In NY-23, even GOP officials aren't buying the right-wing media's ACORN attacks
November 19, 2009 11:43 am ET by Eric Boehlert
Here's a nice snapshot of the divide that exists within the Republican Party between serious people and the un-serious people.
The conservative noise machine, marching behind Glenn Beck and Andrew Breitbart's routinely unreliable site Big Government, has spent the last several months trying to turn ACORN into an all-purpose bogeyman that can be blamed for all the nation's ills. But it turns out that perhaps the only people they've convinced about ACORN are themselves. (Can you say echo chamber?)
Facing an absentee ballot recount defeat for the special election in NY-23, conservative Doug Hoffman is now adopting the right-wing media's anti-ACORN mantra. But local Republican officials aren't buying it.
From the Watertown (NY) Daily Times [emphasis added]:
With his prospect of winning the 23rd Congressional District race now almost zero, Conservative Party candidate Douglas L. Hoffman suggested Wednesday in a letter that “ACORN, the unions and the Democratic Party” “tampered” with results to deny him victory.
Mr. Hoffman provided no evidence to support his claims, but asked fellow conservatives to send donations his way to “ensure every vote is counted.” Jerry O. Eaton, Jefferson County Republican elections commissioner, called Mr. Hoffman's assertion “absolutely false.” “No one has touched those ballots or has access to those ballots except board of elections staff - and in a bipartisan manner,” he said.
Second, Hoffman is WAY off base. The worst thing anyone can accuse ACORN of is correctly identifying suspect voter registration forms and pointing them out to election officials. Why anyone would object to that or call it corrupt, except as a cheap political tactic, is beyond me -- ACORN's actions are actually PRESERVING the integrity of the election process.
If Hoffman wants to see REAL voter fraud, he needs to turn his eyes to the Republican party's machinations, including Florida in 2000, Alabama in 2002, and Ohio and several other states in 2004. He needs to bone up on the New Hampshire case in which Republicans illegally blocked the phone lines of Democratic election workers, preventing voters from calling to obtain rides to the polls. He needs to read about how a bunch of corrupt businessmen rigged the electricity grid AND the recall process in California to topple the democratically elected ("democrat elected?") governor and replaced him with a Republican who was friendly to them.
Hoffman clearly has no future electoral prospects. His tactless comments in the wake of Scozzafava's withdrawal show him to be devoid of grace and class. He has no one to blame but himself for giving over a solid Republican district to a Democratic candidate for the first time in 150 years or more. He lost, plain and simple. And he has no one to blame but himself.
Of course Hoffman knows he doesn't have a chance. Of course he knows that the results are legit and that ACORN had no hand in any corruption. This isn't a real move to have every vote counted. It's a fundraiser, yet another attempt to strongarm the gullible and hopeless into giving their hard-earned money to the cause.
Pretty transparent, really.