Jackson Free Press

Gov. Haley Barbour butt-thumped a community organization devoted to poor people this week. Without any real research, Barbour issued an executive order stripping all state funds away from the home owners' and renters' advocacy group ACORN. "I have instructed the State Fiscal Officer to conduct a comprehensive review of the state's relationship with ACORN, and all state agencies are to cut off funding for any current contracts with ACORN to the extent the law permits," Barbour said in a statement.

But had Barbour made a single call to ACORN's office in Jackson, he would have found a disconnected number. The only ACORN branch in the city closed in February, apparently too poor to pay its own employees.

In any case, ACORN derived all its funds from membership dues, not state agencies. According to former ACORN officials, the state government never gave a dime to the organization. Barbour's press release served only to stoke fears that "librul" organizations were sneaking money out of state coffers.

ACORN is, indeed, beset with problems. Recent video footage of an ACORN worker instructing a couple on how to deceive their way into housing aid was disturbing. But nobody's proved that the group has fossilized this kind of behavior by individuals into company policy. The group announced that it is hiring former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger to lead an independent inquiry into the footage story and is still innocent until proved guilty. Still, Republicans are happy to pounce on the organization, which has proved a great success in rallying its low-to moderate-income members to go vote—most likely because low-to moderate voters outside the South don't usually vote Republican.

Former White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove allegedly led the firing of New Mexico U.S. Attorney David Iglesias specifically because Iglesias refused to cooperate with the White House's political push to prosecute the organization for unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud in 2006. Republicans chased ACORN with voter-fraud lawsuits in Ohio and Florida during the months leading up to the 2004 election. None of those lawsuits ended with a "guilty."

Barbour apparently fell victim to the fervor, and bravely opted to pull nonexistent state money from a nonexistent state organization. Bully for him.

Katrina victims are still waiting for their houses to come back, and we're still the poorest, fattest state in the union with half a million people without health insurance. And state education is about to be cut. Governor, you've apparently still got plenty of work to do. Best to just stick to running Mississippi, not national partisan politics.

Previous Comments

ID

152277

Comment

When, not if, the reverse is done to an organization that is thought to represent conservative causes, the reaction will be quite different. Can you imagine how upset conservatives would be if somebody did a "sting" on one of their organizations and some individuals within the organization behaved badly? "Community organizing" and organizations interested in that sort of thing are targets because they represent President Obama. If we did not investigate Diebold after they promised to "deliver" an election for Bush, we are not really all that interested in rooting out corruption. ACORN as an organization needed to tighten up, but most of this stuff we see now is overkill.

Author

Goldenae

Date

2009-09-24T10:19:48-06:00

ID

152343

Comment

Great Editorial! The last paragraph simply sums if up to a science.

Author

justjess

Date

2009-09-29T09:59:37-06:00

ID

152350

Comment

According to this..... The State did pay some $$ in 2008... Governor Haley Barbour today released the Department of Finance and Administration's response to his request for a review of Mississippi's relationship with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN. DFA found that the state paid ACORN more than $7,000 in 2008; a hold has been placed to prevent any further transactions between ACORN and state agencies. Read the letter from DFA here:(PDF LINK) http://bit.ly/JMqLg

Author

commonsense

Date

2009-09-29T16:27:49-06:00

ID

152351

Comment

We got that here, too, from Barbour. It's interesting when you read the small print; you quickly find out that even Barbour's own research shows how misleading his original "cut funds" statement was as ACORN no longer exists here. You just left out -- accidentally I'm sure -- that the $7K was an expense reimbursement. As soon as we can reach people to report this out and get the rest of the story, we'll be happy to explain what it means. As always. Keep an eye out.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2009-09-29T17:27:57-06:00

ID

152355

Comment

OK, this is weird. The AP slammed out a story about Barbour's ACORN press release (like they did last week), and they don't mention that the money was "reimbursement of expenses" as the letter to Barbour states. Wonder why. Looking forward to Adam fleshing this out more. Sometimes I think the governor's office puts these releases out at the end of the day so that drive-by reporters (such as the AP, apparently) will throw it up there without being able to reach sources. You know, to affect the pool before the real reporters get to it. Just a theory.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2009-09-29T20:45:38-06:00

ID

152357

Comment

The AP's new nickname is "Absolutely Pathetic" you know. :)

Author

Ironghost

Date

2009-09-30T08:36:49-06:00