Posted on 10/06/2009 3:34:24 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The Acorn chief executive, Bertha Lewis, met with reporters at the National Press Club in Washington this morning. It was one of several appearances she has made in the weeks since conservative videographers, posing as a pimp and a prostitute successfully elicited advice from the group’s counselors on tax evasion and securing housing for a brothel.
But if critics and even some supporters are looking for an “apology tour,” they are not getting one.
Ms. Lewis, rather, provided a defiant answer to her critics, even while acknowledging that the behavior of the Acorn workers who were caught on tape was unacceptable, and that her organization – whose full name is the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now – is still pursuing needed structural improvements.
She decried a “modern-day Acorn McCarthyism,’’ and blamed some of the group’s current problems on its more than 40-year history of “going after the rich and the powerful.”
She said that through years of mismanagement that predated her start as the interim chief executive last year, and through the misguided actions of some employees, “In a way we’ve aided and abetted our attackers.”
But, she said, some workers caught on the tapes – all of whom have been fired – had suspended their judgment of the woman they took to be a young prostitute, out of a misplaced sense of sympathy.
And, ticking through Acorn’s work in housing, minority lending and on workers’ issues since its founding in the 1970’s, Ms. Lewis vowed, “Nothing will ever be able to wipe away those forty years of work, and nothing will stop us from forty more.”(continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com ...
I denounce ACORN’s air of Marxism.
“Acorn Chief Denounces Air of ‘McCarthyism’ “
Lol, the same old warhorses trotted out. Did she cry racism too?
I would call it the air of the Mafia. Bertha you run a corrupt organization.
I prefer Americanism Commies leave.
McCarthyism rulez in the appiled case of ACORN. Root out all those corruptible radical socialists and communists within their ranks!
Lengthy Congressional investigation(s) of ACORN and its subsidiary groups and organizations is long overdue. I mean geezus, if the Congress can investigate steroid use in MLB, it surely can investigate actual fraud, corruption, etc. in ACORN, etc. =.=
Using false charges of “racism” to silence your critics is the only modern example of “McCarthyism.”
So she admits they're commies?
Mccarthy was right!
....McCarthyism ha!...a white man told her to say that...she wouldn’t know McCarthy from Dick’s house cat....personally, I’d like to see a second coming of McCarthy...it’s time we called out these destructive Lefties.
She is actually right because McCarthy was right so now McCarthyism should stand for the truth.
This is, evidently, the leftist polemics version of ‘rotating the crops’. When the ‘racist’ accusation wears out, go back to ‘McCarthyism’.
Ask her to explain Mccarthyism.
Leave Charlie McCarthy ALONE!!!!!!
EXACTLY!!
Glenn Beck may be as close as we'll get to a new McCarthy.
We must defend him at every opportunity.
“had suspended their judgment of the woman they took to be a young prostitute, out of a misplaced sense of sympathy. “
Wait, just last week it was: The employees all thought it was a joke and they were going along with a joke... Riiiiiiiigh.
Someone Get Bertha a wig, those nasty rows look hideous on her, and she is gonna be on camera a lot in the future, she needs to look at least like she is trying to be attractive while she spins like a top.....
The woman is a certified moron.
Yes, she has already done that. I read it earlier today right here at F.R.
(It's racist of me to tell you that though and if you've read my reply to this point, you are racist too.)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.