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You’re Invited…to Help Scrub ACORN’s Image

by Mike Flynn

Yesterday came the news that ACORN was ‘dissolving’ its national structure, allowing many of its local chapters to go ‘independent’. ACORN’s destruction of its brand had threatened the existence of every ACORN office in the country. Shedding the ACORN brand will give them a chance restart the flow of public money and leftist donors.

Make no mistake, however, that while their names may change, the personnel groomed by ACORN and the tactics they employ will remain the same. To paraphrase a famous verse, “A Rose by any other name…has just as many thorns.”

Below is an invite to New York ACORN’s first ‘re-branding shindig.’ This Thursday, long-time political allies of ACORN and its Working Families Party will host a high-dollar fundraiser for “New York Communities for Change,” the presumptive heir to ACORN NY.

ACORN Relaunch -

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Tags: ACORN, ACORN New York, ACORN relaunch, Bertha Lewis, Bill de Blasio
Posted Feb 23rd 2010 at 2:37 pm in ACORN, Culture, News, Politics, State Politics, Tea Party | 7928683 Comments2010-02-23+22%3A37%3A08Mike+Flynn

Nutbusterz: Judge Kaye Conflicted In Working Families Probe

by Roscoe Conkling

Only weeks ago the New York Post reported that former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger gave a whitewash to ACORN, the shady community action/organization that specialized in voter fraud and sucking up public funds. Harshbarger, a liberal democrat whose career was funded by the same Labor unions who fund ACORN, is hardly an unbiased analyst.

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More ominously, the New York Post predicted a similar Whitewash of the Working Families Party.

In an exclusive for Big Government, it can now be reported that Justice Kaye has a prior association with the WFP leadership and in fact ruled for the WFP Bosses in a lawsuit.
(more…)

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Tags: ACORN, Bertha Lewis, Scott Harshbarger, whitewash, Working Families Party
Posted Jan 13th 2010 at 5:56 pm in ACORN, Big Labor, Politics, State Politics | 5955429 Comments2010-01-14+01%3A56%3A33Roscoe+Conkling

ACORN, the Working Families Party and Political Corruption: Part 3, Who’s Paying the Rent?

by Publius

[Ed: This excerpt is Part 3 from a series originally reported by City Hall. Part I can be seen here, Part II can be seen here. Lead reporter on the investigative series was Edward-Isaac Dovere.]

The Working Families Party has irregularly reported rent payments over the years on its state campaign finance disclosures, leading some to question whether the Party has been getting what could be considered large in-kind contributions in the form of office space.

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Also among the recipients of rent payments was an entity called NYOSCI, listed on multiple documents as having an address in New Orleans identical to one used by many ACORN entities on incorporation documents.

NYOSCI has been the recipient of most of the Party’s recent rent payments, though some have also been made to Community Labor Administrative Services, a group also reporting the 2-4 Nevins Street address on records with the State Board of Elections.

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Tags: ACORN, Amalgamated Transit Union Fund, Bill Thompson, campaign finance disclosure, Mark Green
Posted Dec 17th 2009 at 1:44 pm in ACORN, Big Labor, Politics | 4813836 Comments2009-12-17+21%3A44%3A29Publius

ACORN, the Working Families Party and Political Corruption: Part 2, Who’s Doing All the Lobbying?

by Publius

[Ed: This excerpt is the second in a series of articles originally reported at City Hall. Go here for Part I in the series. Lead reporter on City Hall investigation was Edward-Isasc Dovere.]

The Working Families Organization, a tax-exempt 501(c)4, was legally created with a certificate of incorporation filed with the New York Department of State on July 12, 2006. Despite the similarities in the names, this paperwork established the Working Families Organization as a legally separate entity.

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That certificate lists four initial directors, starting with now-White House political director Patrick Gaspard, who was then a board member of the Working Families Party. The other three were ACORN chief organizer Bertha Lewis, Robert Master of the Communications Workers of America and Sam Williams of the United Auto Workers. These three also were and remain the three co-chairs of the Working Families Party.

