Republicans hammered Barack Obama over his connection to ACORN during last year's election, but now ACORN is taking a swing at some Democrats - with the help of liberal activists at MoveOn.org.
The role reversal arises out of the groups' anger at moderate House Democrats who opposed a housing bill that has more generous bankruptcy rules for people facing foreclosure.
Next week this coalition will begin airing TV ads criticizing House Democrats who voted against the measure, which would for the first time give judges the authority to restructure home mortgages - a procedure known as a cramdown.
Hmmm... where did I hear about this before? Oh yeah:
An Ad To Run Against Dems Who Vote Against Cramdown
The House vote on "cramdown" housing legislation, which allows bankruptcy judges to re-value mortgages according to current market prices, swill take place on Tuesday.(...)
[I]f the legislation does not pass, it would be pretty easy for organizations like ACORN to find multiple families from all 86 of these congressional districts whose homes could have been saved by cramdown, but which instead were foreclosed upon. Once people find these local families, it would be pretty easy for organizations like Brave New Films could get them on camera...
Once these films are ready, it would be pretty easy for PACs like Accountability Now to turn them into ads, and to make sure those ads are seen on television. I'm sure that voting to foreclose on local families, at the behest of Wall Street and against the wishes of President Obama, would go over really well with Democratic primary voters around the country.
Just sayin'.
Now, I did not do much of the organizing work to bring the ACORN, MoveOn, Brave New Foundation, Color of Change coalition together on this project. However, the above post was still a catalyst for the action. I am glad, and humbled, that there were dedicated people who made sure it did not turn into an idle threat.
I have learned from experience that the only way to change bad Democratic behavior--such as opposing a housing bill that was supported by President Obama and reworked by Ellen Tauscher--is to spend actual resources that threaten the Democrat in his or her district. Just complaining, or handing over yet more money to said Democrats for their re-election efforts, simply does not work. If we want to hold Democrats accountable for opposing the housing bill, then we have to run some form of paid media against those Democrats.
Although it wasn't mentioned in the Politico article, BlogPac has pledged to be a financial sponsor for the advertisements. You can contribute to the effort by donating to BlogPac on the Better Democrats 2010 page. Short of a serious primary challenge, this is the best possible bet to change Democratic behavior on future votes.
