Oops. If ACORN tapes aren't about “criminality,” then why has Breitbart been demanding criminal investigations?

Written by Eric Boehlert

Published

Simple question. Can Andrew Breitbart provide a simple answer?

Following the news that New York prosecutors had become the latest outside investigators to find no criminal wrongdoing on the part of ACORN, Breitbart, in face-saving mode, abruptly threw this attack machine into reverse and announced that his beloved undercover ACORN tapes “were less about 'criminality' than facility with which employees all knew how to work the system for any lowlife wanting government $.”

So back to my very simple question. If the ACORN crusade is not about “criminality,” then why has Breitbart been demanding that the U.S. Department of Justice launch a criminal investigation into ACORN?

I mean, who can forget Breitbart's comical Fox News appearance last November, when he made his brash, tough-guy challenge [emphasis added]:

Not only are there more tapes, it's not just ACORN. And this message is to Attorney General Holder: I want you to know that we have more tapes, it's not just ACORN, and we're going to hold out until the next election cycle, or else if you want to do a clean investigation, we will give you the rest of what we have, we will comply with you, we will give you the documentation we have from countless ACORN whistleblowers who want to come forward but are fearful of this organization and the retribution that they fear that this is a dangerous organization. So if you get into an investigation, we will give you the tapes; if you don't give us the tapes, we will revisit these tapes come election time.

Everyone got the message. Even RedState:

Breitbart to Eric Holder: Investigate ACORN, or else. Yes, it's a threat.

But suddenly Breitbart has changed his tune and announced that his unhinged ACORN crusade was never about “criminality.”

Except that, of course, it was.

UPDATED: Just this week Breitbart's Big Government site demanded a criminal investigation into ACORN's California practices. Even though, this isn't really about “criminality.”

UPDATED: Here's Breitbart's priceless Fox News appearances from last November, when it was all about criminality.