Independent prosecutors should not be appointed lightly. But in this case, there are good reasons why Atty. Gen. Eric Holder and other political appointees in the Justice Department should step aside. First, although no allegations have yet touched the Obama campaign, ACORN did have significant ties to the campaign and other progressive causes. Published reports show that ACORN and its subsidiaries received some $800,000 from the Obama campaign to get out the vote. Second, ACORN is intimately tied to the Service Employees International Union, one of President Barack Obama's most powerful and vocal supporters.
ACORN's close ties to the progressive movement and Democratic Party mean that there will be little public confidence if Holder decides not to pursue an ambitious investigation and ultimately prosecute....
What we have seen on tape cries out for a serious, independent investigation to determine if ACORN and its affiliates are a criminal enterprise, whether they have spent federal grants lawfully, whether they helped taxpayers file fraudulent returns, and whether they violated laws prohibiting tax-exempt organizations from engaging in partisan politics. These are big questions, and the public needs to know that Washington's answers are fair and impartial.
September 20, 2009
Do we need an independent prosecutor for ACORN?
Chicago polisci prof Charles Lipson makes the argument:
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41 comments:
Ann ... come on.
ACORN has ordered an independent investigation. It will be led by its advisory council, which includes top men.
Who?
Top men.
Men such as John Podesta, president of the nonprofit Center for American Progress, and Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union.
So, clearly, there is already an independent investigation being conducted.
No need for the Justice Department to appoint an Independent Prosecutor. Your fellow lawyers in the legal community are too busy prosecuting the Black Panthers and searching for Ken Gladney's attacker.
So, lady Justice is safe in Barack Obama's America.
Holder ought to appoint one because he has already made several apparently political prosecution decisions and of course the ACORN CEO made the case for one when she said that the current flap was caused because they have close ties to Obama.
Won't happen though.
The chances of getting a fair investigation out of this hyper-partisan, hyper-crony administration are virtually nil. We now have affirmative action justice.
If Valery Plame deserved one, then ACCORN sure does.
I don't see any other way to find out if they are a criminal enterprise. There seems to be plenty of evidence that it is likely, half the country thinks so, and the nature of the organization's work makes it important to know.
The executive branch will not do it, so how else.
I doubt that the lawyer who has represented and defended terrorists (and apparently still is as AG) would ever appoint a truly independent prosecutor.
What's wrong with an investigation that nobody believes?
It fits right in, and doesn't perpetuate the special prosecutor idea.
Yes. We need an independent prosecutor for ACORN.
The law business has been off, lately, and there are still a lot of recent graduates looking for work.
What I don't get is how this obviously partisan group that electioneer for leftwing Democrats exclusively gets non-profit tax exempt status. Why hasn't the IRS investigated their electioneering activities on behalf of one political party?
It'd be interesting to learn how much state, local and federal govt money has been going to the many Acorn entities. I bet it is more than $500 million in the last 5-10 years.
But I won't hold my breath for the appt of an indep prosecutor.
Go Iggles Beat those Aints!
Har.
Independent prosecutor? It makes too much sense, whih is why I don't see it actually happening.
The difference between the corruption in the Obama administration and the Bush one is the difference between science and science fiction.
ACORN has ordered an independent investigation. It will be led by its advisory council, which includes top men... such as John Podesta, president of the nonprofit Center for American Progress, and Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union.
Well now we can all rest easy knowing that Podesta and Stern will follow the evidence wherever it leads!
I am struggling with kidney stones this weekend. Please stop posting topics that make me laugh out loud.
Thank you.
I'm not a lawyer, although I saw one once at The Museum of Jurassic Technology, but aren't the undisputed facts alone enough to get this organization investigated by the IRS, FBI, and NYT?
Michael Hasenstab, drink beer and jump up and down.
That’s advice given to me by a pharmacist.
Maybe worth a try.
Good luck.
Is there a single person with firing synapses who honestly believes tax money was not used to Get Out The Vote ... for Obama?
That's one.
Can there possibly be a single person out there who is aware of Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, 1989, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1999, 2005, 2007 and 2008 that does not see Acorn deeply complicit in the meltdown of housing and financial sectors?
That's two.
Now that two utes gone and done the job our fourth estate has resolutely and arrogantly refused to do and the whole egregious enterprise has exploded in everybody's face like an I Love Lucy episode on a national scale and can not possibly be dismissed or ignored.
That's three.
So yeah. We need an independent prosecutor, full-on inquisition style. But look at who we've installed to lead our country, to 'drain the swamp' as it were. We deserve what we get and what we do not get.
I'm waiting for Breitbart's "blockbuster" to hit this week. Popping popcorn.
I'm against special prosecutors, so no. Look at Ken Starr- appointed to look into Whitewater, ended up with a token finding that had nothing to do with the case. Or look at Patrick J. Fitzgerald, appointed to look into the Plame business, but ignored the real guy and came up with a token finding of his own- just to show that the whole business wasn't a colossal waste of time.
If the AG can't do the job he was appointed to do, he should be fired or step down. No prosecution czars, thanks.
Regardless of how the Obama administration turns out, I hope a lot of lazy reasoning people learned something from their votes or failure to vote.
