The American Spectator : SEIU Divorces ACORN?

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SEIU Divorces ACORN?

By Matthew Vadum on 10.6.09 @ 6:09AM

Has Obama favorite Andy Stern's union really cut its ties with ACORN? In the case of Dale Rathke, who could blame it?

The Service Employees International Union's Anna Burger shocked political observers last week when she told a congressional hearing that her union "cut all ties to ACORN."

Burger's statement came days before Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell announced yesterday that former ACORN official Dale Rathke allegedly stole $5 million from ACORN, as opposed to the originally reported sum of close to $1 million. Current ACORN chief organizer Bertha Lewis denies the $5 million figure is correct, and other ACORN inside sources I trust also deny the figure is correct, but more on the embezzlement saga in a moment.

Surely the SEIU's claimed break from ACORN is the kind of earth-shattering news that a powerful, high-profile labor union like SEIU would want to get out there as ACORN becomes increasingly associated in the public mind with corruption and criminality.

Alas, it only came up when Burger, who is SEIU's international secretary-treasurer, was asked about ACORN by Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) during a Sept. 30 hearing conducted by the House Financial Services Committee, as reported by BigGovernment.com.

The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, along with Time, Newsweek, the Nation, Mother Jones, and American Prospect were immediately all over the story -- oh wait, no they weren't. I guess I must have dozed there and started dreaming. Sorry about that, dear reader. I must be under-caffeinated.

At press time yesterday, a Nexis search for the keywords "ACORN SEIU Anna Burger" yielded exactly zip, except for an official transcript of the congressional testimony.

Moving along, at the hearing last week, McHenry said, "As of today the U.S. Census Bureau, the IRS, and even Bank of America have severed ties with ACORN and according to yesterday's, actually the day before yesterday's report from the Chicago Sun-Times the SEIU has given ACORN $4 million. Could you clarify to me the extent of your financial and programmatic ties to ACORN."

In reply, Burger said, "SEIU has also cut all ties to ACORN."

McHenry interrupted. "They have?"

Burger gave a rambling reply: "We have. In Illinois, I believe that I'm correct, that the ACORN institution, the consumer protection, the community organization in Illinois cut its ties to ACORN two years ago and so in Illinois there was [sic] no ties in the last two years between any SEIU work and ACORN."

"What was the extent of your financial ties with ACORN?" the congressman asked.

"I will get that information for you for the record," she said. Called the "queen of labor" by some, Burger is an officer of George Soros's Democracy Alliance, a left-wing billionaire donors' collaborative that has steered funds to ACORN. She also chairs the powerful labor federation known as Change to Win.

Yesterday, Burger did supply the requested information to McHenry. Her letter (available here) states that in 2008 SEIU paid $190,000 to ACORN for "Contributions (including General Support and ACORN Projects like Voter Registration)." The figure for 2009 was $25,000.

The letter states that SEIU paid ACORN $1.4 million in 2008 for "Contracted Services (including services such as the Organizing Apprenticeship Program and Childcare Worker Organizing Campaigns)." The figure for 2009 was $220,000.

I asked SEIU spokeswoman Michelle Ringuette in an interview what Burger meant when she said SEIU had cut all ties with ACORN.

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About the Author

Matthew Vadum is an award-winning investigative journalist at a conservative watchdog group in Washington, D.C. Vadum is also author of Subversion Inc: How Obama's ACORN Red Shirts are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (26) | Leave a comment

Son Of Sam| 10.6.09 @ 8:39AM

A "divorce"? Oh ho ho ho, don't make me laugh -- the phrase we're looking for is "thrown under the bus". The SEIU is a gang of criminals, as is ACORN, the "new" Black Panthers, and pitiful chorus of traitors and tax cheats who currently infest the White House. They have the thief mentality, and exactly the same level of loyalty.

stand strong until freedom dawns
Son Of Sam
http://www.samadamssos.bravehost.com

owyheewine| 10.6.09 @ 9:28AM

Can anyone say vast left wing conspiracy?

TAN| 10.6.09 @ 9:56AM

The American people have risen from their slumber, they have taken down ACORN.

The SEIU is just as corrupt and dirty . . . YOUR NEXT!!!!

Lullaby's, Legends and Lies| 10.6.09 @ 10:17AM

Anna Burger shocked political observers last week when she told a congressional hearing that her union "cut all ties to ACORN." Ha, Ha, she’s funny!!

How the hell would she know that? The connections between ACORN, SEIU, their affiliates, the Democratic Party, The White House, and the President are so deep, and tangled, that it would take a genius like Al Gore, to untangle them, and understand this web of fraud, to ever come to the truth.

I came across this article from last year, but holy crap, nothing’s changed since then, absolutely nothing, the mess just keeps on pouring out. Congress still isn’t investigating this, and the President continues on, like he has nothing to do with any of it. This whole criminal enterprise, has everything to do with the rise (and hopefully fall) of this unknown from Chicago, to the Presidency of the United States of America. Un-friggin’-believable!!

This article is from RealClearPolitics.

