With the mix of anger, gloom, despair, and steely resolve that so many of us feel about health care, I would like to interrupt your thoughts for a little celebration — ACORN is shutting its doors.
“It’s really declining revenue in the face of a series of attacks from partisan operatives and right-wing activists that have taken away our ability to raise the resources we need,” ACORN spokesman Kevin Whelan said.
Several of its largest affiliates, including ACORN New York and ACORN California, broke away this year and changed their names in a bid to ditch the tarnished image of their parent organization and restore revenue that ran dry in the wake of the video scandal.
ACORN’s financial situation and reputation went into free fall within days of the videos’ release in September. Congress reacted by yanking ACORN’s federal funding, private donors held back cash and scores of ACORN offices closed.
Earlier this month, a U.S. judge reiterated an earlier ruling that the federal law blacklisting ACORN and groups allied with it was unconstitutional because it singled them out. But that didn’t mean any money would be automatically be restored.
James O’Keefe, Hannah Giles, and Andrew Breitbart have done all Americans an enormous service. Many local ACORN chapters will reorganize under other names, but this is still a tremendous victory against big government and corruption.
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