holy Water, it's suppose to work on a multitude of demons
Come on now Butch Napolitano has spoken on how the military should be watched and monitored. We can't be cointing their votes ca we? /sarc
This is so on Topic !
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) – Federal appeals court rules that Washington state felony inmates should be allowed to vote.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9D1QNBO0...
I couldn't get past the Read the Whole Article here. She makes my head hurt.
How a person can tell lies that fluently is amazing.
…."Odinga is the most recent example that an organized group could be mobilized to beat, pillage, murder and burn a politician's way to election "correction."
I read that three times and still can't figure out what the problem is
/sarc
I wear that label like a badge of honour
I'm down wif the bitches da hoes. Chump dont want hep chump dont git hep
MARTIAL LAW would be a mistake. To many of us prior service folks with guns and ammo to contend with.
We can beat this crowd at the poles but it will require sustained effort and focus for the next decade for the good folks of this country to take it back.
If this truly was a representative republic, voter fraud would be a capitol offense. Then, we could grease the bitch.
Lots of cheap ammo dealers on the web.
Maybe McCarthy was onto something if it routes crooks, reprobates and degerantes off the federal dole.
I'm so glad taxpayer's dollars went to pay Bertha's salary. What a country. Washington, D.C.: The Harare, Zimbabwe of America!
Lies…tell 'em often enough and even the liar will believe them! Just ask Reid and Pelosi!
Mr Breitbart
Can you please use a different picture for the ACORN lady?
It's a very SCARY picture!
Face it people, the root of the problem is that enough of our fellow citizens accept the premise that it is perfectly legitimate to take public money (our taxes) and give it to a "private charitable organization". There is obviously "profit" in it for the people who run them, and the bigger they get, the larger the reward for those who run it. Is it any surprise that those who prove beneficial to incumbent politicians get even more funding for the "support" they provide? Very cozy. Private organizations that are unable to raise sufficient funds for their activities should be subject to the same fate as a business that is under capitalized. Either scale back your ambition, change your model or close your doors and move on. NOBODY OWES YOU ANYTHING!
From little acorns mighty communists grow. And McCarthy was right about the communists in the government. They should have given him the medal of honor.
ACON = Criminal organization that just keeps turning their wheels for Hussein and his Posse of Clowns!
Bertha is pretending that ACON has done nothing Criminal!
Guest appears concern trollish to me. The implication is that Breitbart is misleading and can't be trusted; all the while being "supportive". This is a nice little maneuver.
I sense fear.
Hey Bertha, how did it feel to get a taste of your own medicine. The only thing you did with Wall Street and Big Banks was fleece them out of millions by making outrageous allegations of racism. Picking on poor black, brown and whites…….that's what Americans are pissed about? Don't think so Bertha.
there is a term for it….pathological liar….
Andrew…do us all a favor and remove her ugly mug…it's nauseating…
"Guest appears concern trollish to me. The implication is that Breitbart is misleading and can't be trusted; all the while being "supportive". This is a nice little maneuver.
I sense fear."
My concern is not 'trollish'. I'm no troll. I really want the truth and am skeptical about the lib establishment…. Drudge, Andy, James O'Keefe, etc have been great at exposing so much.
I want him to beat the tools at mmfa, but I want him to beat the tools with substantiated facts, not meme creation games as the progs have done for years. I want him to have the level of integrity someone like patterico has shown and journalistic ethics that used to exist about verifying facts… he needs to be transparent about what he knows and not mislead.
I am fearful… fearful I have trusted someone who doesn't play with the integrity I thought he had.
Man, Mr. T hasn't aged well, has he?
BS! People having to show ID to vote? Acorn is a cancer to America.
it's worth remembering that McCarthy wasn't wrong!
"I want him to have the level of integrity someone like patterico has shown and journalistic ethics that used to exist about verifying facts… "
Excuse me, are we talking about the same man who prints articles claiming that Bill Ayers wrote Obamas books? You should be fearful.
