Special Report
Bertha Lies
ACORN chief organizer Bertha Lewis's recent appearance at the National Press Club was an exercise in denial -- and worse.
ACORN chief organizer Bertha Lewis's recent appearance at the National Press Club was an exercise in denial.
Lewis deserved to receive 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.
Even the Washington Post's Dana Milbank couldn't resist beating Lewis up:
In creativity, the ACORN boss's denials were matched only by her assignments of blame. She blamed her predecessor: "I don't think it's fair to judge me, as I'm cleaning up a previous administration." She blamed the powerful: "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." And most of all, 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 undermined by the blissfully ignorant and frequently tone-deaf RNC chairman Michael Steele who defended ACORN.
In a video of Steele from a Sept. 21 speech that surfaced on a left-wing website the day of Lewis's speech, Steele praises Lewis. "The current head of the organization, she's done a phenomenal job getting out in front of it," Steele said. "I applaud her. I take her at her word that she wants to work to make sure that the bad apples are thrown out."
Steele said he respects ACORN's history of "working in the community and helping the poor."
So much for the Republican boogeyman.
Lewis didn't say much about her own role in covering up the nearly $1 million embezzlement perpetrated by founder Wade Rathke's brother. After news of the theft broke, Lewis drove out honest ACORN national board members who dared to ask questions.
Lewis, who has high-level contacts within the Marxist governments of Venezuela and Bolivia, also glossed over her ties to the radical Working Families Party in New York state and to President Obama's political director Patrick Gaspard.
Let's deal with some of the major lies in the speech. (Note that by "lie" I mean an untruth stated by a person who knows at the time he or she makes the statement that it is untrue. PolitiFact and other so-called fact-checking operations that follow ACORN use a more much flexible definition for "lie.")
LIE #1: Lewis claimed no one voted fraudulently in 2008 presidential election "because of an ACORN registration." She added, "This voter fraud or the allegations of voter fraud was to have hung a shadow over the presidential election. And it proved to be an utter fabrication and a work of fiction that was created by the people who wrote it."
In fact, vote fraud happened in Ohio in 2008 and ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it.
Darnell Nash of Cleveland, Ohio, was registered to vote by ACORN nine times for last year's election. Nash cast a fraudulent ballot and was convicted of vote fraud and voter registration fraud. He's currently serving a six-month prison term.
A spokesman for Cleveland's Democratic prosecutor Bill Mason told me earlier this month that a local investigation of ACORN remains wide open.
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.
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Eric Cartman| 10.20.09 @ 7:09AM
To all those who criticized me for writing that the Republicans will screw up this opportunity to take back the house and the senate, I give you Michael Steel, Republican Fool # 1:
In a video of Steele from a Sept. 21 speech that surfaced on a left-wing website the day of Lewis's speech, Steele praises Lewis. "The current head of the organization, she's done a phenomenal job getting out in front of it," Steele said. "I applaud her. I take her at her word that she wants to work to make sure that the bad apples are thrown out."
Instead of apologies, just throw money. Thank you.
ARealist| 10.20.09 @ 11:09PM
Eric, you are 1000% correct.
When it comes to politics and getting across a cogent, clear message the Republicans are total idiots.
The dems play dirty, filthy, lying politics very very well. They know how to reach voters on an emotional basis - which is what wins over the hearts of voters and ultimately their votes.
The republicans are totally incapable of reaching out emotionally to the electorate and merely respond to the agenda laid out by the demokrats. The republicans refuse to play hardball; how often must we hear how republicans want to "reach out across the aisle," something no democrat in good standing (i.e., a communist-fascist thug) would ever do or say.
The republicans never learn. As politicians they are total morons.
Obama - a true Marxist-Leninist fascist thug - has supplied ample ammunition to be utilized by the republicans to criticize him. What do we hear?? Not very much.
Unless Obama the Commie totally self-destructs, aided by his Marxist-Nazi thug "czars" we can expect him to serve two terms - minimum.
If he gets two, watch him take more; that is the Castro/Chavez/Lenin/Stalin/Mao/Jong way.
God help the USA.
