ACORN's enablers should also get scrutiny

Newt Gingrich:

It's hard to know who should be more embarrassed by the revelations about the radical group ACORN, the mainstream media or the politicians who have funneled taxpayer dollars to the group for years.

It took two amateur twentysomething filmmakers to do what ABC, NBC and CBS couldn't or wouldn't: Expose an ongoing, taxpayer-funded criminal enterprise.

These intrepid filmmakers have now supplied video of four Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now offices providing detailed instructions on how to defraud the government in furtherance of child prostitution and human trafficking. So far, ACORN staffers in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., New York and San Diego have been caught on tape "community organizing" for what they thought was a prostitute and her pimp.

Like I said, it took two kids to expose the scam, but it took a whole lot of liberal politicians to support it over the years. So congratulations to the 345 members of the House who voted to defund ACORN yesterday. But there's more work yet to do.

What's most shameful for Washington about this whole sordid affair is that this is not ACORN's first documented violation of the law.

ACORN has a long history of engaging in voter fraud. Seventy ACORN staffers in 12 states have been convicted of voter registration fraud by adding such notables as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck to the voter rolls.

And the reason ACORN has continued to receive taxpayer funding despite these convictions - it has received federal funding totaling $54 million since 1994 - is the politicians its "community organizing activities" have served. Although it exists on paper to connect low-income families with affordable housing and social services, ACORN is in fact the political dirty tricks muscle of liberal Democrats.

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There needs to be an independent audit of ACORN loan applications comparing them with foreclosures. They also need to be examined for fraudulent loan applications. It would be interesting to know what percentage of loans they generated wound up in foreclosure. It is clear that several of their employees were willing to use false data to get loans for illegal activities. If they were that perverse, it is likely that it was at least mismanagement or accepted procedure that allowed this type of conduct.

One congressman says ACORN is structured as a criminal enterprise according to Floyd and Mary Beth Brown..