Cracking ACORN

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review is pleased to see that Washington politicians (especially Democrats) have finally taken action to stop taxpayer dollars from going to the corrupt liberal activist group ACORN. But the paper wonders why it took so long to cut off funding when evidence of corrupt practices have been reported for years.

From the Tribune-Review:

ACORN undone

The sudden change of heart regarding ACORN among Democrats in Washington, D.C., is indubitably welcome. So what took so long?

Apparently, they were awaiting hidden-camera videos showing ACORN workers advising a conservative filmmaker and a journalist who posed as a pimp and a prostitute on how to avoid tax, immigration and police scrutiny. Once those videos hit YouTube, Democrats' longtime support of ACORN quickly crumbled.

Last week, they joined Republicans in overwhelming votes in the House to end all federal funding for ACORN and in the Senate to block 2010 housing funding for ACORN. And the Obama administration's Census Bureau got in on the act, canceling plans to work with ACORN on the 2010 head count.

Even the Justice Department's independent inspector general is getting in on the act. The IG is reviewing grants to the liberal activists. ACORN, by the way, has stopped taking new clients and is conducting an internal audit, a probe that one should reasonably consider to be suspect.

It remains to be seen if Democrats' newfound opposition to ACORN is more than a political convenience and contrivance of the moment. But that trend does encourage anyone opposed to voter registration fraud and other improprieties in which ACORN is alleged to have engaged.