ACORN Head Rails Against Modern-Day "McCarthyism"

By: Brian Montopoli
Topics: In The News

(biggovernment.com)

Bertha Lewis, the chief executive of embattled community group ACORN, told reporters at the National Press Club today that her critics are engaged in "modern-day ACORN McCarthyism" born in part from the group's history of "going after the rich and the powerful," the New York Times reports.

While defiant, Lewis did acknowledge that her group had its problems: She said videos showing ACORN employees advising conservative activists posing as a pimp and prostitute "made my stomach turn," according to CNN. "It just made you sick," she added. The group has appointed an investigator to examine why the behavior took place.

But Lewis refused to make apologies for her 40-year-old organization, which she said wasn't going anywhere. Congress, she said, can't destroy the group by withholding federal funding: "We didn't have government funding for years," she said to illustrate that point, according to Politico. "We may not have government funding in the future."

ACORN, or the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, has been receiving about $2.5 million to $3 million each year from the federal government, Lewis said – only about 10 percent of its annual budget. The rest of its funding comes from membership dues and private donors.

The group had sometimes "aided and abetted our attackers," she added, pointing to mismanagement before her tenure began as well as the recent scandal. Lewis also defended the decision to sue the filmmakers behind the scandal for recording ACORN employees without permission, as well Andrew Breitbart, who posted the videos on his Web site.

"It is illegal…to record someone in the state of Maryland without their permission," she said. "Just because we were embarrassed by these highly edited tapes, which don't tell the whole story again, and hopefully that will come out, doesn't mean that these people didn't break the law in order to embarrass and attack the organization."

ACORN has faced a raft of negative headlines since the videos came out: The group has seen the Internal Revenue Service, Bank of America and the U.S. Census Bureau cut ties with it, faced investigations into its activities announced by Justice and Treasury departments, watched as Congress has cut its funding, and, most recently, faced down an investigation from Louisiana Attorney General James Caldwell into whether the brother of the group's founder had embezzled $4 million more than the group had originally claimed.

The group also took criticism from conservatives during the 2008 election campaign over charges of voter registration fraud. Lewis said today the group had gone out of its way to turn in those responsible for that fraud.

"We were punished for following the law and doing the right thing, and that part of the story was never told. And so nine months later it finally began to resonate with folks that we had not had one individual who voted fraudulently in the presidential election because of an ACORN registration -- not one Mickey Mouse, not one Donald Duck, not one New York Jet, Giant or any other fraudulent person," she said.

Brian Montopoli
Brian Montopoli is the senior political reporter at CBSNews.com.
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by W_A_H October 6, 2009 9:23 PM EDT: Ms. Lewis, you look like a pleasant person. Don't go away mad just go away as Andy Stern will be right behind you.

The truth will dismantle these organizations and if I didn't know any better, I'd say both organizations generated more than 10 million faux voter registrations. How else can one deduct the isometrics Obama is now faced with? IMO of course...; Reply to this comment


by gboyd41 October 6, 2009 9:21 PM EDT: Stop the three million taxpayers dollars going to ACORN.; Reply to this comment


by eightsigma October 6, 2009 8:38 PM EDT: I support everything Acorn is trying to accomplish. But they deserve the consequences of their sloppy operations. You can't promote social morality without representatives that demonstrate personal morality. Acorn is going to have to learn to be more selective about whom they allow to represent them.; Reply to this comment

by stuart-johns1 October 6, 2009 6:39 PM EDT

Whether ACORN is right or wrong is not the issue to me. The issue is how the republicans were so willing to violate the law so they could hurt ACORN, and ultimately, Obama. That was their true incentive.

McCarthyism? The republican extremists are far worse than McCarthy could have dreamed of.

I hope ACORN wins the lawsuit against these republican, lawbreaking republican extremist activists.

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by lovetheair October 6, 2009 7:16 PM EDT: Gee Stuart, I have to say I'm not really surprised that ACORN's breaking the law doesn't bother you, just those gosh darn evil Republicans. They are just so awful for video tapping ACORN violating the law and using TAXPAYER money to do so. Sounds like your partisan side is showing AGAIN. I thought you were about having an open mind, at least that is what you have stated in other posts. I'm just not sure how anyone can defend ACORN, even the Dems realize that they are crooked.


by Solarrays247 October 6, 2009 8:35 PM EDT: JoGarth October 6, 2009 7:44 PM EDT
Waaa! Waaa! Waaaa! Waaaa!

ACORN is the most corrupt and incidious political machine in the US. It needed to be totally shaken down. The fact that the guy in the White House is totally tied to it, lives in it, uses it for support should be troubling for you...

But there are those that just simply can't handle the truth, eh, Stuart?
********************************************************************

I disagree with you!

Wall Street is the most corrupt and incidious political machine in the US.

The military/industrial machine is the most corrupt and incidious political machine in the US.

The health insurance/pharmaceutical industries are the most corrupt and incidious political machines in the US.

Feel free to add any others that come to your mind!

Kinda puts things a little more in prospective, doesn't it, JoGarth??


by formerdem-2009 October 6, 2009 6:38 PM EDT: You go ahead and sue the H--ll out of em Bertha I can't wait to see what their defense attorneys find in their discovery looking at at acorns books ! after that I would suspect acorns gonna need a good lawyer too. Maybe you can get that one that worked for acorn before I sure hope he was better at that than what he's doing now. He will be lookng for work around 2012.; Reply to this comment