I'm no lawyer, but if I worked for ACORN, the last thing I would do is publicly go out and say that I sometimes work for the nonprofit, community goodwill, and other times I'm out pushing for political change. And if I worked for ACORN in St Louis, whose ACORN Housing subsidiary was shut down precisely because of accusations that the federally funded subsidiary was paying for rent and employment for the political arm, I really wouldn't be out admitting that it all comes out of the same pool.
But that's exactly what Glenn Burleigh just did over at Show Me Progress in an interview with Hotflash, and it's exactly why so many lawmakers are distancing themselves from the group.
The other damaging piece of press on Friday was this:
The embattled community activist group ACORN appears to be collecting charitable contributions through affiliate organizations that it then uses for impermissible lobbying and political activity, says the Republican staff of the Senate Finance Committee.
[italics mine]I asked Burleigh about this charge as well. He said that most non-profits can't afford to hire separate people for the non-profit aspect of their work and the lobbying or political part of their work. He, for example, reports how many hours a week he spends on the work that's paid for by charitable contributions and how many on political work. But he gets one pay check.
Maybe Glenn doesn't understand why this is wrong, so let me spell it out. ACORN is supposedly a non-profit that works within a community to do good works. The reality is the "good works" are really just attempts to "organize" low-income communities around issues so that the "organizer" can gain their trust and use them for political gain.
Minimum wage, housing, foreclosure, street lamps - whatever the cause, ACORN cynically gathers up names and merges them with a voter pool that is then used to elect Democratic candidates. That's against the law, and more important, it's also a disgusting use of the poor to create political power. This is the stated purpose of ACORN in the minimum wage campaign. Build lists of voters to help take back control of the House of Representatives.
In 2006, ACORN members in St Louis were told they were registering voters for minimum wage, but they were also encouraged to vote for Claire McCaskill. Grassroots.org, another organization, does the same thing, paying students to panhandle in the streets either for the DNC or for the ACLU. The goal is the same - get money and sign people up for their political use, and skirt campaign finance laws while doing so.
If Burleigh can't get enough money to run his non-profit, perhaps he should let go of the political arm. If he wants to run the political arm, perhaps he should let go of the non-profit. Mixing the two is not only against the law, it's morally wrong. Personally, I don't want taxpayer dollars going to elect Democrats (or Republicans). It's a poison in the system that goes against all principles of fairness. Governments don't pay to elect candidates.
But of course Glenn knows this. ACORN Housing was closed down shortly after receiving government grants precisely because of these accusations. Here's an affidavit naming former St Louis ACORN Housing staff Pat Sivels and Dwight Vaughn as complicit in using ACORN Housing funds to pay for ACORN political work.
"On October 13, 2006, I was present at a regional AHC meeting where Lez Trujillo, AHC National Field Director, stated that as of that point in time, AHC and ACORN would be funded out of the same account."
Glenn Burleigh told Jo Mannies and Charles Jaco that defunding ACORN Housing wouldn't ACORN in St Louis because they don't get money from that source. What he meant, was they don't get money from ACORN Housing ANYMORE, because they got caught doing so and had to shut down the St Louis office without doing a thorough accounting of who spent what. Just ask Gwen Cogshell, a former St Louis ACORN board member who had the audacity to ask where the money went, and who has been ignored by the local press.
Glenn may be able to sweet talk Charles Jaco into thinking ACORN is just out to help poor people, but the reality of this organization is that of radical leftists attempting to use government funds for political power. There may be some starry-eyed optimists who start ACORN thinking differently, but it's clear Burleigh is not one of them. He knows the history of ACORN Housing and ACORN the political arm in St Louis, and yet pretends that he's just out to help the poor. For his sake, let's hope his little interview with Hotflash doesn't come up in court. Admitting you get paid from charitable contributions to do political work, and then pretending keeping hours separate is a good way to get yourself on Fox News.
Comments