Eric Cartman| 10.21.09 @ 1:27AM
Amen ARealist! The funny thing is, all the Dems have to do is say some outrageous thing on a Sunday show and the Stupid Republican will grin, touch the Liberal AHoles arm and say something like "Well, heh heh, my good friend (Ahole Democrat here) exaggerates, heh,heh. Look, We want to help (insert stupid liberal program here). But we want to spend a little less, heh heh." Jeez, what chicken-shit Aholes our Republicans are. No back bone! No Cajones! No guts! Just a pile of steaming crap. God help us is right - because the Republicans won't!
S.L. Toddard| 10.20.09 @ 7:52AM
mon·o·ma·ni·a (mŏn'ə-mā'nē-ə, -mān'yə)
n.
1. Pathological obsession with one idea or subject.
2. Intent concentration on or exaggerated enthusiasm for a single subject or idea.
george horn| 10.20.09 @ 8:49AM
best exemplified by the lefts treatment of george bush. the kooks are running the asylum now america.
Eric Cartman| 10.20.09 @ 9:22AM
Stupidity: [stjuːˈpɪdɪtɪ]
1. A stupid act, remark, or idea.
2. S.L. Toddard in action
Doorgunner| 10.20.09 @ 11:15AM
3. The psychological sine qua non of an internet troll.
Ray| 10.20.09 @ 1:29PM
inconsequential
1. not following logically as a consequence
2. trivial or insignificant
3. not in a logical sequence; haphazard
stephanie| 10.20.09 @ 8:28AM
Yeah, obama's obsession with fasicm.
Grzmlyk| 10.20.09 @ 8:33AM
de·ni·al
1) Psychology: An unconscious defense mechanism characterized by refusal to acknowledge painful realities, thoughts, or feelings.
2) A refusal to grant the truth of a statement or allegation; a contradiction.
Truth to Power| 10.20.09 @ 8:36AM
Keep your eye on the ball Matthew. I begin to suspect that Ron Paul has an Acorn connection. This is more disturbing than his Bruno connection.
Pingback| 10.20.09 @ 8:36AM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : Bertha Lies [spectator.org] on Topsy links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Timothy L. Pennell| 10.20.09 @ 8:42AM
Please. You give this woman far too much credit. She's not even a good liar. If you want to see a PRO? Look no further than PRESIDENT LIAR. When the MARXIST in the White House was asked by a reporter; 'How he felt about ACORNS' Money Spigot being shut off?' Why, he looked right in to the guys' face and said: "Frankly, I wasn't even aware that ACORN was recieving any 'Stimulus' Money." Say Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? The guy who TRAINED ACORN, ran the Streets on the South Side of Chicago with them, represented them in COURT, and picked up the phone to ORDER THEM, on to the BUSES, and in to the TOWN HALL MEETINGS, so they could "PUNCH BACK TWICE AS HARD", wasn't 'AWARE' that his #1 Bunch of THUGS was getting $BILLIONS in HIS Stimulus Package?
He thinks he's so slick. Doesn't he? And he thinks the WE are so STUPID. I look foreward to his MUSOLINI impersonation, when he finally goes TOO FAR. See how he's TORN THIS COUNTRY APART, in just 10 Months. I can't imagine this Administration lasting the full 48 Months.
"And I saw the BEAST rise out of the Sea. And he was given a MOUTH, to speak Haughty and Blasphemous words. And he was allowed to exercise authority for 42 Months."
I guess we'll see, won't we?
Jobe| 10.20.09 @ 9:34AM
My father was a lifelong democrat when that party actually DID care about the common man. He used to say that republicans could "screw up a one car funeral". I think he was right and this is the proof.
Pingback| 10.20.09 @ 10:15AM
Bertha Lies | Republican Party of Door County links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Grzmlyk| 10.20.09 @ 10:40AM
Michael Steele is an idiot who vastly overestimates his capabilities.
He's part of the Republican Rot that has to be excised from the party if it is to survive as an entity with any philosophical underpinnings whatsoever.
Not that it deserves to survive.
The cancer that has infected our poltical culture has metastasized beyond the point where a truly conservative party is viable. Whether Obama is exposed as the amoral thug he is or not is really irrelevant; the Federal government has long since reached critical mass. No conservative party can stand up to the juggernaut.
