Well, ACORN retained a law firm to investigate its operations and, surprise, the law firm found that ACORN hadn’t done anything wrong in the undercover videos filmed by James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles. The review, overseen by former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harschbarger, a long-time ally of ACORN, found that any problems within ACORN are, gosh darn it, simply because ACORN was too successful, i.e. grew too big and too fast. The problems are also mostly, conveniently, the result of people who are no longer employed by ACORN, i.e. Wade Rathke.
Full report below:
The entire report can be summed up: Wade Rathke really made a mess of things. The current management, i.e. Bertha Lewis, has been trying to reform the organization and she is really, really committed to it now. ACORN has a “roadmap” for reform that, while it may take a while to implement, will really fix everything you thought was wrong with ACORN. Just trust them.
The overdue Whitewash Report comes at a critical time for ACORN and its big brother SEIU. ACORN and SEIU are the lead organizations behind Health Care for America Now (HCAN), which is the principle organization agitating for the passage of ObamaCare. In short, HCAN is ACORN. HCAN and SEIU are planning a big rally/blitz in support of ObamaCare this Thursday. ACORN’s ongoing scandals were a big obstacle on the left’s push to enact a sweeping government take-over of health care. As that battle reaches its climax, ACORN’s hired gun enters the scene to say, really, everything is just fine with ACORN.
As members of ACORN’s advisory committee, SEIU’s Andy Stern and Center for American Progress’ John Podesta, had a big role in selecting Harschbarger for the whitewash. Stern, the most frequent guest of the Obama White House, is a leading architect of the health care overhaul that will deliver him millions of more dues-paying members. Podesta is a long-time ACORN ally. The PR group he helped create, Media Matters, has devoted itself to running media interference for ACORN around the clock.
We’ll have a lot more to say about the report in the future. We’ll leave you with one point, however. Of the dozens of people Harschbarger said he interviewed as part of this “report”, not one was from outside the ACORN empire. No former workers nor ousted Board members. Not one person who isn’t currently affiliated with or paid by ACORN. As the saying goes, “Garbage in, garbage out.”