ACORN Scandal: Will Harshbarger Intervention Make or Break the ACORN?

ACORN’s CEO, Bertha Lewis announced last week that the group will seek an independent review of its operations. ACORN also announced that former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger would oversee the review. Although it seems difficult to imagine that the credentials of an attorney could allay public skepticism about the ethics of ACORN—especially in an era where lawyer-dominated institutions are frequently enmeshed in scandal—the professional background of Harshbarger makes him possibly the right person for the job.

That is, if ACORN—and Bertha Lewis—let him do the job.

Bertha Lewis is among the ACORN senior staff and Executive Committee members who actively concealed an apparently million dollar embezzlement from the organization by Dale Rathke, brother of ACORN founder and Lewis’ predecessor Wade Rathke.  So it is hard to believe Scott Harshbarger’s first line of business will be recommending or otherwise arranging for ACORN to fire Bertha Lewis and all her admitted, embezzlement concealing co-conspirators.

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