Kathleen Parker: ACORN, service union are hand and glove

Washington Post ^ | September 25, 2009 | Kathleen Parker

[george76]

While everyone in Washington is suddenly pretending they’ve hardly ever heard of ACORN, they might want to pretend they’ve never heard of the SEIU, one of the nation’s largest unions.

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now and the Service Employees International Union are tight as Heidi Klum and a new pair of jeans.

You also don’t talk about either organization without mention of Wade Rathke, co-founder of ACORN and founder of SEIU Local 100 in New Orleans. Rathke, who resigned from ACORN last year as “chief organizer” after it became known that his brother embezzled almost $1 million from the association, continues to run Local 100, as well as ACORN International, recently renamed Community Organizations International.

Rathke’s social justice empire is so vast that he is more hydra than man. Nine heads are surely better than one when you’re organizing communities in at least 12 countries.

Picture a triangle...ACORN...SEIU...the taxpayer. Now picture arrows flowing back and forth, representing the exchange of greenbacks and services.

To break it down, ACORN and SEIU are hand and glove. Rathke himself referred to SEIU as “one of the pillars of the ACORN family of organizations” ... This coziness has been long known among conservative watchdog groups, but Washington has paid little attention until now.

Suddenly, ACORN is as popular as a sneeze on a crowded bus. President Obama, who once represented ACORN as a lawyer and helped train organizers, recently told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos he doesn’t really follow ACORN much.

Taxpayer dollars going to unions?

Blagojevich ...helped position the SEIU so that it could unionize health care workers... SEIU showed its appreciation in advance by becoming Blagojevich’s largest contributor, handing over $1.8 million for his two gubernatorial campaigns.

Now that’s community organization.

[mojitojoe]

SEIU is just as corrupt, if not worse. SEIU was the one mentioned on the Blago tapes. Blago seemed certain that his pal Odumbo could get him a cushy job there. He even goes into detail as to how it would work. One of their pay to play deals. The Chicago way ya know.