Kevin Finnegan, who is now the political director for the 1199 Service Employees International Union, but who was then an attorney at Levy Ratner PC, signed the document as the incorporator. Finnegan is also the notary on the official Party rules filed with the Board of Elections and the lawyer who set up Data and Field Services.

The incorporation forms and other documents, like the Organization’s paperwork filed with the IRS, must be made public as a condition of its tax-exempt status. However, the process takes years, meaning that the most recent forms that are completed and available are from 2007.

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Tags: ACORN, Bertha Lewis, Brooklyn, Dan Cantor, lobbying disclosure
Posted Dec 16th 2009 at 6:07 am in ACORN, Big Labor, Featured Story, News, Politics, State Politics | 4704217 Comments2009-12-16+14%3A07%3A24Publius

ACORN, the Working Families Party and Political Corruption, Part I

by Publius

[Ed Note: Recently, City Hall in New York published an amazing multi-part investigative piece on possible corruption, illegal activities and general shadiness within the multi-pronged Working Families Party in New York. For those of you searching for examples of what investigative journalism used to be like, this series is a good place to start. Under the direction of lead reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere, the series explored the tangled web the Party in New York. Big Government readers will note that one of the co-chairs of the Party is Working Families Party is Bertha Lewis, CEO of ACORN. So, for those keeping score at home, this is the second organization headed by Lewis is that marked by opaque and confusing interrelationships and ethically-challenged legal boundaries. Hmm, what are the odds? Today begins Part I]

New York WFP site_1

In August, City Hall published an investigative report explaining the operations of the Working Families Party’s for-profit company, Data & Field Services. In early September, after conducting its own review, the New York City Campaign Finance Board officially declared that “DFS exists as an arm of the Working Families Party.” Over the last three months, City Hall has continued the investigation, relying on dozens of interviews with people within and outside the organization, in addition to a review of tax, lobbying and campaign finance records, as well as confidential internal documents.

Following weeks of in-depth inquiries from City Hall, the Working Families Party announced on Nov. 6 that it was hiring the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom to conduct a review of its practices, with the effort to be led by Judith Kaye, the former chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals.

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Tags: ACORN, ACORN politics, acorn scandal, Bertha Lewis, Center for Working Families
Posted Dec 15th 2009 at 6:03 am in ACORN, Big Labor, Featured Story, Politics, State Politics | 4659444 Comments2009-12-15+14%3A03%3A00Publius

Now Democrats Are Throwing ACORN Under the Bus

by Kyle Olson

A Staten Island Democrat is blaming her city council loss on ACORN. Apparently she didn’t know her political consultant, Scott Levenson of the Advance Group, was the same Scott Levenson that has been relentlessly defending ACORN.

Levenson has served as ACORN’s crisis communications consultant and needless to say, he’s been a busy man.

Nevertheless, Janine Materna’s loss for the South Shores City Council is ACORN’s fault. From the Staten Island Advance:

Democrat Janine Materna’s campaign is considering suing its consulting firm, the Advance Group, for $1 million, and claimed that consultant Scott Levenson’s position with the controversial ACORN group was among the reasons Ms. Materna lost the South Shore City Council race.

“It’s because of him that Janine lost the election,” said Jodi Materna, her sister’s campaign manager.

She said the campaign did not know of Levenson’s ACORN affiliation and if it had, “we never would have hired him.”

…

Levenson, ACORN’s national spokesman, said it was a “true sign of political immaturity to scapegoat anyone for Janine’s loss.”

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Tags: ACORN, acorn scandal, Advance Group, City Council, Janine Materna
Posted Nov 10th 2009 at 9:59 am in ACORN, Politics, State Politics | 2765035 Comments2009-11-10+16%3A59%3A31Kyle+Olson

BREAKING: More Proof of White House Political Director Patrick Gaspard’s Ties To ACORN Surfaces

by Matthew Vadum

It’s becoming more and more difficult for the Obama White House to deny that White House political director Patrick Gaspard has strong, longstanding ties to the corrupt activist group ACORN.

