Posted on 03/20/2009 11:27:34 AM PDT by Jim Robinson
In an startling partisan shift, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. on Thursday proposed holding hearings on claims the liberal activist group ACORN engaged in a pattern of crimes ranging from voter fraud to a mob-style “protection” racket.
Mr. Conyers, Michigan Democrat and fierce partisan, suggested a congressional probe after scathing testimony about the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) during a hearing on various voting issues related to the 2008 presidential election.
Mr. Conyers called the accusations “a pretty serious matter.”
“I think that it would be something that would be worth our time,” he said during Thursday's hearing. “We've never had one person representing ACORN before the committee. ... I think in all fairness we ought to really examine it.”
The testimony by Pittsburgh lawyer Heather Heidelbaugh accused the nonprofit group of violating tax, campaign-finance and other laws by, among other things, sharing with the Barack Obama campaign a list of the Democrat's maxed-out campaign donors so ACORN could use it to solicit them for a get-out-the-vote drive.
She also testified that the Democrat-allied group provided liberal causes with protest-for-hire services and coerced donations from targets of demonstrations through a shakedown it called the “muscle for the money” program.
Ms. Heidelbaugh, a member of the executive committee of the Republican National Lawyers Association, spearheaded an unsuccessful lawsuit last year seeking a court injunction in Pennsylvania against ACORN's voter-registration drive for the 2008 presidential campaign. She appeared as a witness at the request of Republican committee members.
Mr. Conyers, who is known for his drive to continue investigating the Bush administration, previously defended ACORN. In October, he condemned an FBI voter fraud investigation targeting the group. He questioned whether it was politically motivated to hamper a voter-registration drive targeting groups likely to support Mr. Obama's candidacy.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com:80 ...
Conyers is as dumb as a bag of rocks.
Hmmmm. Wonder if anything will come of this?
I . . am . . . shocked . . . a lib wanting to investigate ACORN? Not that it will amount to anything.
I think we all know that any “probe” will consist of a series of fake hearings filled with softball questions, followed by “nothing to see here, move along.”
This has to be related to the major abuse his wife took recently at the hands of some far left groups. I can’t recall the exact circumstances..Nice to see the left eating its own for a change..thought only Republicans did that
Huh oh, I fell into the wrong universe, where my map home?
With Maxine Waters publicly asking if Zer0 has any idea what he is doing and now another Dimwit wanting to look at ACORN, maybe the in-feeding is upon this administration.
We should push to have ACORN removed from any Census involvement while this is being cleared up.
Dog & pony show from the master.
It’ll be like the Fan/Fred hearings a few years ago -
it’s all good
Raines is doing an excellent job
I guess the dismal poll numbers about democrats and Congress are finally starting to have an effect since they are now starting investigations of ACORN and other dem organizayions like FANNIE AND FREDDIE that should have been done a long long time ago...these things are long past due.
“whitewash”
Intern - “Mr Conyers...Mr Soros is on line 1”
yes it is.
What of this, JR? Is this more grandstanding? ACORN “investigation” just a deflection for some other tyrannical motion by Conyers?
Head fake. As we all know they are crooked as hell, Conyers will initiate a “probe” and find them clean as a whistle.
The result will be broadcast across America.
Legeslative versus Executive power sturggle.
Many members of Congress are coming up short in the graft department due to the poor economy. If the Big 0 gets his way much of that graft will never return and we all know how important “freezer” money is to a politician.
Mnica Conyers a City Councel president single handily killed the Cobo Hall renovation by groups in the suburbs. she called them all racist. Basically it will kill the best auto show in the nation. She is also known as “Sister Sludge” for her involvment in pay backs for huge sludge contracts when Detroit had their own plant. she is a racist through and through.
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