Patrick, Obama, ACORN and My Tax Dollars
Yeah, it’s a big orbit, maybe 3000 miles and two decades from DC to Chicago to Boston, but they all come together, in my wallet.
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and Barack Obama like letting people know how much like each other they are. Turns out its true. Want a template for an Obama administration? Look no further than Massachusetts. Patrick’s Obama-ACORN link, and my state tax dunnage. Boston Herald:
Gov. Deval Patrick, a national co-chairman of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, teamed up with the Illinois senator to represent the controversy-plagued activist network ACORN in a 1993 case and secured money for the group in this year’s state budget, the Herald has learned.
Patrick secured a $33,000 grant for the Springfield branch of ACORN’s housing program in April. ACORN Housing New England Regional Director Theresa Naylor said the money was used for “foreclosure prevention.” She also said the agency’s housing arm has “nothing to do with” the voter registration program, which has been the subject of fraud allegations that have dogged Obama because of his ties to the group.
“We’re sister companies, but we’re two different organizations,” Naylor said.
In 1993, Patrick, then a Department of Justice lawyer, and Obama, as a private civil rights lawyer, teamed up to represent ACORN in a successful suit that forced Illinois officials to implement the “motor voter” law, which allows people to register to vote when they get a driver’s license.
ACORN has been accused of doctoring voter lists in key presidential battleground states by submitting bogus names such as Mickey Mouse and Dallas Cowboys players Tony Romo and Terrell Owens.
The agency’s Nevada offices were recently raided by state investigators, and the FBI is reportedly investigating the accusations. Republicans in Congress are also pushing for a probe. Obama has denied any involvement of his campaign in the suspect registration efforts.
ACORN officials say they haven’t been contacted by any federal investigators. In a statement on its Web site, the group says it closely monitors voter lists and takes swift action against activists who submit phony names.
Of the governor’s ACORN ties, Patrick spokesman Kyle Sullivan said: “The governor is very proud of his efforts at the Department of Justice and at the State House to make it easier for citizens to legally register to vote and to help families keep their homes.”
Republican National Committee spokeswoman Blair Latoff blasted Patrick, saying: “The fact that Gov. Deval Patrick would even consider rewarding ACORN with taxpayer dollars is astounding.”
$33,000 doesn’t sound like much … if in fact that’s all Patrick has given ACORN. In federal terms, multiply by about one million, conservatively. And trust me, an Obama administration and a Democratic-controlled Congress won’t be conservative. Unclear whether ACORN’s on the block in Massachusetts along with cops, mentally retarded kids, mentally ill adults, daycare, workforce training, universities, etc., in the big $1 billion cut package Patrick just announced.
Patrick, you may recall, was an up-by-his-bootstraps liberal whose first acts in office were to get a limousine and replace the drapes. Howie to Patrick: Show us you care. Give up the Cadillac, and seeing as you just got that $1.35 million advance from Random House, how about the salary, too. Share the wealth.
With a nod to my fellow Mass taxpayers at Maggie’s Farm, who are documenting the flight to North America’s last remaining conservative bastion … Canada, here’s Michael Medved on righty defeatism and the consequences of an Obama win.
In prior Obama admin headsup news out of Massachusetts:
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:15 pm Comments (0) on Wednesday, October 22, 2008
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