Michele Bachmann is Our GOP Hypocrite of the Week for Her Two-Faced Crusade Against ACORN

Michele Bachmann

Many members of Congress voted to strip the controversial community organization ACORN of federal contracts, and most of them, regardless of political ideology, could be called hypocrites for it. But there can only be one GOP Hypocrite of the Week, so we've chosen the ringleader, who took a victory lap last weekend.

At the How to Take Back America Conference in St. Louis last weekend, loony toon Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) renewed her ownership of the anti-ACORN effort. And rightfully so; she's been warning about how ACORN is going to take over the country with its socialist Brownshirts pretty much ever since Barack Obama took office, if not before then. Her remarks at the conference ranged from bizarre warnings over "one-world currency" to gloating over the fact that conservatives finally figured out how to use liberal techniques against groups such as ACORN:

"Defunding the left is going to be so easy," said Bachmann, "and it's going to solve so many of our problems." She praised James O'Keefe III and Hannah Giles, the people behind the ACORN sting. "Hannah and James used Saul Alinsky's 'Rules for Radicals' — that's the community organizer's bible — against ACORN! Brilliant!"

Earlier this month, the House voted to strip ACORN from a student aid initiative and the Senate voted to remove them from an Interior Department bill. The Defund ACORN Act has not yet been voted on, despite Bachmann's crowing about it, because some in Congress apparently don't want to defund their lawbreaking pals in the process.

The bill itself may be unconstitutional, and it is written so broadly that it may apply to a whole host of big-time campaign donor darlings. One of these is the contractor formerly known as Blackwater:

Jeremy Scahill notes that Blackwater, now doing government business as Xe, should be barred from receiving federal funds by any reasonable definition. It has, after all, been involved in massacres and its founder has been implicated in murder.

ACORN has come under fire for giving tax advice to a man and woman posing as a pimp and a prostitute. [Florida Democratic Rep. Alan] Grayson noted, however, that Blackwater has itself been accused of running a prostitution ring.

"So what's worse, you tell me, actually running a prostitution ring, or giving tax advice to one?" he asked.

David Swanson explains in great detail, and with a series of wonderful charts, how ridiculous defunding ACORN is compared to all the other scofflaws making money off of government contracts. You can read it here, but we wanted to offer his conclusion about why ACORN is the one that has its very own defunding act:

This might help explain it. A list of the all-time top campaign "contributors" includes some familiar names. I've added ACORN to the list, but it doesn't seem to fit. Not only does ACORN not give money to candidates, but ACORN doesn't do much else that other government contractors engage in. For example, ACORN doesn't do any of this:

But ACORN does a lot of this, and this, and this, and this, and this.

ACORN is unlike most government contractors and unlike most other organizations. It mobilizes the working poor for better streets and schools and neighborhoods, better loans, better housing, decent transportation, a living wage and equal rights.

And so on. Kudos to David; we couldn't have said it better ourselves. And that is why Michele Bachmann (and all the other sheep who follow her on this poorly-thought-out journey) is BuzzFlash's GOP Hypocrite of the Week.

Remember our motto: So many Republican hypocrites, so little time.

Catch up with you soon.

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This is Michele Bachmann's third GOP Hypocrite of the Week Award. She also won the award on April 10, 2009 and Oct. 24, 2008. You can see a list of all previous nominees here.

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