This Editor and Publisher article perpetuates the myth that ACORN is being wrongfully targeted by evil conservatives. E & P is perpetuating this shattered myth:

Leading up to the 2008 presidential campaign, ACORN was a target of allegations of voter fraud from the Republican Party and conservative news sources. Although the predicted voter fraud never materialized, the stories planted during the election season yielded a bountiful crop of misinformation. Now, in November 2009, a national survey revealed shocking public misperceptions about ACORN: more than half of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of ACORN, and 52% of Republicans, 18% of independents, and 9% of Democrats think ACORN stole the election for Obama.

While I don’t believe that President Obama would’ve lost the election if not for ACORN, it isn’t a myth that ACORN committed voter registration fraud. In fact, I’m betting that this article is a distraction from yesterday’s report. E & P knows that ACORN employees pled guilty to voter registration fraud in Seattle:

Three of seven defendants in the biggest voter-registration fraud scheme in Washington history have pleaded guilty and one has been sentenced, prosecutors said Monday.

The defendants were all temporary employees of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, when they allegedly filled out and submitted more than 1,800 fictitious voter-registration cards during a 2006 registration drive in King and Pierce counties.

E & P knows about ACORN, not ACORN employees, being indicted by Nevada’s Democratic Attorney General for “operating a fraud-infested voter registration drive in the state during the 2008 presidential campaign”:

ACORN illegally compensated workers to register voters based on a corporate mandated quota system, according to Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto. Because canvassers were illegally required to meet quotas to keep their jobs, thousands of registrations with fake names and addresses were submitted throughout the state.

Notice that Nevada’s Attorney General accused ACORN the organization of illegally compensating workers “based on a corporate mandated quote system.” Nevada’s A.G. wouldn’t make that accusation without having proof of that, most likely in the form of people coming forward during the investigation or in the form of emails recovered during the execution of a search warrant or interoffice memos.

It isn’t a coincidence that E & P’s article showed up the day after Andrew Breitbart reported that San Diego ACORN’s office dumped a bunch of sensitive documents into a dumpster days after California A.G. Jerry Brown announced that he’d be investigating ACORN’s San Diego office.

Among the documents allegedly dumped by ACORN’s San Diego office were employees’ W-4 forms. Follow this link to view a blank W-4 form. Notice that a person’s social security number is one of the things that an employee must fill out. According to this article, W-4 forms are supposed to be kept for four years “after the tax due date or the actual date paid.” If any of the W-4’s that were dumped were for temps, then ACORN’s got alot of trouble with the IRS and others.

E & P then tries softpedalling the child prostitution charges:

The embarrassing videos were soon posted to the Internet, and in short order became a national story. Starting at the conservative Web site biggovernment.com, the videos quickly became the top story at Fox News and conservative talk radio, moved to CNN’s Lou Dobbs Show, then proved irresistible for the mainstream news media.

ACORN responded by firing the employees involved and initiating an internal review by former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger. Washington responded to the incidents with outrage, with Congress quickly voting to rescind ACORN’s federal funding, primarily for homeownership counseling. Although ACORN received no funds from the IRS or the Census Bureau, both agencies also removed ACORN as “partners” in their efforts to help the working poor qualify for tax rebates and to encourage low-income households to fill out census forms.

That’s nice PR but it doesn’t mean a thing in light of the document dump prior to the California AG initiating an investigation into ACORN California. It means less when coupled with the ACORN organization using incentives and quotas, which is against Nevada law.

ACORN’s defense has always been that after they find out about the wrongdoing, they cooperate with the investigations. Average people don’t care about that. They’re just wondering why ACORN doesn’t establish policies that would eliminate the need to assist in so many investigations.

Despite everything that E & P wrote, the inescapable truth is that ACORN is corrupt to its core. It’s just that simple.

Technorati: ACORN, Registration Drive, Scandal, Investigations, Document Dump, Nevada, California, Payroll Records, Identity Theft, Corruption, Democrats

Cross-posted at California Conservative