There's an old saying in the African American community. If you dig a grave for someone, better dig one for yourself. In the conservative zeal to attack and destroy ACORN, the GOP has deliciously done just that.
The GOP written congressional legislation intended to defund ACORN is written so broadly that it applies to "any organization" that has been charged with breaking federal or state election laws, lobbying disclosure laws, campaign finance laws or filing fraudulent paperwork with any federal or state agency. It also applies to any of the employees, contractors or other folks affiliated with a group charged with any of those things.
Translation: The bill they passed has the potential to defund their allies in the entire military-industrial complex.
Freshman Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) noted the arrogant and boneheaded GOP sponsored legislative overreach. He asked the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) to check its database and find our which defense contractors might be caught up in the same tangled web the GOP weaved to ensnare ACORN with.Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman both popped up quickly on POGO's list with 77 fraud cases between them since 1995.
Rep. Grayson is also seeking help from you intrepid fraud busters to find more examples of organizations committing fraud against the federal government.
The GOP also played themselves and filed the bill as a "motion to recommit" in the House, where it passed 345-75. Constitutional expert Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) noted that The Defund ACORN Act appears to be a 'bill of attainder'.
In other words, if it specifically targets a company, organization or individual, it is banned by the Constitution. Reps. John Conyers (D-MI) and Barney Frank (D-MA) sent a letter to the Congressional Research Service asking it to clarify if in fact the Defund ACORN Act is constitutional.
If it's ruled the bill doesn't specifically target ACORN, then Northrop Grumman and a host of other companies are in big time danger of losing their federal funding as well.Hey, that's what you GOPers get for sending people to Washington who don't read the Constitution, but instead run roughshod over it.
It would serve the Rethuglicans right for starting this BS in the first place.
