Orange County Register : Jerry Brown Must Investigate ACORN
Orange County Register Editorial November 27, 2009
Editorial: Jerry Brown vs. ACORN
State AG should take allegations seriously.
ocregister.com
It might sound little cliché, but ACORN is the gift of controversy that keeps on giving. This time the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now is putting Jerry Brown, California's attorney general and likely gubernatorial candidate, in an awkward political position. Can you say Acorngate?
Political activist Andrew Breitbart broke a story this week about ACORN, a national association of community organizers that claims to advocate for low-and-moderate-income people, on his Big Government blog. This time ACORN is accused of a massive document dump at its San Diego office. The discarded papers contain sensitive personal information about clients and employees, such as Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, voided checks, tax returns, even credit reports. Other documents, according to Derrick Roach, the private investigator who retrieved the data, contained detailed information about how ACORN operates in California.
The real story, though, is the timing of the disposal, which occurred six days before representatives from the Attorney General's Office visited the ACORN offices for their investigation into potentially illegal advice and misconduct captured on video by two activists posing as potential ACORN clients. The videos caused a national stir in September.
If Mr. Brown is serious about returning to the governor's job, which he held from 1975-83, he will need to get serious about investigating ACORN. If he doesn't, it might cost him at the ballot box. The attorney general's office claims the investigation of the controversial ACORN videos is ongoing, but according to David Lagstein, Acorn's chief organizer in San Diego, the state's top law agency is in ACORN's corner. In a recorded speech he gave to the East [San Diego] County Democrat Club last month, Mr. Lagstein said that every bit of the communication he had with Mr. Brown's office suggests that the fault will be found with the activists who made the videos, not the people with ACORN.
We hope this is not the case. Mr. Brown has proven that he can be a maverick and that he can, on occasion, espouse liberty-advancing principles. Here's an opportunity for Mr. Brown to demonstrate his independence as the top lawmaker in the state despite ACORN's assertions that he is in their corner.
For an organization that purports to serve the needy and disadvantaged, ACORN has made a lot of serious blunders. At some point, enough is enough. Jerry Brown should display the political wherewithal to thoroughly investigate ACORN and prosecute where necessary.
|
