ACORN'S latest mistake

Politico:

ACORN is launching a wide-ranging lobbying offensive, hoping to salvage the reputation – and the funding – of a group whose reputation has been largely destroyed in the past few weeks.

The community group’s Washington lobbying shop has been quietly meeting with sympathetic congressional offices, reminding them that ACORN’s services help low-income residents of urban areas. On the legal front, the group is playing hardball, filing a lawsuit Wednesday against the conservative activists who produced the now famous undercover film in which a fake pimp and prostitute ask for tax advice at an ACORN office.

But even as they try a Capitol Hill charm offensive and promise internal investigations, ACORN suffered more setbacks on Wednesday. The IRS cut off ties to the group, ending its volunteer tax services. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) – a key supporter — hurt the organization even more Wednesday when he backpedaled and said he would have voted to cut off the group’s funding, after initially saying he would have retained tax money for ACORN.

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This is a huge mistake. ACORN has just given the keys to its file cabinets to a news organization on one hand and it has made the classic mistake of suing someone with no money on the other hand. By suing Giles and O'Keefe it has put itself as the only one with something to lose in this deal. This will allow them to counter sue and actually have a chance to get money for the organization if it actually has any. In both cases ACORN is going to be a loser because it is going to keep the story alive about its employees embrace of child sex slavery and other illegal conduct. If the organization was wise it would think these people for bringing this misconduct to their attention and then MoveOn.