We're on the express train to tyranny. A second American Revolution, separating entirely from the pervasive apparatus that currently exists, is the only way to save traditional American values. Otherwise, it's down the tubes, folks, and rule by a permanent criminal class.
It's time for a second Declaration of Independence.
Eric Cartman| 10.20.09 @ 12:22PM
Ditto!
And did you ever think you would see S.L. Toddard suck up for the Republicans? Must be off his meds.
S.L. Toddard| 10.20.09 @ 2:15PM
"The cancer that has infected our poltical culture has metastasized beyond the point where a truly conservative party is viable"
Indeed, not to mention to the point where the term "conservative" might not even be accurate to describe those who wish to preserve the traditional American way of life under a small, unintrusive, fiscally responsible federal gov't. One cannot "conserve" what no longer exists.
I wonder if there is a better term - ressurectionist? Re-establishmentarian?
Also @ Mr. Cartman - what are you talking about? Suck up for the GOP? I despise the GOP. At least the Democrats are honest about their love of Big Government. With the GOP it's always bait-and-switch hucksterism.
Eric Cartman| 10.20.09 @ 2:31PM
At least the Democrats are honest about their love of Big Government. With the GOP it's always bait-and-switch hucksterism.
Well, can't argue with ya there. That's what we should try to change. It may be too late or not worth the effort, however.
Lullaby's, Legends and Lies| 10.20.09 @ 2:59PM
Cartman: I think you’re missing the Toad’s point in his earlier posting, the one with the definition to the word Monomania in it. I think the “definition” of that word, was the point he was trying to make. I think the “definition” was a hit on MR Vadum’s article here today, not a hit on the ACORN scandal itself, just on the article. I think the Toad is getting tired of the ACORN stories, and that he thinks MR Vadum is beating a dead horse again (but he’s not of course, because I want to hear more about it, so keep hitting the damn thing!!, because the damn horse is not dead!!). But what I find the most curious is his choice of word to define for us here today.
Monomania: Exaggerated or obsessive enthusiasm for, or preoccupation with one thing.
It sounds like the exact definition of Toddard to me, and his friggin’ over the top obsession with posting day in and day out on this website. I mean seriously, has he ever missed the chance to lacerate an article, or an author, or just somebody who leaves a random post here? No, I don’t think so, and he’ll prove me correct on my assumption here tonight (it should be any minute now?).
So I don’t think he’s off his meds or anything, nor is he supporting the GOP either, but one thing is for certain, he surely is obsessed with this site. So Let’s Go Yankees!!! Sorry, but I had to do that.
Eric Cartman| 10.20.09 @ 4:04PM
Good point! Or rather, good points!
S.L. Toddard| 10.21.09 @ 12:38PM
"It sounds like the exact definition of Toddard to me"
You're not the first person here to come to that conclusion. In fact, it was after it was applied to me by the good John II here that I realized how perfectly it applies to Mr. Vadum and his obsession with this shoddy, impotent, irrelevant group.
Johnno| 10.22.09 @ 1:50AM
Megalomaniac, narcissist--perfect descriptions of Mr. Asshole Toddard the astroturf troll.
maxfolger| 10.20.09 @ 10:56AM
Ever wonder who is coaching Michael Steele?
http://bit.ly/3ppyiu
(satire)
Paul from SA| 10.20.09 @ 11:51AM
Matthew, good work.
I have seen Bertha Lewis several times on tv evading questions. I suspected she was lying everytime.
Congress cut off funding for ACORN until only Oct. 31. All their funding will be restored.
Hannah Giles deserves a medal, as do all conservative woman who have the courage to stand in front of the cameras and take the vicous onslaught from liberals, often from feminists using the most vile anti-female language one can use against a woman. See Sarah Palin, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Carrie PreJean, Liz Cheney, Michelle Bachman, Katherine Harris, Jeri Thompson, etc.
Liberals usually rely on accusing conservatives of being corrupt and inferior. With conservative women, they also attack their looks, sexuality, womanhood, femininity, motherhood, hair, clothes, glasses, makeup....
