ACORN
may be about to embark on a huge rebranding effort in order to
reinvent itself.
As I told the Washington Times, the revelation that
disgraced ACORN founder Wade Rathke has renamed ACORN
International, which is ACORN's international consultancy, is a
sign that Rathke is trying to dissociate the ACORN affiliate
from the oceans of bad ink ACORN has received in the U.S.
over the last year.
There's no point in reinventing the wheel so to speak, so I'll
just quote myself (which I confess feels a little weird).
"The brand is tarnished and he doesn't want to be associated with
ACORN because of all the problems that he is, ironically, largely
responsibly for," the
Washington Times quoted me saying. "He just wants to
keep up his community organizing without being burdened by the
bad public relations."
The new name for the international affiliate is Community
Organizations International.
"This may indeed be the beginning of an ACORN network-wide
rebranding, but a rotten ACORN by any other name still
stinks," Newsmax quoted
me saying.
Newsmax reported that I described ACORN International as "a
nonprofit group that aspires to spread the gospel of [radical
community organizer] Saul Alinsky across the globe."
Something about this rebranding-in-progress --if that's what it
really is-- doesn't seem right, though.
As I noted
earlier today, ACORN is suing
whistleblower Anita MonCrief to shut her up. ACORN also sent a
cease-and-desist letter to the reformers of the ACORN 8 in
order to bully them into silence.
It doesn't make sense to use up legal resources on these
activities if the ACORN network is preparing to change its
name in an effort to improve its image. It could be the case that
Rathke himself, who was forced out as chief organizer of ACORN
last year after officials learned he covered up his
brother's $1 million embezzlement for eight years, took the
initiative all by himself.
It could also be the case that ACORN is serious about protecting
its property, including its ACORN trademark (as it claims in
the lawsuit against MonCrief and the letter to ACORN 8) and told
Rathke in no uncertain terms that he couldn't use it anymore.
Time will tell.
