Michael Steele's Latest Fundraising Attempt Uses ACORN, But Leaves Out Facts, Common Sense

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Meg White

The coffers at GOP HQ must be getting dangerously low; Michael Steele is resorting to eCards with little pictures of nuts as a fundraising tool.

Apparently, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, is planning a hijacking of the government. This morning, BuzzFlash got an e-mail from the leader of the Republican National Committee warning us that the "Democrats are about to make $8.5 billion more in tax-payer funds available to this radical group" that will somehow "cement left-wing rule in Washington for good."

Now, Steele doesn't really explain how this is happening, so let me do so for you: the Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act would supply funds for grassroots organizations that help people refinance their unbalanced loans into something that is more reasonable (ACORN is just such an organization, despite what you've heard from Republicans calling it a socialistic vote-fabricating machine).

Some conservatives seem to be secretly opposed to helping poor people restructure their loans, much like they've opposed strict regulation of the mortgage industry. But being against a bill that seeks to curb predatory lending sounds mighty craven, so Republicans need another enemy. Michele Bachmann was first faced with this conundrum after being criticized for her opposition to the banking bill, even though her congressional district has been hit harder by foreclosures than any other in the state of Minnesota.

Bachmann chose ACORN as her antagonist, introducing an amendment (on a bill she said she would vote against anyway) that would bar any group under indictment on voter fraud charges from receiving funds to help people avoid foreclosure, trumpeting from the House floor that this would bar nasty ol' ACORN from getting their grubby hands on any cash.

(For a discussion of the whole ACORN saga and how the right wing is using tall tales about voter fraud to actually suppress the votes of minorities and the working class, check out this article in our occasional series on the GOP Economic War Against American Working Families here. You can also check out ACORN's page for refutations of conservative lies talking points about ACORN here.)

ACORN responded to the congresswoman's legislative attack by pointing out that Bachmann was spreading lies about them; they hadn't been indicted the previous week in Nevada. That didn't stop Steele from repeating the charge again in his e-mail today.

Regardless, Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee Barney Frank (D-MA) said he regretted not objecting to Bachmann's amendment when it was introduced in his committee, promising to fix the amendment before the bill's passage in the full House. He ultimately changed the prohibition to apply to companies who employ people who have been convicted of voter fraud, not simply indicted.

Steele rails against Frank in his e-mail, inquiring, "Since ACORN’s efforts are all about electing leftist Democrats like himself, why would Frank want them to go unrewarded?"

"He needs to be stopped!" Steele wails in the introduction to the online "Protest Card."

While ACORN does have a voter registration drive, they have a dozen other campaigns designed to assist mainly marginalized and low-income people. The reason the group is eligible for this lending act money is to help out low-income homeowners and try to stem the housing crisis that got this whole recession rolling, not to get Democrats re-elected.

The most amusing thing about the e-mail, though, was that the act of sending an eCard to Frank or House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (those are the two options Steele's eCard offers) will do exactly nothing. Even if these two House Dems had any interest in reading mail from the RNC, it's not like they could change their minds. The Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act passed in the House a week ago, with the support of 60 Republican votes.

If Steele really wanted to make some legislative change, he'd have told recipients of his e-mail this, and urged them to contact members of the Senate, who have yet to vote on the bill. But the RNC is seeking neither legislative victories nor an informed electorate. Instead, they want money.

Steele spent more than half of the words in his e-mail on language begging for contributions. There's a link on the site set up to e-mail your eCard that allows you to bypass the eCard and go straight to the donations page. Or, if you want to have fun picking out your favorite anthropomorphic, dollar-sign-for-a-face acorn to send to Pelosi or Frank, that's fine. Once you're finished with that, you'll be automatically redirected to a page where you can make a donation and/or notify a friend about this important work the RNC is doing to stop ACORN.

Maybe Steele knows in his heart of hearts that the country needs this legislation? Who knows what goes on in there. The bottom line is, Steele is doing just what he accused the Democrats of doing: using ACORN to raise money and get re-elected. And preventing people from saving their homes in order to gain political power is just nuts.

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS