ACORN/ProjectVote: Obama's Achilles' heel still

By Michael Gaynor

Ironically, "fair and balanced" Fox News has former Project Vote head Jehmu Greene on its payroll and on air as a Fox contributor, but not MonCrief, who worked for Greene at Project Vote.

Wikipedia: "An Achilles' heel is a deadly weakness in spite of overall strength, that can actually or potentially lead to downfall. While the mythological origin refers to a physical vulnerability, metaphorical references to other attributes or qualities that can lead to downfall are common."

President Obama's ACORN/Project Vote tie was his Achilles' heel in 2008 and still is.

Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton was right when he told GovernmentExecutive.com that "Barack Obama's ties to ACORN are well-documented, which is the principal reason ACORN's spin-offs are handed tax dollars instead of subpoenas."

It is Obama's ties to ACORN and Project Vote (that ACORN founder and chief organizer Wade Rathke called part of the "ACORN family of organizations") that should and can be Obama's undoing.

The problem is not lack of documentation or testimony, the problem is that most voters are not familiar with that documentation and testimony.

This time the whole truth needs to become generally known, lest Obama be reelected.

This month Andrew Breitbart's Big Government.com presented important articles by Fitton and former United States Justice Department attorney J. Christian Adams tying the Obama Administration to wrongdoing involving ACORN and ACORN's Project Vote.

Fitton, in "DOJ Conspiring with ACORN-Connected Project Vote?" (http://biggovernment.com/tfitton/2011/12/19/doj-conspiring-with-acorn-connected-project-vote/) stated: "Something fishy is going on over at the Obama Department of Justice (DOJ). And it very well could threaten the integrity of the 2012 elections."

Don't expect otherwise!

Fitton's conclusion:

"It is an affront to the rule of law and a threat to the integrity of our elections that the ACORN-front Project Vote is coordinating with Attorney General Eric Holder's DOJ on voting law. At least now we know why the Holder DOJ never bothered to fully investigate voter registration fraud by Project Vote/ACORN. They are in cahoots.

"Holder must go. Pick your reason — Black Panthers, race-based decision making, abandoning the defense of marriage law, Fast and Furious killings and lies, or turning the DOJ into an arm of the radicalized left — but Holder must go."

Fitton should have stated: "Obama must go."

The problem is NOT a rogue Obama appointee. See Michelle Malkin's Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies."

Holder is Obama's carefully selected Attorney General and he's been represented the political interests of Obama, just as Bobby Kennedy did for his brother President Kennedy and former law partner John Mitchell did for President Nixon.

Fitton referred to "a partnership between the DOJ and ACORN-connected Project Vote to use the National Voting Rights Act (NVRA) to register more individuals on public assistance, widely considered a key voting demographic for the Obama 2012 campaign" and added parenthetically, "Remember, President Obama previously worked for Project Vote."

Fitton's parenthetical is the key to putting an end to the Age of Obama by making him a one-term president.

Judicial Watch obtained records detailing communications between the DOJ and Estelle Rogers, a former ACORN attorney currently serving as Director of Advocacy for Project Vote in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

Fitton: "These documents leave no doubt that a suspiciously close relationship between Project Vote and the DOJ is developing behind closed doors."

Adams concluded that the records "suggest extensive coordination and communications between the DOJ Voting Section and former ACORN affiliate Project Vote."

Adams: "Project Vote appears to be directing DOJ resources toward particular states; is having meetings with DOJ staff; and is even recommending lawyers to work in the Justice Department Voting Section that will oversee the 2012 presidential election."

Of course! Obama does not intend to be a one-term president, the illicit relationship between the Obama campaign and Project Vote is little known and as long as Obama is generally perceived as "a good guy" AND the head of the federal government he is reelectable.

Fitton noted that Estelle Rogers is a former ACORN attorney and Project Vote's current Director of Advocacy and, as such, "a primary contact person on policy matters at Project Vote on both state and federal levels [who] has been actively involved in voter registration issues."

Project Vote has been threatening lawsuits under Section 7 of the NVRA to force election officials in various states to increase the registration of public assistance recipients and Judicial Watch has been pondering, "To what extent is the Obama DOJ a participant in this scheme?"

Fitton reports that records finally obtained show as follows:

"...'civil rights groups' met with Associate Attorney General Thomas J. Perrelli on March 17, 2011, to specifically discuss Section 7 of National Voting Rights Act, which requires states to offer voter registration services at all public assistance agencies. The groups included Project Vote....

"On March 29, 2011, Rogers and the 'undersigned voting rights groups' that met with Perrelli sent detailed recommendations to the associate attorney general for strengthening 'compliance with the NVRA.' Forwarded to Perrelli by Rogers, the recommendations stated 'we are grateful that you have invited us to continue this dialogue on the Department's [DOJ's] role in providing guidance to states, and we would be happy to supply any additional information you need.'"

Fitton summed it up this way: "...the DOJ invited Project Vote (and other leftist groups) to help provide guidance to states regarding the enforcement of the NVRA."

