Fool Me Hundreds of Times: Who Gets to Clean Up ACORN?

Imagine: In the days following the public revelations of the accounting scandal at Enron, then-CEO Ken Lay convened a news conference. He forcefully expressed his disgust with the actions of his subordinates and vowed to begin “cleaning house” at the company. Taking a few turns to slam the company’s critics and the reporters who had uncovered the scandal, he stressed that, this time, there would be a thorough revamp of the company. He even said that people would be fired! Reassured, reporters, lawmakers and regulators shrugged and went back to their daily lives.

Substitute Bertha Lewis for Ken Lay and ACORN for Enron, in this hypothetical situation, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what was asked of us at Lewis’ tour-de-force theatrical performance at the National Press Club earlier this week. She alternated between attacking her critics, expressing disgust with the actions of her employees caught on tape by James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles and vowing to pursue a lawsuit against the filmmakers for capturing on film her employees’ misdeeds. Oh, and by the way, she really, really–she means it this time–intends to “clean house” at ACORN.

Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank captured the surreal tableau best:

But Lewis, in playing the victim, is her own worst enemy. Forget the film of the pimp and prostitute: Watching a film of Lewis’s performance yesterday would probably be enough to cause lawmakers to cut off ACORN’s federal funding.

Which raises a question: Why does Bertha Lewis get to “clean house” at ACORN? Even today, actions have consequences. The fact that the employee behavior exposed by O’Keefe and Giles happened on her watch–and she has been less than forthcoming about it, by the way–would alone be enough to get most CEO’s booted. Worse, though, is the implication that Lewis has been complicit in ACORN’s missteps for a long time. To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, “Bertha Lewis isn’t the solution to ACORN’s problems. Bertha Lewis is the problem.”

Bertha Lewis has been a long-time leader of ACORN. She became CEO–“Chief Organizer” in the ACORN vernacular–in June, 2008. Around that time, an attorney hired by ACORN, Elizabeth Kingsley, delivered a detailed, 15-page memo to ACORN’s board, highlighting actual and potential problems with ACORN’s operations. Kingsley made a series of very specific recommendations to “clean house” within ACORN. In the 15 months since the memo was delivered, I’m not aware of any efforts ACORN has made to implement these reforms.

Also in 2008, ACORN’s board appointed a special committee to investigate a long-covered up embezzlement scandal. (Ms. Lewis was part of the cover-up.) The embezzlement had been recently revealed by the New York Times. This special committee, and other ACORN leaders, pressed for a full forensic audit of the organization. For this transgression, under the leadership of Bertha Lewis, they were booted out of ACORN. No audit of ACORN has ever been released to the public.

Last week, Wade Rathke, founder of ACORN and victim of Lewis’ 2008 palace coup, made a rare appearance in DC to promote his recent book. Big Government contributor Maura Flynn attended, filmed his talk and asked questions. The interview is interesting. Rathke said they decided to cover-up the embezzlement because ACORN leadership feared its enemies would “weaponize” the scandal against them. He also conjectured that, based on the recent scandal engulfing ACORN, that decision looks to have been the right one.

Which raises several questions for Lewis, since she was a co-conspirator in the embezzlement cover-up: Are you going to truly “clean house” in ACORN or only in those areas that have been publically revealed? Are you focused on rooting out actual corruption or only the corruption the public knows about? Do you see your employees’ transgressions as potential “weapons” your opponents will use against you or actual misdeeds that need to be expunged from ACORN? Can I remind you that several of your offices believed they were assisting an underage sex-trafficking ring? And, they were happy to do so.

Lewis makes a nod to public sentiment in acknowledging the potential criminal activity, yet continues to devote a considerable amount of her time to attacking O’Keefe and Giles and some vast conspiracy against ACORN. (The most devastating take-downs of ACORN have been produced by Jon Stewart and Jay Leno, both absent from my vast right-wing conspiracy membership database.) Worse than this, though; she hasn’t been entirely forthcoming about the videos we have all seen. She continues to claim the videos are doctored, but it has been almost a month since we released the first video. I haven’t seen any evidence from you that these were doctored. Surely, roughly thirty days is enough time to build that case. We released the full audio recordings and transcripts of the interviews.

Second, we initially released videos from Baltimore and Washington, DC. Lewis said then that the filmmakers were thrown out of ACORN offices in “San Diego, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Philadelphia.” We have so far released videos from two of those cities. Was she lying? Or, simply misled by her staff?

The most troubling reservation, however, has to do with the “independent” panel Lewis appointed to guide ACORN through its current troubles. All are long-time ideological allies of ACORN. It asks too much of us to consider them independent. John Podesta is a long-time ally of ACORN. He was instrumental in the creation of Media Matters (for Bulgaria), who is currently exhausting any credibility it ever had spinning for ACORN. Andy Stern, as head of SEIU, has shoveled millions of dollars to ACORN over the years. His own organization has publically stated that they have “cut ties to ACORN,” yet there Stern remains deep in ACORN’s inner circle. Former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, the newly appointed “ACORN Czar,” is a kindred fellow-traveler. His thirst for political power may even exceed Lewis’, as he seems to have been willing to put an innocent man behind bars for two decades to further his own political career. Much more about all of these individuals will be revealed soon. (No, we haven’t begun to release all the information we have.)

So, is Bertha serious about wanting to “clean house?” Has she had a genuine “road to Damascus” moment and is now committed to reform. Color me skeptical, but here are three quick things she could do to begin to restore the public’s trust:

Disclose all of ACORN’s affiliates. Publically reveal the names of every entity that is part of the ACORN ‘family.” I’ve heard there are 100, 200 and even 400 different organizations. Please give the public the full list.

Order full audits of every ACORN affiliate. ACORN has been entrusted with millions of dollars of local, state and federal funds. Reassure the public that these funds haven’t been misspent. If they have been misspent, admit it and discipline the offenders. Release the audits to the public, with proprietary or personal information redacted.

Appoint a real independent panel. A review panel made up of your political allies is not independent. It is akin to appointing the foxes to review the henhouse. It has become accepted in recent years that boards of directors need a lot of “outside” directors to oversee operations. No institution would benefit as much from this as ACORN.

Three simple steps, but, giant leaps to restoring any integrity ACORN may have once enjoyed. Lewis, you can pick the high road or the low road. If she continues on her current path–the low road–then she’s gotta go.