If the person doesn't exist… how are they going to vote? Democracy works the best when we are all able to participate. When was the last time you saw a driver's license or social security card that was issued to Mickey Mouse?
Good for BG for getting Ms. Lewis on record. By providing us with her side of the story, BG is doing what what most so-called journos don't do.
Guest, it's called parody. Should have substituted signing up for registering but can't tweak now because of a reply. The fact that Mickey doesn't exist as a voter still didn't stop an ACORN chapter from signing up Mickey, among others, apparently to meet some quota so the registrar could get paid.
And THAT is the point, she and ACORN have tried and succeeded to subvert the law, vis-a-vis felons voting.
I've never lived in any stated and I've lived in several, where there was a state or a local census.
Hell, even when people alert their towns/cities of a death, it often takes years to get the dead person expunged from the rolls.
And there are far more Commies in the government now, than back then, when the KGB was running them all.
exactly. this is what I see in 2010…it's easy and even "fun" to bust on Ms Lewis; but depletes our own energy and distracts us from our goal. thank you for articulating this real and present danger.
Silly Bertha, if someone isn't regestered they dont get to vote, it has been that way long before I can remember. Also, if you are a convected felon you loose your right to vote.
But you knew that didn't you?
PS: I agree with the other posters who say you are ugly. I better correct myself, you are damn ugly.
I agree. These people do not care to follow our laws and will do everything they can to win an election in any race where they think they might loose. Look for massive voter fraud and intimidation in the next election cycle. They have been running and practicing their foul play for years now and have got the tactics down pat.
You mean this article palmtree?
http://patterico.com/2009/10/06/ayers-admits-writ...
Read it and you will see the sort of integrity i expect from andrew. He questions the validity of it and investigates and reports fairly and honestly to explain that ayres was being sarcastic.
I will give you a million dollars if you can show me proof that Mickey Mouse and Elmer Fudd actually voted!! Read Greg Palasts investigative reporting on the subject, he reports on both voter fraud and election fraud, there is a big difference, and only one is a real problem, the other is contrived from the twisted mind of Carl Rove.
The actual Esquire interview is much more textured then the comments here. Can anyone provide proof of ACORN'S crimes – excluding foaming-at-the-mouth hearsay?
Thank you, keep speaking common sense. Eventually they may start to investigate the info for themselves, and stop being spoon fed!
RE: DEUSEXMACHINA
"If this truly was a representative republic, voter fraud would be a capitol offense. Then, we could grease the bitch. "
This is the definition of HATE.
Greg Palast has done some great investigative work in this area, I would suggest that everyone should read his articles, he has asked for the names of the people who supposedly voted illegally, from every jurisdiction that has claimed fraud, to date the # of names received 0, this even after a Justin Fox-Young, on the floor of the state Assembly waved a paper claiming to possess names of fraudulent voters, to date the names have not been turned over to law enforcement or to Greg Palast, who keeps asking.
I have been on this site for weeks asking someone to please show me the names of anyone who has been convicted of voter fraud, please show me how a voter can get away with this? why a voter would risk prison to do this? NO ONE has yet answered these or any other questions.
Do you believe that America is a better country when fewer people vote? because if you do that answers all my questions concerning the right.
Actually it is a definition of rational thought. Just because you do not agree does not make it hate.
hockeynation, will quote a drunken John Riggins at a beltway function where he was seated at a table with an uptight Sandra Day O'Conner……..Lighten up Sandy.
Sharpton that is
I still think they should change their name to…………………."Cornhole"
Ah, in the end McCarthy was right. Keep peeling ACORN's layers back. They're a political group, an arm of the Democratic party. Deprive them of all public funds. Otherwise, they're baaack !
The arrogance displayed by these groups such as ACORN, SEIU while they openly cheat using the taxpayers money is what is difficult to stomach. Any good work that they do is avalanched by the gross corruption and fraud.
Blacks voted Democrat at 120% of registration in 2008. Will they turnout even stronger in 2010? "Yes", says ACORN. "With the illegals, blacks, gubment unions, welfare losers and communists all voting Democrat at 130%, we will own you!"
No I mean this article :http://biggovernment.com/2009/10/07/alert-the-med...
which is not very skeptical at all.
If they ever make a movie about ACORN, I think Morgan Freeman should play Bertha Lewis.
Personally, I believe that actual LEGAL Americans should ALL vote. Not cartoon characters, not people who've been "paid" to register several times, and not football players who live in a different state than the one they purportedly registered in.
The Acorn swamp needs to be drained, if not obliterated, the garbage they do is about as American as Leo Trotsky.
I don't feel bad for her, I feel bad for her husband, if she has one.
Oh absolutely! If you don’t pay taxes you don’t vote. If you can’t name your representatives you don’t vote. If all that you’re voting for is, “what’s in it for me?” What I can pilfer from someone else’s pocket, no you shouldn’t vote- – you should get two or three jobs- – or better yet …get an education, whatever it takes to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, poverty in America is a mental condition. Cowboy up, get off the government cheese, get busy!
Obviously you are not enlightened to how voter districts work, allocation of federal funds for voter districts, and how money is handed out to ACORN. It doesn't matter that Mickey or Elmer didn't vote, but it did matter that they were registered Democrats in that voter district. And the federal funds turned over to ACORN for registering them came straight out of our pockets.
Let's see, electoral college elects the president, they are determind by voter districts, and voter districts are determind by registered voters and register voters are paid for by the federal government to ACORN. That should about sum it up.
AMEN!
I don't care about the poor black vote! The head monkey in the white house has made me just as poor. But I don't recieve any little perks because I'm not of some special ethnic background. I'm sick and tired of the monkey's wining and complaining about unfairness all they have done is turn the country into the planet of the apes. I think it would have been better if we elected curious gorge.
You should have asked me, butt-wipe; google the name, Darnell Nash. I realize that you didn't see anything about it in MSM or read about it in the Times, or any of the Posts, or even the Plain Dealer, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen.
I heard credible reports from New Castle, PA of vans and mini-buses from Youngtown, OH cruising New Castle for "displaced persons" (homeless leeches) to bus to Youngstown to same-day-register and vote in the primary to push Obama over Hillary in the 2008 primary. These "displaced" souls were instructed as to what addresses to register as their residences.
ACORN has been doing this for so long, that they have it down to a science.
Ivan
WHY ARE OUR TAX DOLLARS SUBSIDIZING THIS POS ORGANIZATION. VOTER FRAUD, MORTGAGE MELTDOWN, INFLUENCE PEDDLING. FEDERAL FUNDING FOR WHAT? A LEFT WING LOONY-TOON RECRUITING TOOL? PEOPLE AT ACORN SHOULD BE UNDER INVESTIGATION, NOT RECEPIENTS OF OUR TAX DOLLARS! ARE YOU LISTENING WASHINGTON?
Ivan, "hockeynation" is Canadian. They are just another pot-stirrer.
Its hard to ask anything when you are stuffing food in your mouth YOU didn't pay for. I agree with you!
Why do we not speak out about the corporate criminals, like Black Water, Halliburton, KBR, how did billions of tax dollars end up in Halliburtons hands in no bid contracts? How has Black Water get away with murder? how was KRB allow to cover up a rape? come on people there are much larger fish to fry!!!
Yes and how arrogant making fun of all that voter fraud in the third world countries.
And look what we have going on here in our own country.
Al Frankin ring a bell?
I’m working on getting six pack abs right now and it’s not easy. Do you have any suggestions as far as a good six pack abs diet? My trainer says that oatmeal, egg whites of course, salmon, blueberries and broccoli are all important to incorporate into your diet…are there any other foods I should include?