I participated in listen-only mode in the teleconference call Monday in which ACORN’s allegedly independent “audit” was released.

I regret it was difficult to make out what the players were saying.

That’s because as the left ferociously circled the wagons, all the creaking wheel noises in the background drowned out much of what was said.

Scott Harshbarger, ACORN ally and former attorney general of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

One the main points that ACORN ally and former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger and ACORN CEO/chief organizer Bertha Lewis were trying to make was that ACORN, i.e. the lead entity that controls the ACORN network, and ACORN Housing, are separate entities.

Because ACORN Housing and ACORN are different organizations neither is responsible for the other, they argued. In other words, ACORN is not responsible for ACORN Housing employees caught on video encouraging illegal behavior, and vice versa, they reasoned.

Harshbarger said on the conference call

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Anyone in the market for a creepy former funeral home whose major claim to fame is miraculously housing over 200 organizations?  Word is, you’re out of luck.

Apparently an offer has been accepted for ACORN’s long-time headquarters on Elysian Fields Avenue in New Orleans, on the edge of the 9th Ward.  SEIU 100, which Rathke founded, was also headquartered in that building.

I visited that location in late July to see it for myself, as a colleague and I were in town to attend a Wade Rathke book signing that evening.  Because of our straight-forward questions and unedited answers, Wade Rathke called us “Infiltrators.”

Upon seeing the building for sale (which he had seen in b-roll video footage before), we check out the listing on the website of French Quarter Realty.  Other information can be found at Realtor.com, which basically a massive nation-wide Multiple Listing Service.

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Photo taken today by Big Government contributor Kevin Kane at ACORN Headquarters in the Big Easy:

This picture is worth at least a thousand words.