Republican activists have been trying for years to take down ACORN, and it’s not difficult to figure out why. The community service organization has been effective in registering blacks, Latinos and persons from low-income areas to vote — the kinds of people who are more likely to vote for Democrats. ACORN’s emphasis on helping folks whose skin is of the non-caucasian variety also makes the organization a perfect target for race-baiters like Rush Limbaugh, Neal Boortz, and Glenn Beck.
The long-sought goal of the GOP was realized this week in the controversy that erupted after secret videotapes were screened on Fox as well as on real TV news shows. A couple of young Republican operatives, posing as a pimp and a prostitute, were shown on tape getting advice from ACORN employees on how they could operate a sex business without running afoul of the law.
That was all the right-wing noise machine needed. The sh*t was stirred all over talk radio and TV, so it was inevitable that Congress would vote, as it did, to discontinue federal funding for ACORN. The cutoff of funds at the federal and state levels will probably lead to the eventual dissolution of the organization.
Republicans at the state level were eager to exploit the anti-ACORN publicity as well, so several of the Legislature’s more conservative members started going through Georgia’s fiscal records to see if there were any damning contracts there.
They found one: a contract signed a year ago by the Department of Human Resources that paid ACORN $104,000 to run a food stamp awareness program that informed low-income citizens of their eligibility for the stamps. No state funds were involved. The $104,000 was federal money that simply passed through DHR, whose mission, after all, is to help low-income Georgians who might need state assistance.
The gleeful lawmakers held a news conference Thursday morning to trumpet their finding and declare that they were, by God, going to run that “corrupt” organization clean out of Georgia. Demands were made that Attorney General Thurbert Baker investigate so that any other “criminal” and “reprehensible” contracts could be rooted out.
“Why would the state of Georgia need ACORN to provide those services?” Rep. Ed Setzler (R-Acworth) asked ominously.
“This organization is involved in things that are frankly disgusting,” said Sen. Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock), a lawmaker who pals around with anti-immigrant extremists. “Are there criminal activities taking place in Georgia? Right now we can’t bring you that evidence . . . We will look into that.”
“ACORN has an unredeemable level of deceit,” said Rep. Mike Keown (R-Coolidge), a congressional candidate in the 2nd District. “We’re here to protect taxpayers from corruption . . . prosecute those who are responsible.”
Keown’s hostility towards ACORN was especially noteworthy because he claims to be a minister at a Baptist church in Thomasville. ACORN, for all its faults, concentrates its efforts on helping downtrodden citizens who most need help from their fellow human beings. I wonder if Rev. Keown is familiar with the words of one Jesus Christ: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
Biblical references aside, there was just one little problem with all of this: the ACORN contract was signed a year ago by a state agency whose commissioner was appointed by and reports directly to Gov. Sonny Perdue.
A reporter at the news conference asked the legislators to comment on the logical extension of the actions they were demanding: If ACORN is a criminal organization, as they allege, then the state has been involved in a criminal transfer of money. Shouldn’t Perdue and DHR Commissioner B. J. Walker be hauled before a grand jury and criminally investigated?
Well, not so fast there, they sputtered.
“We need to take this in a step-by-step process,” Rogers said. “The first thing we’re trying to ascertain: are any public tax dollars going to ACORN, whether they be at the state or local level? That’s the first step . . . If an elected official at any level is involved in criminal activity, they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Perdue signed an executive order several hours after the news conference that said the ACORN contract with DHR will not be renewed and prohibited state agencies from doing any future business with the organization.
“I want to thank Sen. Rogers and Reps. Graves, Keown and Setlzer for bringing the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (“ACORN”) contract to my attention,” Perdue said in a statement issued by his office. Yes, I’ll just bet Perdue was overjoyed to be accused of aiding and abetting a “criminal” organization. Talk about embarrassing.
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