Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog

Looks like the GOP is going on the offensive:

Seizing on an issue that has been trumpeted by conservative media, Republican congressional leaders have launched an all-out campaign to choke off any federal dollars from going to ACORN, the scandal-plagued anti-poverty group.

After the Senate voted on Monday to bar any new federal money for ACORN — the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now — from the Departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and other top Republicans began pressing President Barack Obama to use his executive authority to extend the ban to all federal agencies.

“Scandal Plagued poverty group” that is the Politico talking, not Fox.

The Baltimore Sun gives us some history:

Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain tried, without apparent success, to link Obama last fall to allegations of voter fraud involving ACORN. At the time, ACORN officials described the allegations as highly exaggerated.

But on Friday, the Census Bureau, in cutting ties with the group, said ACORN’s involvement in promoting the 2010 count had become “a distraction” that could hurt next year’s effort, the Associated Press reported.

I remember when all that was discounted as nonsense, but it looks like there is some meat there.

It’s as if it was some kind of Culture of Corruption or something

I’d give them a Nelson award but it’s our tax money that they are spending so the laugh is on us.

The real test is will the House go along with the Acorn de-funding. I think that will all depend on how long the pressure is kept up and how many more tapes are waiting to be released. I’m betting 2-3 more.

Update: Michelle notes the NYT story and sees sins of omission:

But it was a then-liberal whistleblower Anita MonCrief, formerly of ACORN affiliate Project Vote, who worked extensively with New York Times reporter Stephanie Strom last year on several investigative pieces exposing the financial shenanigans in the ACORN web of money-shuffling, non-profit, tax-exempt affiliates. Strom called MonCrief a “gold mine” in July 2008.

And she reminds us that due to pressure from the Obama campaign last year this was all suppressed by the times itself.

Times public editor Clark Hoyt tried to spin it as a “tip that didn’t pan out.” He airily dismissed the charges by ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief as “nonsense” and quoted a Times editor who shrugged, “You have to cut bait after a while.” It was an all-too-convenient judgment that just happened to be made as Election Day loomed. (Contrast this with the editorial doggedness of the Times’s editors in pursuing and publishing the Star Magazine-quality insinuations that GOP presidential candidate John McCain had carried on an affair with Washington lobbyist Vicki Iseman.)

Hoyt attempted to paint MonCrief as an unreliable source. But Times reporter Stephanie Strom had relied on her for months to break a series of ACORN corruption stories. Moreover, MonCrief’s allegations fit the shady money-shuffling pattern among ACORN and its affiliates to a T. Strom had reported on ACORN’s own internal review of shady money transfers among its web of affiliates conducted by lawyer Elizabeth Kingsley.

I think I know who I would be interviewing on this story.

Update 2: Via Glenn Townhall sees another sin of omission. But he has the best single line:

Me, I’m just happy that there is coverage. Talk about low expectations . . . .

As he would say HEH indeed!

Remember he used to be called NYT of bloggers but dropped it years ago as the comparison was unflattering to him. Yup Glenn was ahead of the curve.