Snippet one:Voter enthusiasm is low now, and fewer groups like the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or Acorn, are engaged in drives to sign people up. Acorn collected about 550,000 voter-registration applications across the country in 2006, mostly from low-income and minority Americans, and 1.3 million in 2008.
But in March, the organization closed down after accusations by two conservative activists that low-level Acorn employees had advised them on how to hide prostitution activities and avoid taxes. The group was also battered by conservatives for having submitted some voter registration cards with incorrect, duplicate or false information.
Snippet Two:In the Senate, 45 Democrats and Joseph I. Lieberman, I-Conn., backed an amendment — offered by Nebraska Republican Mike Johanns — to bar any funds provided under the fiscal 2010 Interior Appropriations bill (HR 2996) to go to ACORN.
Even with Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chairwoman of the relevant appropriations panel, insisting that the spending bill provided no funds to the group, the Senate adopted the amendment, 85-11.
Hours earlier, the House voted, 345-75, to adopt a procedural motion by California Republican Darrell Issa adding language to a student-loan bill (HR 3221) requiring no federal funding be directed to ACORN. On the vote, 172 Democrats joined 173 Republicans backing the move.
Now, why must we support Democrats? Because they obviously can't support themselves.