Marc Ambinder:
It's important to know, as you watch this, that ACORN was, to Republican field operatives, a Dirty Word in 2006...and in 2004, but general awareness among politicians and activists of what it does was limited to those who had to deal with its voter registration efforts. See here. (A clue: they were part of the America Coming Together consortium in 2004...that should have been a clue as to their ideological leanings.)
A few weeks ago, House Republicans screamed bloody murder when it appeared as if ACORN would benefit from the bailout bill, although McCain, President Bush and House Republicans have supported legislation with similar provisions before and they spent billions on the Road Home project, which contracts with ACORN to help provide housing for Katrina refugees. (You can't say...ah, but ACORN wasn't suspected of doing anything bad earlier... you can't say that because ACORN has been doing what ACORN is accused of doing for several cycles now.)
In 2008, of course, ACORN has become a stand-in not only for the registration fraud allegations, but also for the coincident insinuations that Sen. Obama and his liberal allies are trying to steal the election in battleground states. Indeed, because "ACORN" has become a national political issue, it will be hard for Republicans to use it as a political wedge issue. Once an attack is associated with a party, it doesn't become an attack; it becomes part of party dogma and can service only party activists.
McCain had no trouble fraternizing with ACORN in 2006 when their political interests coincided with his. Now, his campaign is writing e-mails in his name bashing ACORN as a tool of the Obama machine.
And Ari over at Firedoglake shows how Republicans have been allied with ACORN for years.
So spare me the outrage about ACORN and "voter fraud" -- when ACORN has been doing exactly what it's supposed to -- turning over voter registrations it collects for election officials to deal with.
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