Gaspard is a longtime operative for ACORN and one of its political parties, New York’s Working Families Party.

Internal ACORN documents show Gaspard gave ACORN $40,000 over the past two years while he worked as an executive vice president of Service Employees International Union Local 1199 in New York.

That’s an awfully large tithe for someone who made $111,894 in 2007 and who has a wife and two children. The $111,894 figure comes from SEIU 1199′s most recent publicly available tax return.

Moreover, Gaspard hails from New York which has a crushing tax burden, especially for individuals earning six-figure salaries — and he lived in the upscale neighborhood of Park Slope, Brooklyn. It was unclear at press time if Gaspard’s wife contributes to the family fisc.

It is also entirely possible that the $40,000 Gaspard handed over to ACORN was SEIU money.

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Tags: ACORN, American Spectator, Barack Obama, Patrick Gaspard, SEIU
Posted Nov 6th 2009 at 10:23 am in ACORN, Big Labor | 2656236 Comments2009-11-06+17%3A23%3A06Matthew+Vadum

Big Win In Staten Island For ACORN Working Families Party and Peace Action

by Andrew Marcus

The radical left took a couple of hits on the chin yesterday, losing two significant governorships in Virgina and New Jersey. Add to this the embarrassing outing of one of their WFP endorsed RINO’s in NY-23, and this was not a banner cycle for the President Obama’s ACORN movement.

The Democratic Socialists and Marxists did score one important win in Staten Island yesterday, with the election of their WFP candidate for City Council, Debi Rose.

This is the same Debi Rose who recently exercised her 5th amendment right to avoid incriminating herself in an ACORN-WFP campaign finance related scandal.

There are two reasons this very local election is important beyond Staten Island.

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Tags: ACORN, CAIR, Debi Rose, Democrat Socialists, Holy Land Foundation
Posted Nov 5th 2009 at 6:47 am in ACORN, Big Labor, Politics | 2544632 Comments2009-11-05+13%3A47%3A45Andrew++Marcus

New York 23: ACORN expected to Protest Election Results Tomorrow in Clinton County

by Anita MonCrief

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Multiple sources on the ground in New York’s 23^rd Congressional district confirm that ACORN is expected to be actively protesting the election results in Clinton County, New York tomorrow. This move comes on the heels of a legal win for the Hoffman camp today as it was ruled that all poll watchers would have to be registered voters of NY 23.

Rob Ryan, spokesman for the Hoffman campaign, states that the legal decision is all about ballot security and that the move by ACORN is not a surprise.

“The Working Family Party is desperate, Today’s poll show that Doug Hoffman is drawing votes from all Demographics”.

While the focus tomorrow will be on securing a win for Hoffman, Ryan says there are still worries about:

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Tags: ballot security, Clinton County, Doug Hoffman, Election Fraud, New York 23
Posted Nov 2nd 2009 at 8:29 pm in ACORN, Big Labor, Congress, Politics, State Politics | 2441887 Comments2009-11-03+03%3A29%3A21Anita+MonCrief

Obama’s Working Families (ACORN) Party Looks Set To Lose In NYC

by Andrew Marcus

Now that Dede Scozzafava has pulled out of the race in NY-23, (and pulled off her mask, revealing a true blue WFP soldier in elephant’s clothing), political junkies are sitting on the edge of their seats, waiting to gauge the value of President Obama’s coattails as measured by the success or failure of his endorsed candidates in New Jersey and Virginia.

One other race being decided tomorrow is getting little notice, but it could serve as a bell weather on President Obama’s fortunes. It’s getting little notice because the outcome seems all but certain; Re-election for current New York Mayor Bloomberg. Real Clear Politics has Bloomberg +12.7%.