September 30, 2008
ACORN, Obama, and the Mortgage Mess
By Mona Charen
The financial markets were teetering on the edge of an abyss last week. The secretary of the Treasury was literally on his knees begging the speaker of the House not to sabotage the bailout bill. The crash of falling banks made the earth tremble. The Republican presidential candidate suspended his campaign to deal with the crisis. And amid all this, the Democrats in Congress managed to find time to slip language into the bailout legislation that would provide a dandy little slush fund for ACORN.
ACORN stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, a busy hive of left-wing agitation and "direct action" that claims chapters in 50 cities and 100,000 dues-paying members. ACORN is where Sixties leftovers who couldn't get tenure at universities wound up. That the bill-writing Democrats remembered their pet clients during such an emergency speaks volumes. This attempted gift to ACORN (stripped out of the bill after outraged howls from Republicans) demonstrates how little Democrats understand about what caused the mess we're in.

ACORN does many things under the umbrella of "community organizing." They agitate for higher minimum wages, attempt to thwart school reform, try to unionize welfare workers (that is, those welfare recipients who are obliged to work in exchange for benefits) and organize voter registration efforts (always for Democrats, of course). Because they are on the side of righteousness and justice, they aren't especially fastidious about their methods. In 2006, for example, ACORN registered 1,800 new voters in Washington. The only trouble was, with the exception of six, all of the names submitted were fake. The secretary of state called it the "worst case of election fraud in our state's history." As Fox News reported:
"The ACORN workers told state investigators that they went to the Seattle public library, sat at a table and filled out the voter registration forms. They made up names, addresses, and Social Security numbers and in some cases plucked names from the phone book. One worker said it was a lot of hard work making up all those names and another said he would sit at home, smoke marijuana and fill out the forms."
ACORN explained that this was an "isolated" incident, yet similar stories have been reported in Missouri, Michigan, Ohio, and Colorado -- all swing states, by the way. ACORN members have been prosecuted for voter fraud in a number of states. (See www.rottenacorn.com.) Their philosophy seems to be that everyone deserves the right to vote, whether legal or illegal, living or dead.
ACORN recognized very early the opportunity presented by the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) of 1977. As Stanley Kurtz has reported, ACORN proudly touted "affirmative action" lending and pressured banks to make subprime loans. Madeline Talbott, a Chicago ACORN leader, boasted of "dragging banks kicking and screaming" into dubious loans. And, as Sol Stern reported in City Journal, ACORN also found a remunerative niche as an "advisor" to banks seeking regulatory approval. "Thus we have J.P. Morgan & Co., the legatee of the man who once symbolized for many all that was supposedly evil about American capitalism, suddenly donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to ACORN." Is this a great country or what? As conservative community activist Robert Woodson put it, "The same corporations that pay ransom to Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton pay ransom to ACORN."
ACORN attracted Barack Obama in his youthful community organizing days. Madeline Talbott hired him to train her staff -- the very people who would later descend on Chicago's banks as CRA shakedown artists. The Democratic nominee later funneled money to the group through the Woods Fund, on whose board he sat, and through the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, ditto. Obama was not just sympathetic -- he was an ACORN fellow traveler.
Now you could make the case that before 2008, well-intentioned people were simply unaware of what their agitation on behalf of non-credit-worthy borrowers could lead to. But now? With the whole financial world and possibly the world economy trembling and cracking like a cement building in an earthquake, Democrats continue to try to fund their friends at ACORN? And, unashamed, they then trot out to the TV cameras to declare "the party is over" for Wall Street (Nancy Pelosi)? The party should be over for the Democrats who brought us to this pass. If Obama wins, it means hiring an arsonist to fight a fire.
Copyright 2008, Creators Syndicate Inc.

The mafia could learn a thing or two from these criminals.

Bob K.| 10.7.09 @ 12:57AM

How the hell would she (Anna Burger-that is!) know?

Easy, she is Andy Sterns's ex-wife. The have been close since they helped form SEIU 668 PA Social Services Union in 1974 or there abouts. Later they went to the big time at SEIU HQ in Wash. DC at the invitation John Sweeney, no less, and worked on recruiting new members and unaffiliated Unions to the SEIU flag.

Don't worry, she knows!

Ken (Old Texican)| 10.6.09 @ 11:03AM

Holy jumping camels!

Everyone here...go immediately to the American Thinker and read "Afghanistan...Lose it All"

I have been saying these things in op eds but this guy buttons it up.
GO!

Yosemeti Sam| 10.6.09 @ 11:50AM

LOL.

Analogous to a Mexican divorce - with all its'
connotative quickie sliminess.

Yosemeti Sam| 10.6.09 @ 11:50AM

LOL.

Analogous to a Mexican divorce - with all its'
connotative quickie sliminess.

Oldefarte| 10.6.09 @ 12:46PM

The Federal Government should investigate Acorn, but since Obama was elected partially due to them [and since Holder is now partisanly investigating the CIA], the chances of that happening are SLIM & NONE!!!!

Oldefarte| 10.6.09 @ 12:53PM

PS----Isn't it also amazing the lack of MSM coverage of this Acorn scandal; not only do they brainwash their readers/viewers with their typical soap-operish, so-called "news stories" that cover up the real truth, but they conveiniently ignore the corruption of Acorn, the administration's hiring of czars to avoid congressional oversight, etc.

Dustoff| 10.6.09 @ 2:41PM

SEUI & ACORN call it quits.

My answer "bull"

Marc Jeric| 10.6.09 @ 6:15PM

Imagine the news from the USSR, circa 1970's: "Communist Party of the USSR splits from the KGB". Now compare this: "Obama disclaims any knowledge of ACORN", or this: "SEIU divorces ACORN". How likely!

Poptropica | 4.8.10 @ 10:33PM

thanks you very much for your information
Poptropica
Poptropica

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