Bertha Lewis

ACORN’s chief organizer and CEO Bertha Lewis appeared on Bill O’Reilly’s ‘The O’Reilly Factor’ on May 29, 2009 to combat the growing criticism that ACORN is a criminal enterprise that is operating as an arm of the Democrats. Well, a watered down version of Bertha Lewis appeared, for those who are not familiar with her colorful character see Youtube. ACORN spokespersons have never had a problem lying on camera, but under oath is a different story (as witnessed by Karyn Gillette’s swift departure from a courtroom in Pennsylvania back in October of 2008). ACORN National spokesman Scott Levenson and other ACORN spokespersons have defended their actions and blamed rogue employees. During ‘The O’Reilly Factor’, Lewis asserted that she is in charge and that no criminal activity will be tolerated on her watch. Really.

For background, Lewis assumed control over the organization, that is, became Chief Organizer after it was revealed that ACORN’s founder Wade Rathke had covered up the embezzlement of almost $1 million dollars by his brother Dale, ACORN’s longtime chief financial organizer. The embezzlement occurred around December of 2000 and was reported by the New York Times

I have been following the on going ACORN debacle very closely, and for anyone growing up in an underprivileged situation you value the most basic of life's virtues. The most highly regarded one being honesty. When you live hand to mouth you expect that if you work hard 40 hours a week you will be paid for that work. You do not expect for someone to to tell how sorry they are that you have worked so hard , and then not be paid. Also they're sorry for the fact that you were counting on the money to pay your rent, buy groceries, and provide child care for your children. Well in a since that's exactly what ACORN has done. The self proclaimed voice of the disenfranchised, have used a most overlooked commodity in America : "Poverty." A natural resource that is in abundance not only due to the current financial strain that our country is suffering from; but also due to the systematic exploitation of those who are less fortunate than the ones who control the means to provide assistance  to the poor , that they so desperately need.

ACORN has not only exploited those in our country's most destitute neighborhoods. i.e. (Washington D.C.,and New Orleans), but they have instituted the tactics of using what some would consider the cream of the crop of these poverty stricken areas to speak for them. What better way to show that you're for the people then to use the people.

This is nothing more than Non profit-ography:the use of the socially and economically deprived to provoke emotional connectivity to non-profit based upon "leaders" within the organization being of the same social and economic background. By using this most overlooked resource, they acquired a Fortune 500 size profit base. And where has this money gone one might ask? Well as of lately straight into the pockets of the founding members. Obviously it seems to be the purpose of the new "progressive" social non profits.

The exploitation of poverty for any means - not just fiduciary - is unacceptable,especially when using those exact same people who are suffering from this systematic disease. To rein in the forgotten in society, those who feel they are being lead by someone who has suffered the same plights in life and understands them. Most members feel like they have found a haven of some sorts – unfortunately for them, the shelter was made of straw.

OpenLeft, a must read of lefty blogs and infrastructure, somewhat uncharacteristically invites Bertha Lewis, who runs a clearly opaque and un-Open organization, ACORN to defend her organization.

Lewis's statement is simply full of lies, many of which are refutable with recent statements by ACORN officials and recent media reports from right-wing hit-job press like the New York Times.

She starts the substance of her piece with:

Let’s be clear about one very important thing. The reason ACORN is the focal point of the combined national efforts of the Republicans is because we recently completed the largest non-partisan voter registration drive in U.S. history. We helped 1.3 million low-income people, people of color, and young people complete voter registration applications.

No. They filed 1.3 million forms. The New York Times gets the breakdown right, according to an ACORN official:

On Oct. 6, the community organizing group Acorn and an affiliated charity called Project Vote announced with jubilation that they had registered 1.3 million new voters. But it turns out the claim was a wild exaggeration, and the real number of newly registered voters nationwide is closer to 450,000, Project Vote’s executive director, Michael Slater, said in an interview.

Don't let the "Project Vote" name fool you. They are essentially the same organization. A NYT story from two days before noted that Mr. Slater's predecessor would have reported directly to ... ACORN's Chief Organizer:

She wrote that the same people appeared to be deciding which regions to focus on for increased voter engagement for Acorn and Project Vote. Zach Pollett, for instance, was Project Vote’s executive director and Acorn’s political director, until July, when he relinquished the former title. Mr. Pollett continues to work as a consultant for Project Vote through another Acorn affiliate.

Back to Bertha... She argues that they have good integrity checks:

The attacks on ACORN are spurious to say the least. Here a few key facts that our accusers aren’t telling you.

• ACORN has implemented the most sophisticated quality-control system in the voter engagement field but in almost every state we are required to turn in ALL completed applications, even the ones we know to be problematic.

• ACORN flags in writing incomplete, problem, or suspicious cards when we turn them in. Unfortunately, some of these same officials then come back weeks or months later and accuse us of deliberately turning in phony cards.  In many cases, we can actually prove that these are the same cards we called to their attention.

Again... Not so much. That's not what ACORN told the Cuyahoga County, Ohio Board of Elections. From the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

Local representatives of the organization told Cuyahoga board members that they don't have the resources to identify fraudulent cards turned in by paid canvassers who are told to register low- and moderate-income voters. [...]

"This is not something you can catch with your internal controls, apparently," said board member Sandy McNair at the meeting.

"Not perfectly, no," replied Mari Engelhardt, ACORN political director for Ohio.

That's ACORN. They lie about their numbers. They lie about their processes. According to their own attorney's they even lie publicly about embezzlement that they knew occurred:

The June 18 report, written by Elizabeth Kingsley, a Washington lawyer, spells out her concerns about potentially improper use of charitable dollars for political purposes; money transfers among the affiliates; and potential conflicts created by employees working for multiple affiliates, among other things.

It also offers a different account of the embezzlement of almost $1 million by the brother of Acorn’s founder, Wade Rathke, than the one the organization gave in July, when word of the theft became public.

This is a criminal organization. Bertha Lewis is the chief of the organization. And OpenLeft is providing a forum for defenses that are simply saturated with lies about the most basic facts that are already disproven by statements by their own organization.