That’s too bad for Barack Obama and his Working Families (ACORN) Party. Together, they endorsed the presumed soon to be defeated WFP-Democrat in the race, William “Billy” Thompson.

Proudly featured on Billy’s website:

obama endorses thompson

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Tags: ACORN, Barack Obama, Bill Thompson, Hoffma, Mike Bloomberg
Posted Nov 2nd 2009 at 1:31 pm in ACORN, Politics, State Politics | 2329438 Comments2009-11-02+20%3A31%3A40Andrew++Marcus

Will Corzine Allies Steal the Election in New Jersey? ACORN, Dirty Tricks and Absentee Ballot Fraud

by Capitol Confidential

New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine is locked in the political fight of his life. With just hours left before voting, polls show a neck-and-neck race between Corzine and GOP candidate Chris Christie, with Independent candidate Chris Daggett pulling significant support. Obama and VP Biden are making last ditch pitches for the embattled governor. But evidence is building that Corzine’s campaign may see its only salvation is in rigging the election.

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The first sign is a straight-up dirty trick. Daggett’s run for office is certainly convenient for Corzine, as he will help split any anti-Corzine vote. And, as a Corzine political appointee, one wonders if his candidacy wasn’t a set up to begin with. Now, in the final days of the campaign, it appears state democrats are paying for robo calls supporting Independent Chris Daggett. First reported here, the robo calls attack Christie (but not Corzine) and promote Daggett. At the end of the call, it is mentioned that the calls are paid for by a “project of the NJSDC.” No idea what that acronym stands for, but New Jersey State Democratic Committee, isn’t too big of a stretch. More interesting is the fact that the return number on the calls is the same number that was used to promote Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley’s election in closing days of the 2006 race.

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Tags: absentee ballots, absentee voter fraud, ACORN, Barack Obama, Bertha Lewis
Posted Nov 1st 2009 at 10:10 pm in ACORN, Big Labor, News, Politics, State Politics | 23882116 Comments2009-11-02+05%3A10%3A21Capitol++Confidential

Alleged Corruption In Obama’s Working Families Party: ‘Inside The DFS Experience’

by Andrew Marcus

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Recently, Michelle Malkin reported on a scandal brewing in President Obama’s other party, the Working Families Party.

The Working Families Party, an ACORN front group whose ballot line Newt Gingrich-endorsed radical leftist Dede Scozzafava has embraced on multiple occasions, is up to no good again.

And now, Big Government is reporting on the birth of a new website entitled Nutbusterz, devoted to aggregating all of the scandal coverage of the working Families Party.

Nutbusterz will serve serve as a clearinghouse for media coverage of the illegal activities of ACORN. Media reports on ACORN and the New York Working Families Party (WFP) will be updated daily. Candidates and causes that ally themselves with ACORN will be exposed and held to account.

We would like to point all interested parties toward a series of articles which warrant consideration for inclusion at Nutbusterz, written by a local NY publication called City Hall.

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Tags: ACORN, ACORN corruption, Barack Obama, City Hall, DFS
Posted Oct 30th 2009 at 7:27 am in ACORN, Big Labor, Politics, State Politics | 2265419 Comments2009-10-30+14%3A27%3A28Andrew++Marcus

Exclusive: NUTBUSTERZ Launched To Expose Working Families Party/ACORN Scam

by Capitol Confidential

A new citizen action group is committed to exposing the danger that ACORN and the Working Family Party poses to our democracy based on their record of subverting elections through voter fraud, falsifying petitions and engaging in absentee ballot fraud for favored candidacies, looting government housing programs, blackmailing corporations and cheating the public campaign finance system.

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Nutbusterz will serve serve as a clearinghouse for media coverage of the illegal activities of ACORN. Media reports on ACORN and the New York Working Families Party (WFP) will be updated daily. Candidates and causes that ally themselves with ACORN will be exposed and held to account.

