How ACORN Survives — and Thrives

I have an article in American Spectator online today. Here is the top of it:

The Obama administration is stonewalling efforts on two fronts to investigate the still-operating ACORN and uncover what aid administration officials offered the radical advocacy group infamous for its thug tactics and election fraud.

The Obama administration is sitting on Capital Research Center’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that seeks correspondence between Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and ACORN. HUD rules state that FOIA requests must be answered within 45 days, but at this writing our request has been pending for just over seven months.

The request was filed because Donovan is a longtime ACORN collaborator. He worked closely with ACORN for five years when he was New York mayor Michael Bloomberg’s housing development commissioner.

“Perhaps no administration official has had more interaction with Acorn than” Donovan, the New York Times reported. ACORN chief organizer Bertha Lewis admitted as much. “We grew to respect him, and he grew to respect us.”

Ever since hidden-camera videos surfaced last year showing ACORN employees helping undercover conservative activists with financial and tax planning for a brothel for pedophiles, Donovan has remained silent about his relationship with ACORN. It’s unclear what Donovan is hiding. […]