Conyers suggests probe of ACORN

In an startling partisan shift, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. on Thursday proposed holding hearings on claims the liberal activist group ACORN engaged in a pattern of crimes ranging from voter fraud to a mob-style “protection” racket.

Mr. Conyers, Michigan Democrat and fierce partisan, suggested a congressional probe after scathing testimony about the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) during a hearing on various voting issues related to the 2008 presidential election.

Mr. Conyers called the accusations “a pretty serious matter.”

“I think that it would be something that would be worth our time,” he said during Thursday's hearing. “We've never had one person representing ACORN before the committee. ... I think in all fairness we ought to really examine it.”

The testimony by Pittsburgh lawyer Heather Heidelbaugh accused the nonprofit group of violating tax, campaign-finance and other laws by, among other things, sharing with the Barack Obama campaign a list of the Democrat's maxed-out campaign donors so ACORN could use it to solicit them for a get-out-the-vote drive.

She also testified that the Democrat-allied group provided liberal causes with protest-for-hire services and coerced donations from targets of demonstrations through a shakedown it called the “muscle for the money” program.

Ms. Heidelbaugh, a member of the executive committee of the Republican National Lawyers Association, spearheaded an unsuccessful lawsuit last year seeking a court injunction in Pennsylvania against ACORN's voter-registration drive for the 2008 presidential campaign. She appeared as a witness at the request of Republican committee members.

Read the whole thing at:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/200 ... -of-acorn/

Red Jim wrote:


It's a ruse. They hold the hearings, discover that the "crimes" were commited by individuals acting on their own, not directed by ACORN policy. Presto chango, ACORN is absolved of all responsibility, found to be "non-partisan" and helps Commerce conduct the 2010 census. The Democrats will only hold hearings or haul someone before a committe if it is in their best interests.

Commissar_Elliott wrote:

Red Jim wrote:


It's a ruse. They hold the hearings, discover that the "crimes" were commited by individuals acting on their own, not directed by ACORN policy. Presto chango, ACORN is absolved of all responsibility, found to be "non-partisan" and helps Commerce conduct the 2010 census. The Democrats will only hold hearings or haul someone before a committe if it is in their best interests.

I see that, but here is the kicker, when enough people (individuals) are registered with ACORN and are committing crimes i.e. voter fraud, that calls for concern amongst the public, or at least the conservative public. Democrats, though have called this hearing, will probably find some legal loophole to exploit.

Commissar Theocritus wrote:{ off }
Or I wonder if it's a shakedown of ACORN. After all, how many billion are they getting?

Investigation of ACORN has not been 'brushed aside,' Sheriff's Office says
Monday, March 23, 2009

Whatever happened to the investigation of ACORN, the community group suspected of fraudulent voter registration practices in Cuyahoga County before the November presidential election?

After five months, detectives with the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office are still gathering and reviewing evidence for the "ongoing" investigation.

Cuyahoga County was one of several places around the country where ACORN's voter registration cards were questioned before the election. National media attention ensued when John McCain and the Republican Party attempted to link opponent Barack Obama to ACORN and election fraud.

But the spotlight on ACORN disappeared after President Obama's victory.

Chief Doug Burkhart said three Cuyahoga sheriff's detectives and a supervisor remain committed to the case here. They must review more than 70,000 voter registration cards the group turned in to the Board of Elections.

"It is not being brushed aside by any means," Burkhart said. "We're taking it very seriously."

The inquiry started when workers at the Board of Elections flagged dozens of registration cards ACORN turned in. The group paid workers hourly wages to sign up unregistered, low- and moderate-income people.

They were encouraged to meet a quota of voters to register.

Election workers found cards with identical names and different addresses; or identical names and different birth dates. They suspected ACORN workers shared information and altered it slightly to meet their quotas.

The Board of Elections called for a hearing and subpoenaed people who signed multiple cards. One witness, who was homeless when he signed the cards, said he wanted to help ACORN workers keep their jobs.

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindeal ... xml&coll=2

Opiate wrote:Of course, we're all overlooking the possibility that Conyers really cares about the rule of law and honest elections and such. Stop laughing.

Commissar Theocritus wrote: There's another possibility. Conyers et al have been having a high old time as being <i>the</i> prominent black politicians in America. Obama is stealing their thunder.
~
Obama marginalized the Black Caucus in ways that no white president could. And so I wouldn't be at all surprised to find them disliking him in secret.

Commissar Obamissar V wrote: I still love the image of Jackson crying... not because of the historic nature of The One, but rather because he knew it wasn't him and in fact never would be.