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Tags: ACORN, ACORN fraud, Annemarie Salvatore, political corruption, Working Families Party
Posted Oct 29th 2009 at 7:15 am in ACORN, Big Labor, Exclusives, Politics, State Politics | 2234641 Comments2009-10-29+14%3A15%3A48Capitol++Confidential

Taking a Crack at ACORN

by Publius

From today’s New York Post:

ACORN Raided

Pointing to a string of probes that ACORN is facing and news reports about the two groups sharing a Nevins Street address in Brooklyn, the suit seeks to flush out the overlap.

Critics of the two groups have long complained they work hand in glove — and have found compelling evidence in Brooklyn.

“Another organization that helped found and remains closely [allied] with the WFP is the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, commonly known as ACORN,” reads a petition filed in the case, charging that “ACORN not only shares office space with the WFP . . . but Bertha Lewis, the executive director of New York ACORN, is also a state co-chair of the WFP.”

The suit goes on to say the WFP “has remained closely” tethered to the group.

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Tags: ACORN, ACORN Brooklyn, acorn scandal, Dan Levitan, Working Families Party
Posted Oct 27th 2009 at 11:15 am in ACORN, Big Labor, Justice/Legal | 2141011 CommentsTaking+a+Crack+at+ACORN2009-10-27+18%3A15%3A01Publius

BREAKING: ACORN Ally Nadler Resists Probe While Giving ACORN Advice

by Matthew Vadum

Washington has long been a place where ethics are flexible. If mainstream media outlets are snoozing, it’s easy to get away with a lot.

The mainstream media has paid very little attention to the ties between Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), who chairs a House Judiciary subcommittee that might be called upon to investigate ACORN, and Nadler’s close working relationship with ACORN.

Nadler a longtime ACORN ally who has run for Congress on the ticket of ACORN’s political party, the Working Families Party of New York, is now offering advice to ACORN on how it should try to weather the controversies currently embroiling it.

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Tags: ACORN, American Spectator, Anita MonCrief, Arthur Z. Schwartz, Barney Frank
Posted Oct 26th 2009 at 9:35 am in ACORN, Politics | 2099058 Comments2009-10-26+16%3A35%3A20Matthew+Vadum

The Hexagon Of Progress: Barack Obama – Working Families Party – Democratic Socialists Of America – New Party – ACORN – SEIU

by Andrew Marcus

When a candidate of the Democratic or Republican parties is successfully elected President of the United States, it is widely accepted that by virtue of being the highest elected office holder in the party, they are the “leader” of their respective party.

Why would it be any different when it comes to President Obama’s leadership role in his other political party, the Working Families Party?

If the President and his other party are to be held to the same standard as the Republicans, Greens, and Democrats, etc.. then by all rights he should be considered the leading force or figure within the Working Families Party.

In reality, no matter how one chooses to define the President’s relationship to his other party, the relationship itself demands a close examination of its platform, background, and history, all of which the President would appear to have endorsed by accepting their nomination.

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Tags: ACORN, Barack Obama, Citizen Action, Democrat Socialists of America, Eugene Debs
Posted Oct 23rd 2009 at 8:00 am in ACORN, Big Labor, News, Obama, Politics | 1947887 Comments2009-10-23+15%3A00%3A18Andrew++Marcus

Major ACORN Victory In New York Thanks In Part To Van Jones

by Andrew Marcus

ACORN’s New York operations are looking forward to a potential new flow of federal dollars, thanks to the New York State Senate and New York Governor Paterson.

Together they applied the Van Jones’ Apollo doctrine to tap into federal stimulus money allocated to New York.

Governor Paterson recently signed into law something called the “Green Jobs – Green New York Act of 2009″. The new law provides for the creation of a massive slush fund of federal stimulus dollars to be set aside for “green jobs”.

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Those green jobs include but will not be limited to “Energy Auditors”, certified green contractors, green financing services to help pay for property upgrades, and more.