To those familiar with what ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief's revelations about Obama, ACORN and Project Vote, the "effort by Rogers to secure jobs for three individual applicants for positions with the Civil Rights Division's Voting Section, the department within the DOJ responsible for enforcing the National Voting Rights Act" is hardly surprising.

Fitton's conclusions: (1) "personnel is policy" and (2) "[t]o install ACORN/Project Vote ideological clones in the DOJ'a voting section is to invite chaos and corruption."

No doubt!

Fitton continued: "If you take a look at the timeline of some of the NVRA lawsuits that have already been filed, I think you'll see that Project Vote and the DOJ seem to have implemented a joint litigation strategy in the run-up to the 2012 elections."

That's the right conclusion...and it calls to mind the fact that Obama not only represented ACORN, but also coordinated with the United States Justice Department in the Illinois motor voter case.

The following is taken from a PRO-Obama website (www.fightthesmears.com/articles/20/acornrumor.html): ""Obama Was Listed As The Lead Attorney For ACORN In Court Proceeding Regarding Illinois Motor Voter Implementation Plans; Deval Patrick Was The Lead Attorney For The U.S. Department Of Justice."

Documents released by Judicial Watch show ACORN and Project Vote working to elect Obama, including documents Colorado Department of State documents "showing that ACORN and Project Vote successfully pressured Colorado officials into implementing new policies for increasing the registration of public assistance recipients during the 2008 and 2010 election seasons" and resulting in "the percentage of invalid voter registration forms from Colorado public assistance agencies [becoming] four times the national average."

Adams, in "Documents Reveal Coordination Between ACORN Affiliate and Justice Department Voting Section" (http://biggovernment.com/jcadams/2011/12/14/documents-reveal-coordination-between-acorn-affiliate-and-justice-department-voting-section/), warned that "Project Vote appears to be directing DOJ resources toward particular states; is having meetings with DOJ staff; and is even recommending lawyers to work in the Justice Department Voting Section that will oversee the 2012 presidential election."

In addition, Fitton, in "Obama Administration Violating ACORN Funding Ban According to New Audit" (http://biggovernment.com/tfitton/2011/12/05/obama-administration-violating-acorn-funding-ban-according-to-new-audit/) emphasized that "rumors of ACORN's demise were completely fabricated. Far from defunct, the former 'community organization' has splintered into difficult-to-track organizations across the country. (Former ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis calls them 'bullet-proof community-organizing Frankensteins.') And, just like their predecessors, these new ACORN spin-offs are prepared to wreak havoc on the 2012 elections."

Fitton focused on Affordable Housing Centers of America (AHCOA), previously known as ACORN Housing and cited a $79,819 grant to AHCOA that the Obama administration claims did not violate the ban on funding ACORN because the two organizations were separate and distinct.

Fitton reported:

"...according to The Daily Caller, at least one influential non-profit organization has conducted an audit of AHCOA indicating the Obama administration operated outside the law:

A newly released internal audit appears to indicate that the Government Accountability Office and President Barack Obama's Department of Housing and Urban Development incorrectly argued that a specific organization wasn't ACORN-affiliated.

HUD's office of general counsel and the GAO have both claimed that Affordable Housing Centers of America, or AHCOA, is not affiliated with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN. AHCOA formerly called itself ACORN Housing, but changed its name after the 2009 ACORN meltdown.

The Obama administration has awarded more than $700,000 in taxpayer funds to AHCOA despite a 2010 law stipulating that no taxpayer funds could be awarded to ACORN "or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, or allied organizations."

"NeighborWorks, unlike Obama's Department of Housing and Urban Development, decided against distributing cash to AHCOA: 'Although AHC and ACORN might be incorporated as separate entities in form and structure, the financial transactions noted below evidence extensive relationships between both organizations that may undermine claims of an "arm's length relationship' between them,' the NeighborWorks America auditors wrote."

Don't expect the United States Justice Department to investigate!

Fitton further noted:

"A September 21, 2010, HUD inspector general report, which notes that ACORN Housing is 'now operating as Affordable Housing Centers of America,' indicates the organization misappropriated funds from a $3,252,399 federal grant. The inspector general concluded that ACORN Housing/AHCOA had charged salary expenses to the HUD grant that 'were not fully supported.' The organization also continued to pay its counselors even after they were terminated, did not meet federal procurement standards and allegedly destroyed documents to conceal the fraudulent activity."

"A separate, November 8, 2010, HUD inspector general report stated that ACORN Housing/AHCOA 'inappropriately expended more than $3.2 million from its fiscal years 2004 and 2005 grants for the elimination of lead poisoning in its housing program.' The misappropriation included the use of funds 'not identified in its grant application's detailed budgets,' including 'campaign services' and 'grant fundraising activities.'"

Ironically, "fair and balanced" Fox News has former Project Vote head Jehmu Greene on its payroll and on air as a Fox contributor, but not MonCrief, who worked for Greene at Project Vote.

That's great for Obama, but it's NOT fair to America (or MonCrief) OR balanced.

© Michael Gaynor