I did not know about Michael Steele's praise of ACORN. I continue to be amazed at how some Republicans can be so mis/uninformed. Lindsay Graham thinks the planet is still warming. Is it their staff?
Grzmlyk| 10.20.09 @ 1:08PM
Toddard HAS no mind. He lives entirely in a world of abstractions and thought experiments, where he fetishizes minutia. Once in a while his theoretical gossamer happens to coincide with reality, but he's always quick to retreat into the cocoon of his own moral vanity.
Usually he stays within the echo chamber of his intellectual attic, trying on conceptual clothing and admiring how robust each outfit makes him look in the mirror of his mind's eye.
He reminds me of a more pompous version of Bill O'Reilly doing the "Independent Two Step:" And, right, two, three, left, two three, and right, two three, left, two three. . .
Margie| 10.20.09 @ 10:14PM
I nominate this Post of the Day!
Joe| 10.20.09 @ 2:12PM
Michael Steele has got to go. This fool is bring down the party not lifting it up. If they feel a black man is necessary to compete with Obama, then Ken Blackwell is your man. He should have been elected the first time.
Pingback| 10.20.09 @ 2:33PM
Capital Research Center: links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 10.20.09 @ 3:31PM
Big Government » Blog Archive » Is ACORN’s Bertha Lewis Even Capable Of Telling The T links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Michael| 10.20.09 @ 4:52PM
Does anybody (Liberals / Dems especially) care to note how little attention is being paid to what Barney Frank and Chris Dodd did in influencing the banks starting with the FNMA / FHLMC electronic mortgage approval process ? A process which Countrywide (in my opinion the biggest contributor to liar loan failure) adopted with their "CountryWide Platinum Lender" AUS system (Automated Underwriting System)..? You people have no clue ? George Bush, although guilty of sleeping at the wheel many many times, and his administration tried to put the clamp on the moderations of standard banking underwriting procedures....to no avail... The liberals got what they wanted; more loans for people that could not afford to own properties and an artificially inflated real estate market which the greedy real estate agents were only too happy to be a party to....That is the single most attrocity in recent years responsible for killing, I mean killing our economy....nobody cares about that do they ? Chris Dodd and his buddies all got sweetheart loans from Angelo Mozillo and Countrywide...anywhere else, for anybody else, it would be constituted as plain old fraud...... Look, Democrats, Republicans... I don't care any more, they are all a bunch of back slapping crooks and if you are not part of the gravy train, you're out of luck... People laugh and mock about good honest people like Sarah Palin and Ron Paul....Do you liberals ever listen to what Ron Paul has to say about fiscal policy..etc... ?? No...you denigrate peole like him because he isn't something you would put on a mag cover like Clinton or Obama ? This country is turning into a bunch of shallow narrow minded morons that are missing the big picture.......Wake Up !!!!!! especially you Eric Cartman.......who are your heroes ??? You don't have to have a law degree to be heard and somewhere along the line you liberals decided to get behind the lawyers that run this country and worship them at their feet......what a bunch of followers......
Michael| 10.20.09 @ 4:59PM
You know, I live in NJ and it's primarily been run by Libs for decades....would you like to know what kind of deficit we have ? Would you like to know what the unemployment rate is even though it is directly adjacent to New York City, Philadelphia...etc... ? We have more section 8 housing that any other state, in case you folks don't know what that is, 80% of people's rent or mortgages are supplemented or subsidized by a now BANKRUPT state...what do you think Corzine is going to do ? Raise taxes...what else can he do..he wouldn't dare cut the bureacracy in this state....give me a break !!! Another note: New Jersey with their autocratic, imperious style of over regulatory government is single handedly responsible for the failure of Atlantic City as a premier gaming resort....they had it all in the palm of their hands and regulated the growth right out of the city....ask Steve Wynn what he thinks of the DEMOCRATIC controlled state...
Pingback| 10.20.09 @ 6:10PM
BlueRidgeForum » ‘Grassroots Asking’: Scozzafava;Steele Slips;Too Few Illegals links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Liberal Reader| 10.20.09 @ 6:29PM
Vadum,
When are you going to wake up and do a story on ACORN?
