House votes to de-fund ACORN

[cali]

Posted: Thursday, September 17, 2009 2:20 PM by Domenico Montanaro

The House, in a motion to recommit attached to the student loan bill, has voted overwhelmingly to de-fund ACORN.

It was a bipartisan vote, with more than 300 members voting for the measure. (We'll get the full numbers/vote breakdown shortly.)

This goes further than the Senate did; the Senate took money out of one bill. This is to de-fund the group completely -- for any money the House would appropriate.

*** UPDATE *** House Minority Whip Eric Cantor's office just sent around this statement:

“ACORN has violated serious federal laws, and today the House voted to ensure that taxpayer dollars would no longer be used to fund this corrupt organization. All federal ties should be severed with ACORN, and the FBI should investigate its activity. This united Republican effort to defund ACORN is a victory for the rule of law and taxpayers across the country.”

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/09/17/2073493.aspx

[Cant trust em]

1. Let's fine some right-wing groups to defund.

We're not going to make Acorn look OK, but we can do something similar to one of their groups.

[Skidmore]

2. Start with ethics charges for the C Street tenants--owned by

a religous cult.

[mikelgb]

3. I see who is in control in congress.

Somebody help me here, why do I vote again?

[Inuca]

4. This is sad

Acorn was caught doing some pretty indefensible things. OTOH I am sure that they were continuing to do some excellent and much needed work. But nevertheless I think ACORN as as good as dead at this point. And Beck's snicker makes it even worse :-(.

[cali]

5. precisely. It really is a sad thing.

[Taverner]

7. it was a Rovian trick

[cali]

12. no particularly rovian. this kind of crap has a lineage that precedes

Rove. In any case, the damage is huge.

[elocs]

6. ACORN was under such close scrutiny that they should have kept themselves above reproach.

They should have toed the line and run a tight ship, but they didn't. They knew the Republicans were after them, yet they still couldn't do it. So, this is how it ends.

[unpossibles]

9. aren't these tapes several years old?

In other words, I think they were being set up before the GOP had such a hard on for them.

[FBaggins]

16. No

Weeks/months maybe, but not several years.

And heck... the GOP has been out for Acorn's blood since that young woman was grammar school.

[Riley18]

8. All that voting in November and the Republicans are still in charge.

[Freddie Stubbs]

11. No, most Democrats voted to defund ACORN

[aikoaiko]

10. It really surprises me how fast ACORN is being thrown under the bus.

Almost everyone agrees that the individual workers made profound mistakes and likely deserve much punishment, but without any evidence of systematic support for the behavior or willful negligence to not address that issue in ACORN, I don't understand the rush to shut ACORN down.

Really, these videos point for the need for an audit and investigation before considering whether or not to defund it.

[FBaggins]

19. There might have been a way to avoid it. But...

...that's political damage control.

This is obviously timed to distract from the health care debate (which is not to say that what these Acorn employees did was at all acceptable), but the WH needs to get this off the front pages.

[spanone]

13. guilty before proven ANYTHING

[NoSheep]

14. Beautiful.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

15. Sad. Heart-rending. Depressing. Miserable. Distressing

I need a bigger @#$%ing thesaurus.

[LaydeeBug]

17. wow. an illegal stunt gets this to happen. Shit. Let's defund Blackwater. nt

[SIMPLYB1980]

18. Not that I mind de-funding ACORN, but

can we de-fund Blackwater now?