Dick Morris falsely claimed Obama was "general counsel" for ACORN
SUMMARY: On Hannity & Colmes, Dick Morris falsely claimed that Sen. Barack Obama served as "general counsel" to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). In fact, while Obama was part of a team of attorneys that represented ACORN in a lawsuit against the State of Illinois, Obama was never "general counsel" to ACORN.
Fox News contributor Dick Morris falsely claimed on the October 13 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes that Sen. Barack Obama served as "general counsel" to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). In fact, Obama was never "general counsel" to ACORN. He was part of a team of attorneys from the law firm Miner, Barnhill & Galland that represented ACORN in a lawsuit against the State of Illinois.
As Media Matters for America has noted, the plaintiffs, which included, among others, the U.S. Department of Justice and the League of Women Voters, sued to force the state to implement the National Voter Law of 1993, the federal "motor voter" registration law. On June 5, 1995, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit issued a decision affirming the lower court's finding for the plaintiffs.
A civil docket for the lawsuit names attorneys Judson Hirsch Miner and Steve Bachmann, who was not a member of Miner, Barnhill & Galland (known as Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland when Obama was hired), as lead attorneys for the plaintiffs. Obama was an associate at the firm at that time and was not a lead attorney in the case.
From the October 13 broadcast of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes:
MORRIS: And by the way, if you don't want Ayers, look at those nutty people at ACORN -- pardon the pun. Obama gave them $800,000 from this campaign. And they're using the money to register people 20 times over to vote. And they've been raided in 11 states by the FBI.
COLMES: All right.
MORRIS: And this is not some long-term association. He was general counsel to ACORN and he gave them $800,000.
COLMES: He was the general counsel --
MORRIS: And they're an organization dedicated to voter fraud.
COLMES: -- on one case 12 years ago, and did two hours of training with them, that's basically it. But we will --
MORRIS: No. He was general counsel to ACORN in the State of Illinois.
COLMES: And there's no evidence --
MORRIS: And his current campaign, "Obama for President," gave ACORN a contract for $800,000.
COLMES: Is there any evidence that Obama was involved in fraud?
MORRIS: Well, there's absolute evidence that the employees of the Obama campaign, ACORN, are involved in fraud and that they're using Obama's campaign money to do it.
COLMES: But they're not employees of the campaign. They work for ACORN and ACORN has strictures in place to make sure that it never gets as far as the voting booth. But we will --
MORRIS: They -- yeah, they just register them 16 times as a handwriting test.
COLMES: That's registration fraud, not voting fraud.
MORRIS: They're not actually planning to have them vote 16 times.
COLMES: All right, we are going to continue with Dick Morris.
The right-wing professional liars see this election slipping away, so they're stocking up on talking points to delegitimize Obama's presidency while he's in office.
I would bet that they've already got the impeachment papers drawn up.
The left wing crybaby sycohphants are already doing a pretty good job of delegitimizing Obama before he's in office.
Another hit-and-run comment completely devoid of content?
missdee at her finest.
Crybaby? Maybe you should look at McCain's campaign. Need I remind you about all of the crying and whining about "lipstick on a pig" and how long we had to hear about that? How about McCain whining and crying everytime someone says something bad about him? How dare they? He was a POW after all.
You're pretty pathetic in your hit and run postings with no factual basis about, well, anything. You do repeat the right wing narrative pretty well, and I'm sure you'd be one of the people standing at a McCain-Palin rally screaming "TRAITOR!" about Obama, along with "OFF WITH HIS HEAD! TERRORIST!" and other niceities that are being lobbed out at campaign events for the republican nominee for President.
You're a class act MissDee, and repeat Limbaugh, Hannity, Savage, et all quite nicely. They've got you snowed in.
Dick Morris also falsely claimed Ayers is a member of Obama's election staff. I'm surprised though that he didn't work in a Clinton jab while he was at it.
Snoop, I don't know if you've ever noticed that the first letter of Ayers and ACORN are the same. And did you know that Obama's mother was white...and that Bill Ayers is also white? Just sayin'... ;>)
My god, I never knew! Republicans are ordained to be in charge...
Let me guess.. in your "truth" this was said right after Obama taught Jesus to walk on water??
No, let me guess - you're about to see a landslide victory and all you can do is whine about how unfair your "chosen" one is being treated. Just because y'all finally found a beauty queen who doesn't want world peace...
Lying about Obama is a bit of a new tack for Morris.
Doesn't he usually spend his time lying about the Clintons?
Usually, but since Obama is 3 weeks from being elected, he realized he needs to smear Obama more than usual.
Maybe he's trying to diversify so he will still be picked up by Fox "News" for comments.
Marxist, Socialist, Communist, Manchurian Candidate...
It's a shame that when they level such accusations, they most likely have know idea how to define the inflammatory terms they are throwing around.
Harlan (may I call you by your first name, Col?) you have the strongest stomach imaginable to be able to eat lunch and listen to wingnut shows at the same time. Although it helps to have a great sense of humor.
Regarding the article, looks like it was teensie little colmes who turned out for the interview with dick morris. Just a mild challenge from Colmes, who never finished a sentence and decided that was just fine. I'd love to see Hillary Clinton interview Dickie. She'd put him in his place right quick.
Not only do I stomach some wingnut radio at lunch, I turned on H&C last night at dinnertime to see Colmes vs. Nugent. It's hilarious to watch the spineless Colmes sit there muttering and reading off his index cards while Gonzo Ted rattled on about "Real Americans" and asked if he was speaking slowly enough for Colmes to understand.
And I'm a non-professional sitting on me couch, saying, "Hey Tough-Guy Ted,why don't you tell us your draft-dodging story again?"
But, wait, this is not Clinton's fault? Morris is slipping.