The man appointed by Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell to oversee the security and fairness of Pennsylvania elections has been discovered to be an ally of ACORN. Rendell, a Democrat, is a leading Obama supporter.
 
On March 31, 2005, Secretary of the Commonwealth Pedro Cortés heaped praise on the controversial left-wing activist group that is now being investigated for voter fraud in a dozen states, including Pennsylvania.
 
Said Cortés, directly addressing ACORN representatives at a meeting of the Pennsylvania Reform Task Force:

“And thank you kindly on behalf of the Department and on behalf of the Administration for all of the good work that ACORN, as well as Project Vote, has conducted through the years, particularly ACORN. I work very closely with some of your members on a national level, and appreciate your dedication and commitment to enfranchising all of the eligible voters.”
 
Cortés and ACORN are now the subject of a lawsuit filed last week in Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court by Pennsylvania Republican State Chairman Robert Gleason. The suit alleges that ACORN has committed voter fraud in the counties of Philadelphia, Allegheny, Dauphin (Harrisburg) and Delaware (suburban Philadelphia.) At the announcement of the filing Gleason said bluntly that “we don’t believe that we can trust the results of this election.” The United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania is investigating the fraud allegations against ACORN in Southeastern Pennsylvania, which include charges involving 40,000 new voter registrations, of which 85,000 are in Philadelphia. Other investigations have been launched by local district attorneys in both Central and Western Pennsylvania.

The suit was no sooner announced that Cortés responded by calling it frivolous and saying that concerns about ACORN were “aimed at doing nothing other than undermining voters’ confidence just 18 days before the election.” He did not reveal his past statements praising the controversial group. Gleason said he was “shocked and amazed” at the response to fraud allegations by both Cortés and Rendell. In the material Gleason has presented to the public are photographs of vacant lots listed as home to voters registered by ACORN.
 
This latest volley in the superheated presidential race between Senators John McCain and Barack Obama comes as NBC’s cable outlet MSNBC and NBC News itself is revealed by Townhall’s Amanda Carpenter to also have a relationship with ACORN.

In a real knee-slapper, NBC News describes their project involving ACORN as “Election Protection.” One can only wonder what the late Tim Russert, the Washington bureau chief of NBC News and host of Meet the Press, would say to this statement put out by NBC: “Our partnership with Election Protection will play a major role in NBC News’ ‘Making Your Vote Count’ coverage,” said Phil Alongi, executive producer of NBC News’ Election Coverage. “Not only will we be able to direct voters who are experiencing problems with a hotline to call, we will also have our team of reporters and producers follow-up on the information Election Protection is gathering.”
 
Let’s sort this out.
 
We now know that ACORN has an ally at the very top of the Pennsylvania election security pyramid in Secretary Cortés himself. And if you happen to tune in to NBC News for your election coverage, you will find that the network of Huntley and Brinkley and Russert and Brokaw and Chancellor has now actively allied its news coverage with ACORN.
 
Which gives the following statement quoted in the NBC press release a special twist:
 
“On Election Day, election officials will be facing record turnout with limited resources, and some voters will encounter problems as a result,” said Jonah Goldman, director of the National Campaign for Fair Elections at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and one of the leaders of the Election Protection”
 
One of those “election officials” of course is Cortés in Pennsylvania. So Pennsylvania voters, already uneasy about ACORN’s now documented fraudulent activities which are currently under federal investigation in the state, are now going to be “reported” by NBC News. Which in turn is openly relying on ACORN and a host of other left-wing organizations to gather its news.
 
In fact, the roster of groups NBC News has allied itself with is a smorgasbord of far left-wing extremist groups. Read the list here. As you can see, it includes not only ACORN but People for the American Way, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Alliance for Justice and others that have been virulent opponents of everything from Reagan and Bush Supreme Court nominations to the war in Iraq. ACORN, of course, has now been revealed as a major player in the global financial collapse with its role in re-routing the mortgage industry from a sound financial footing to one run by ACORN’s political whims.
 
Interestingly, if you look at this connection provided by Ms. Carpenter, the ACORN logo is mysteriously missing. Hmmm.
 
Ominously, one has to wonder what the Cortés revelation means for a potential Obama Justice Department. If allegations of voter fraud in Pennsylvania are being dismissed by the ACORN ally officially responsible for the security and fairness of Pennsylvania’s elections, what will happen when allegations of fraud are brought to an Obama Justice Department run on the same model as the Rendell administration’s model for the Pennsylvania Department of State and bureau of elections?
 
Whatever it is, you won’t be hearing the results from NBC News, will you?