GOP Bites Down on ACORN
14 October 2008 10:01 am by Taylor Marsh
BY TAYLOR MARSH
It’s like a
dog with a bone. Once they get a hold of it they won’t let go, even if there’s
little left to the bone. Voter fraud is a big deal. But in
an election season where the Republicans find themselves behind, they’re making
it the newest line of attack to tar Obama, as well as scare Americans about this election.
Nothing draws attention like success. ACORN registers tens of thousands of
voters every year. That seems to be a threat to the Republican Party. In an
independent field organization that spans across dozens of states, control is
an uphill battle. It also makes for an easy target.
The Wall
Street Journal’s tone says it all: “Community organizers, phony voters, and your tax dollars”… We’ve written about them for years,
but Acorn is now getting more attention as John McCain’s campaign makes an issue
of the fraud reports and Acorn’s ties to Mr. Obama. It’s about time someone
exposed this shady outfit that uses government dollars to lobby for larger government.
This isn’t just about purifying voter registration of minorities and the poor for Republicans.
It’s politics. It’s about making voter registration through groups like ACORN something nefarious so you
can shut it down.
From the New
York Post we get openers like this one: an Ohio man registered to vote
several times and cast a bogus ballot with a fake address… One Ohio man is a conduit to voter fraud, something an organization committed to registering minorities and the poor would risk their reputation? Seriously? It’s not until
the end of the article you get this:
And Platten insisted officials with ACORN have offered “any and all”
help in probing the questionable activities. Katy Gall, the Ohio state director
for ACORN, said her group is cooperating fully with the investigation.She added that her group has fired anyone who was found soliciting duplicate
registrations. …
There is nothing in it for ACORN to knowingly approve or in any way encourage bogus registrations
that can be traced back to them. They want to encourage voting
rights, not make it more difficult for the poor and minorities to vote.
Vote
drives defended, despite fake namesThis year, ACORN signed up 1.3-million voters nationwide and about 152,000
in Florida, mostly in Orange, Broward and Miami-Dade counties. ACORN estimates
it flagged 2 percent of its Florida registrations as problematic because they
were incomplete, duplicates or just plain bogus.That’s enough to give headaches to election officials and to provide ammunition
to Republican activists.…The GOP accuses ACORN of registration fraud all over the country. In Las
Vegas, authorities said the group’s petitions included the names of the starting
lineup of the Dallas Cowboys.“This is part of a widespread and systemic effort … to undermine
the election process,” says Republican National Committee chief counsel
Sean Cairncross, who describes ACORN as a “quasicriminal organization.”No, Kettenring said, it’s more like Wal-Mart.
“Some percentage of Wal-Mart workers try to get paid without doing their
work or steal from their employer,” he said…
Remember when Wal-Mart was found to have employed illegal immigrants? Did you
hear Republicans yelling for them to be closed down and run out of business?
Of course not, because capitalism and the big shots who run that engine is,
above all else, the fuel that drives Republican power.
The chief counsel of the GOP has finally gone the extra mile. “Quasicriminal.”
Imply it without saying it out right. One goal is to plant doubt in voters on this election so if Obama does win
Republicans can cry foul. The other goal is to destroy voter registration drives, making ACORN a political poster child. They’ve even penned a new name: Obamacorn.
