Would the House have joined the Senate today in voting to deny ACORN federal funding if James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles had conducted a different, less prurient kind of “sting” operation, posing not as pimp and prostitute, but instead as a deadbeat Dad and his new wife, trying to get help buying a home, despite his past backruptcies, delinquent child support payments and bad credit report.
In short, without the sexual angle, would the latest ACORN scandal have attracted any notice?
For much longer the past year, conservative editorial pages, newsmagazines, websites, blogs and even the inerior pages of major dailies have been rife with stories of corruption, mismanagement and malfeasance at this left-wing organization. We’ve read of embezzlement, money shuffling, vote fraud, racketeering. Just last week, “arrest warrants were issued” in Florida for 11 workers hired by ACORN “on charges of voter registration fraud.”
And yet none of these stories stirred the popular imagination or registered outside the domains of conservative blogs (and other right-of-center circles). Now, a guy poses as a pimp, looking for the left-wing organization’s help in setting up a brothel and even Jon Stewart takes notice. The Senate votes to deny the group federal funding, the House follows suit. The President tries to distance himself from the organization whose support he eagerly embraced and whose coffers his campaign generously filled.
Our lesson of the day? Sex sells.
UPDATE: Byron York offers:
Although Republicans had long fought against ACORN, it is not an exaggeration to say that none of this would have happened now without the BigGovernment undercover videos. Democrats who in the past had reflexively supported ACORN ran for cover after seeing ACORN employees encouraging tax evasion and prostitution. The BigGovernment videos mark an important moment in the development of alternative media sources, and official Washington responded before most of the establishment press did. This is truly an extraordinary series of events.
(H/t Glenn.)
thank you for your patriatism
i agree if the scenario was as your article suggests
there would not be the fallout we are seeing
i think it would be qiite the oppisit
Absolutely not. The Dems have defended ACORN just about every time a scandal has broken out whether it involved mismanagement of funds to voter fraud. ACORN proved to be a useful tool in their fight against Republicans so Dems were willing to overlook quite a lot.
Our lesson of the day? Sex sells.
Worse than that when it comes to this scandal: so does pedophilia. These ACORN flunkies had no problems with the stated intentions of faux pimp to bring in girls as young as TWELVE YEARS OLD to be prostitutes. It’s despicable and disgusting.
The sex grabbed the public’s imagination, but consider what if they had released all of their tapes at once.
I would agrue that this would have been a Lewinsky redux: Tut-tutting. Congressional navel-gazing. Then please move on…
No, Breitbart’s genius was to let them trickle out one at a time, making ACORN and their choir of heralds in the House look ridiculous every time they thought the worst had passed.
Even now, how could someone like Burris (last seen fleeing reporters) defend an organization that may have even more dark revelations in it’s future?
Politics is never truly satisfying to watch, but this comes as close as I’ve seen it.
Best wishes,
-MFS
Yeah sex sells, there is also the sleezy side of the story, underage girls. Even for liberals who want everyone out of their bedroom – that is crossing the line.
Notice that Barney–you’re degrading President Bush and I don’t have any reason to investigate–Fluff didn’t vote on the amendment at all; however, I did notice Mr. Conyers did and voted yes.
“Sex, Scandal and ACORN.”
Highly redundant. In the future, to save time, just say “ACORN.”
Since torrentprime, gillie, and Tano all support and endorse ACORN and insist that nothing they’ve ever done is wrong, it can be safely said that torrentprime, gillie, and Tano all support and endorse tax evasion, lying on mortgages, prostitution, and child sex trafficking.
No surprise. It’s the Obama Way.
Since torrentprime, gillie, and Tano all support and endorse ACORN and insist that nothing they’ve ever done is wrong, it can be safely said that torrentprime, gillie, and Tano all support and endorse tax evasion, lying on mortgages, prostitution, and child sex trafficking.
Safely? It can also mean, that right or wrong, they didn’t believe ACORN was involved in those shenanigans.
Patrick J. Sime
Nicely done GP. Most have totally been ignoring the corruption in elections, followed the money or paid much more than lip service to the arrests and convictions of so many Acorn employees. So yes, it did take a blatant and almost unbelievable sex scandal to make them sit up and notice; these kids were awesome and by pushing the envelope at every turn proved as Jon Stewart mentioned, there was no limit to ACORN’s duplicity! Hah, a risk that paid off quite well, in revealing the low standards practiced in all of the 5 offices. I am waiting for the next 5 to come out. Or to hear that the kids are under investigation, and there will not be any more releases.