How long are you going to ignore the most important issue facing America?
ACORN is at the root of all evil. ACORN is responsible for the housing crisis, the financial crisis, the education crisis, and the medical care crisis.
But you go on ignoring it. Why?
Doorgunner| 10.20.09 @ 8:38PM
What a silly little sock-puppet you are.
So, no one is fighting Obamacare; no one is decrying crap & enslave... I mean cap and trade; no one is pointing out The One is utterly two-faced on Afghanistan; no one is pointing out the trebling of the deficit and that -sorry!- it ain't G.W. Bush's fault.
Nope. We're all obsessed with ACORN, which isn't at all indicative of the Janus of transparency lip-service and two-bit crony corruption that rules this administration. Nope. We're idiots. Thanks for pointing that out with your twenty-year-old's razor sharp, wizened before your time sense of irony.
Jackass.
tonypal| 10.21.09 @ 10:42PM
Liberal Reader, perhaps you don't understand how this whole thing works, so let me help you out. Mr. Vadum has an interest in ACORN and their shenanigans. ACORN is the gift that keeps on giving, with another video from Philadelphia ACORN surfacing today. The whole story about ACORN is just beginning to unfold. Mr. Vadum, like any good writer who is interested in getting to the bottom of a huge scandal, reports what he knows when the opportunity arises.
What exactly would you have him do, ignore the ongoing story because you've decided he's written too much already? That doesn't seem to make much sense at all.
SpeakTruth| 10.21.09 @ 4:13AM
When you find out how deep and wide the lies are that Ms Lewis is telling you'll be stunned. But much more important i s the way that Wade Rathke is playing everyone. While we are watching Bertha Lewis latest antics. Wade is implanting himself and his paternalistic philosophy all over the world.
The biggest lie Ms Lewis tells is omission just how truly dangerous Wade Rathke really is charming self effacing and cunning.
Pingback| 10.21.09 @ 4:49AM
How To Hit Better Golf Shots | Golfing Leisure Knowledge links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Tom| 10.21.09 @ 11:19AM
ACORN needs a little RICO
Pingback| 10.21.09 @ 11:21AM
Is ACORN’s Bertha Lewis Even Capable Of Telling The Truth? | Prayer And Action links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 10.23.09 @ 12:52AM
Capital Research Center: links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 10.23.09 @ 10:41AM
Patterico’s Pontifications » Fact-Challenged Piece on ACORN in L.A. Times links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 10.23.09 @ 11:32AM
Big Government » Blog Archive » ACORN Filmmakers Batting 1.000 But Media Matters Says links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 10.24.09 @ 4:34PM
Patterico’s Pontifications » My Letter to the Editorial Page Editor of the L.A. Time links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 10.29.09 @ 7:28PM
Capital Research Center: links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 10.30.09 @ 6:23AM
ACORN's Campaign to DeFox America - Southern Maryland Community Forums links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 11.2.09 @ 10:03AM
Capital Research Center: links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 11.2.09 @ 12:02PM
WH Political Director, Patrick Gaspard Behind Scozzafava’s Owens Endorsement « Nice D links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 11.2.09 @ 4:36PM
Big Government » Blog Archive » ACORN Operative Patrick Gaspard Received Colleague at links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 11.2.09 @ 5:08PM
ACORN Operative Patrick Gaspard Received Colleague at White House | DC SMELL REPORT links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 11.2.09 @ 8:23PM
ACORN Operative Patric Gaspard Received Collegue at White House - Conservative Viewpo links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 11.11.09 @ 4:13PM
Capital Research Center: links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 11.22.09 @ 10:53PM
Patterico's Pontifications » L.A. Times Corrects Most Blatant Error in Op-Ed by ACOR links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 11.22.09 @ 11:50PM
Patterico's Pontifications » An ACORN Correction links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 12.10.09 @ 8:31AM
Beck Catches ACORN’s Bertha Lewis in a Lie | NewsReal Blog links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 12.10.09 @ 9:32AM
Beck Catches ACORN’s Bertha Lewis in a Lie @ Fight for Glenn Beck links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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