Pirate's Cove

Senor Boehner

House Republican leader John Boehner on Wednesday urged President Bush to block all federal funds to a grass-roots community group that has been accused of voter registration fraud.

“It is evident that ACORN is incapable of using federal funds in a manner that is consistent with the law,” Boehner, R-Ohio, wrote Bush, saying that funds should be blocked until all federal investigations into the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now are completed.

He also wants an investigation into ACORNS links to Fannie Mae. But they are all little darlings, I thought!

Clifton Mitchell helped register nearly 2,000 voters for the community group ACORN. But not one of them actually existed.

“I regret it. I paid the price for it,” he said.

Mitchell was convicted last year and spent nearly three months in prison. He’s one of the few ACORN workers convicted of voter registration fraud.

Mitchell said ACORN threatened to close the office if he and his team didn’t meet their quota to register 13 to 20 voters a day. So, without consulting their supervisors, he said, they came up with a plan.

“We came up with the idea: Let’s make fraudulent cards. I tell my crew, ‘I don’t care how you get ’em, just get ’em,’ ” Mitchell recalled.

They took addresses from homeless shelters, used fake birthdays and Social Security numbers and took names from baby books to create voters out of thin air.

OK, so, he and the others involved were just trying to make money and keep the office open. Did that translate to fraudulent votes? Probably not. And this all begs the question of how many of the fraudulent registrations lead to actual fake votes. But, there is another problem with the registrations, and that is public perception.

There are many people who do not follow politics like we do, believe it or not. I would probably not be off base to say that most Americans of voting age do not pay that much attention, except what they are fed in the news while reading a paper or watching the evening news. But there is little consideration of what they are being fed. And that makes a difference.

If you saw everyone buying tickets for a particular movie, might you not think “gee, it must be super! I think I will get a ticket and go see it, too.” When the average American reads and hears that people are registering as Democrats in a much larger proportion then as Republicans, might they not think “gee, the Dems must be doing something right. I think I might vote Democrat this time.”