Many people mistakenly voted this organization and people like them into control over the most powerful nation that ever existed. Your vote is not some Internet poll about what's better Packman or Tetris, nor is it a place to make a statement. It's hiring thousands of people to effect the lives of most of the people of the world. You don't just pick any guy who walks in the door because he seemed cool.
As much as I disliked, all the other choices, I can't imagine any of the Repubs or even Hillary being as corrupt and dangerous. Hell, I'd prefer a Perot/Nader ticket to this. That at least would be funny.
Florida - love your writing!
Chip Ahoy - spot on.
Brian O'Connell - I agree with you. I do want to say however, that though I believed the Clinton investigation to have been a waste of time, I am not forgiving of the characterizations of Dean Starr, who conducted himself admirably and with honor in a job that saw the vast left-wing and it's daily media conspirators seeking to destroy his reputation and daily obfuscate the truth.
Special prosecutor over torture and violations of human rights? Never! That would be outrageous, unfair, unwarranted.
Special prosecutor for ACORN? Absolutely. It is hard to imagine a more grave breach of the law than the single instance in one office involving tax evasion.
If Plame required a special prosecutor to find out who leaked the news that she was an employee of the CIA who drove to her office in Langley every day (hint: read Vanity Fair to find out), then it just makes sense to find out who's been shoveling money into Acorn, and who's benefited.
WV: cobbra (no lie!), the snakes who insure you after you lose your job.
Besides, I realize the squirrel here is that the people doing this were Not Approved Journalists, but isn't the rather large elephant the fact that child prostitution was embraced by so many offices of ACORN?
Asking if ACORN doesn't need a special prosecutor is like saying that RICO statutes have no purpose.
Do we need a special prosecutor? Yes.
Will we get one? No.
I liked the analogy with science and science fiction above. I think that you can attribute it to the fact that liberals seem to project a lot - in this case, they knew that they would have a hyper-partisan DOJ if they ever got back into power, and just assumed that the Republicans would too. So, they put the guy who helped get Marc Rich his pardon (and Bill and Hillary Clinton a lot of money) in charge there, and a tax cheat in charge of the department collecting taxes. That sort of thing.
G'ahead, investigate, they'll get a judgment and then the Justice Department will nullify it later.
Just make sure not to show up for court so there's no embarrassing moments or transcripts.
It's the Black Panther Voter Intimidation method.
Welcome to the Obama Nation.
Ann, ma chere, surely you realize that ACORN, after delivering to the Democrat Party so many dead and cartoon votes, is above reproach.
WV "counfeli" Confetti made in Red China
Chip--
I don't know if you'll see this--but what is ACORN's role in the Community Reinvestment Acts? And how do these relate to the financial meltdown?
The CRAs seem much closer to an explanation of what happened to the economy than do the stories about greed on Wall Street that the MSM love so much.
I never thought that I would ever say anything good about Janet Reno, after burning down the compound in Waco and being involved with Elian Gonzalez, but in retrospect, she was nowhere near as partisan as Eric Holder has turned out to be. Not sure when we have seen one as nakedly political - maybe we need to go back to when the AG was the President's brother and campaign manager.
In retrospect, Reno was just inept, allowing a lot of strong political subordinates run amok on her watch, such as Holder, Gorelick, etc.
Bruce,
I agree with you, but you are definitely damning Janet Reno with faint praise.
It is hard to imagine a more grave breach of the law than the single instance in one office involving tax evasion.
Someone has been watching the "legacy" media and reading the NYT.
That someone (JNW) might want to google this stuff so he doesn't have to dirty his fingers typing in biggovernment.com
Or better yet! Try
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/09/16/hell-freezes-over/
where he can relax with Jon Stewart making fun of Michelle Malkin. (No hot links for you, buddy.)
"single instance in one office"
{giggle}
What there needs tobe is an independent investigation of Eric Holder's conduct as AG.
(Not a lawyer -- does dereliction of duty have any validity here?)
I ran across a nifty short version of the mortgage financial melt down, ACORN occupying bank lobbies and intimidating institutions etc., the other day, but this is all I could come up with today connecting ACORN and CRA.
Please note this information was available BEFORE the election, but no MSM bothered to do anything with it.
Fie on them all. (Especially since yesterday was Talk Like A Pirate Day!)
Shouldn't ACORN be investigated at the State level, even for vote fraud?
I suppose there may be federal jurisdictions involved but I hope they don't usurp the State level investigations.
Here is the other link. Scroll down past the Obama- scrubbing-links-to-ACORN-from-websites stuff and there is more info on ACORN involvement with mortgage crisis.
As for tax exempt status, there is the cutesy "you know we're supposed to be non-partisan" {wink, wink} in the first video. But I noticed in one of the videos that on the bulletin board to the "prostitute's" left as she walked in another place was a WE WON poster.
Who's "WE"?
WV magisto
We need magisto with cajones to pursue this.
IBD take on Obama and ACORN after Kurtz's article.
WV sting
The American taxpayers have been victimized in a sting of amazing Audacity™
Is there any Hope™?
Yes.
I suggest that they nominate Ann Coulter as the Special Prosecutor where she can use her legal skills and her rapier sharp humor skills.
Synova's on to something.
They should appoint a Federal prosecutor precisely to usurp State investigations. Get those cut off anyway possible.
Then "clear" ACORN.
mmm, we don't need impartiality to pursue them, only impartiality if they are going to let them off the hook.
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