–updated and bumped–
The man who was Arianna Huffington’s researcher as she launched Huffington Post, before he joined Drudge, has put conservative muckraking on the map again. It’s the first time since Drudge leaked the Monica Lewinsky story, because Newsweek didn’t have the spine, that conservatives have landed a big story that has sent shockwaves through their political adversaries.
According to TPMMuckraker, ACORN has been contacted by the FBI and the Brooklyn district attorney’s office in connection with what Breitbart’s investigation has revealed. Bertha Lewis, ACORN’s CEO, has also notified the IRS that their low-income free tax help unit is going to be shut down for the short-term, according to a report in the Washington Post, until after “an external review.”
With ACORN’s scalp under his belt, James O’Keefe, Hannah Giles and Breitbart.com LLC have now been sued by ACORN for supposedly illegally taping their staff, the case being brought in Maryland. This is so many kinds of stupid it’s hard to fathom. With so much negative publicity, the smart move would be to do multiple mea culpas, go on a firing spree, then bring in squeaky clean new partners to turn the organization inside out. And that’s just for starters.
A creature of Hollywood, Breitbart knows the old axiom well, which applies double for what he does: no such thing as bad publicity. That is, unless you’re ACORN. Jack Schafer gives him “two cheers.”
And people are still wondering why Democratic Rep. Barney Frank went on Fox? Let’s also remember that Mr. Frank has publicly defended ACORN when it was deserved, while reminding conservative like Michelle Bachman that the organization was also significantly funded by the Bush administration. Via Fox News:
Frank noted that ACORN receiving $14.2 million in funding from Bush administration through HUD.
“And I do not remember during the period from 2001 to 2006 when the Republicans controlled the White House, HUD, the House and the Senate, and ACORN was receiving millions of dollars, any Republican objection to this,” he said.
[...] “And I reiterate that my own view is that the appropriate response here would be to have the Obama administration continue what it began with regard to the Census and withhold any funding or authority from ACORN pending a very serious examination of their past behavior and significant changes regarding the future.”
After hearing Andrew Breitbart rail at CPAC this past spring, anyone listening had to know the man was going on the war path. No one and I mean no one anticipated that this was the guy who would slay ACORN, which led to not only the Senate voting against the group, but the House voting to strip ACORN of all their cash, then punish anyone who got involved further with the group.
The Washington Independent does a huge story on Mr. Breitbart today:
Who were “these people?” They were not just the leaders or members of ACORN itself. “They” were the Democratic Party, the White House, the progressive Center for American Progress and its president John Podesta. The “Democrat-media complex” is Breitbart’s name for the whole apparatus. “We deprived them of information,” Breitbart explained, “so that they couldn’t come up with a vile, kill-the-messenger attack with the media doing the groundwork for them.”
The success of Breitbart’s strategy was immediate, stunning, and is still ricocheting around the political world. Five days after the story broke, the U.S. Senate voted 83-7 to prevent ACORN from receiving any federal funding. Two days later, the House of Representatives did the same. Meanwhile, Breitbart was talking to more reporters, amused at how the “kill-the-messenger attack” was playing out. When one report from The Washington Post called him for a story about O’Keefe and Giles, Breitbart compared their tape to the photos of Abu Ghraib prison released in April 2004. …
With the launch of BigGovernment, he is gaining new recognition as the conservative movement’s most successful — in terms of damaging liberals — new media pioneer. …
I’m not sure the legality of the filming, being labeled “entrapment” by some, is really going to be a case breaker for the public. The PR damage is done unless ACORN completely reinvents itself, starting with someone brought in to do a thorough review.
I’m all for fighting all the way, never letting conservatives smear our allies, hitting back hard. Media Matters does this today, attempting to turn the light back on conservatives by reminding people that Republicans ignored Abramoff, as well as military contractor scandals. No matter how true, this is a ridiculous tit-for-tat argument that serves no one.
Standing by friends is a test of loyalty. But it’s never a good idea to lose your own credibility in the process, especially when tough talk is the only hope to save them.
Even if ACORN wins their lawsuit, it doesn’t mean they’ve earned back the public’s trust.
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