Just five months ago uber-liberal House Judiciary Committee
chairman John Conyers
called radical direct-action group ACORN "a longstanding and
well regarded organization that fights for the poor and working
class."
But not anymore.
Yesterday the outspoken left-winger called for a congressional
probe of ACORN. Conyers's proposal came on the same day
as Judiciary's subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil
Rights, and Civil Liberties received testimony
from lawyer Heather Heidelbaugh about the extent of ACORN's
corrupt activities, the Washington Times
reports:
In an [sic] startling partisan shift, House Judiciary Committee
Chairman John Conyers Jr. on Thursday proposed holding hearings
on claims the liberal activist group ACORN engaged in a pattern
of crimes ranging from voter fraud to a mob-style "protection"
racket.
Mr. Conyers, Michigan Democrat and fierce partisan, suggested a
congressional probe after scathing testimony about the
Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)
during a hearing on various voting issues related to the 2008
presidential election.
Mr. Conyers called the accusations "a pretty serious matter."
"I think that it would be something that would be worth our
time," he said during Thursday's hearing. "We've never had one
person representing ACORN before the committee. ... I think in
all fairness we ought to really examine it." [...]
It is startling that someone like
Conyers, who is very sympathetic to ACORN's policy goals and
who has defended the group in the past, is now suddenly
considering examining the many wrongdoings of
ACORN. (Conyers received a 100% rating from ACORN in its
2006 legislative scorecard. See page 11 of
PDF file.)
At the Thursday hearing, the congressional panel
heard that ACORN runs a mob-style "protection" racket known
within the radical direct-action group as the "muscle for the
money" program.
Lawmakers also heard that ACORN, which I profiled in the November
issue of Capital Research Center's Foundation
Watch, has provided protest-for-hire services and
extracted donations from the targets of demonstrations by shaking
down those targets mafia-style.
The taxpayer-subsidized ACORN network, which owes millions of
dollars in back
taxes, also played a major role in the
subprime mortgage mess that has undermined Americans' support
for free market problem-solving and set off a worldwide chain of
financial troubles.
And then there's ACORN's eight-year-long
coverup of the million-dollar embezzlement by founder Wade
Rathke's brother. When ACORN board members Marcel Reid and Karen
Inman demanded to see the financial documents, they were
expelled from the group. Reid and Inman have since become
whistleblowers and formed a new group, ACORN 8, which is aimed at reforming
ACORN.
It goes on and on and on.
Meanwhile, Megyn Kelly of Fox News laid into ACORN spokesman
Scott Levenson over allegations of voter registration fraud.