There are a number of places in the legislation where ACORN, SEIU, and their affiliates stand to gain access to this new green slush fund. Below is but one excerpt which must make them very happy:

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Tags: ACORN, Apollo Alliance, Apollo Doctrine, Dan Cantor, David Paterson
Posted Oct 22nd 2009 at 1:36 pm in ACORN, Big Labor, Featured Story, Politics, State Politics | 1957888 Comments2009-10-22+20%3A36%3A59Andrew++Marcus

High Noon in New York 23rd: A Ref Would Have Called It By Now. Time to Dump Dede

by Mike Flynn

Once upon a time, ‘Republican’ Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava was the front-runner in the special election to replace actual Republican Rep. John McHugh. That was then, the video below is now:

In politics, a good rule-of-thumb is that the candidate calling for more debates is the candidate that is losing. It usually means they are just about out of money and need staged, public events to even hope to get their message out. For a big government liberal like Dede, it figures she would resort to this. It seems noone is buying what she’s selling, so she’s trying to orchestrate her own bailout. That is fairly typical.

What isn’t typical, however, is her campaign’s apparent–and total–lack of competence. Who stages a press conference and fails to control its visuals? City council races in Nebraska have more discipline.

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Tags: Bill Owens, Conservative Party of New York, Dana Loesch, Dede Scozzafava, Doug Hoffman
Posted Oct 22nd 2009 at 9:00 am in ACORN, Congress, Obama, Politics, State Politics | 1932662 Comments2009-10-22+16%3A00%3A38Mike+Flynn

Barack Obama’s Working Families Party – “Tax The Rich And Give It Back To The Poor”

by Andrew Marcus

Did ACORN’s Working Families Party steal an election in New York?

Fox News is reporting that absentee ballots were fraudulently cast with stolen identities, and that the number of allegedly fraudulent votes was enough to potentially tip the election in the favor of Working Families Party candidates.

Brian Suozzo voted with an absentee ballot in the Working Families Party primary on Sept. 15 because, as his application stated, he was “at home recovering from medical procedure.”

Jessica Boomhower’s application said she would be attending a “work conference in Boston.”

Michael Ward couldn’t vote in person because he was “taking care of elderly parent.”

Kimberlee Truell was on a “Bus trip to casino,” as was Miguel Vazques.

The only problem with these absentee ballot records at the Rensselaer County Board of Elections in Troy, N.Y., is that they’re phony, voters and investigators say — and they’ve prompted what’s being called an unprecedented investigation of suspected voter fraud.

One person who must comment on these developments is ACORN Chief Organizer and Working Families Party co-founder, Bertha Lewis.

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Tags: Absentee Ballot Fraud, ACORN, ACORN voter fraud, Bertha Lewis, Patrick Gaspard
Posted Oct 21st 2009 at 1:44 pm in ACORN, Big Labor, Obama, Politics | 1847031 Comments2009-10-21+20%3A44%3A24Andrew++Marcus

Is ACORN’s Bertha Lewis Even Capable Of Telling The Truth?

by Matthew Vadum

Did ACORN chief organizer Bertha Lewis say anything that was true in her recent speech at the National Press Club?

The embattled ACORN CEO deserved an Academy Award nomination for her virtuoso performance in which she not only depicted ACORN as an innocent victim but also as a whistleblower that tried to nip the subprime mortgage crisis in the bud.

She blamed everyone but herself: “We’ve seen this play before, whether it was the civil rights movement or whatever, when you organize poor people to have real power, what you do is often turned against you.”

She blamed Republicans: “The RNC…because we’ve been inflated as the boogeyman, raises almost $2 million a day, every day, and this form of modern-day ACORN McCarthyism has got to stop.”

Lewis’s statement about the Republican National Committee was immediately torpedoed by RNC chairman Michael Steele who defended ACORN.

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Tags: ACORN, American Spectator, Bertha Lewis, Bill Mason, Dale Rathke
Posted Oct 20th 2009 at 12:30 pm in ACORN | 1819078 Comments2009-10-20+19%3A30%3A27Matthew+Vadum