ACORN cannot seem to stay out of legal hot water these days; this time, a former employee of the beleaguered organization comes clean.  And yes, Barack Obama is involved as you probably have assumed.  John Fund of the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Anita MonCrief, a former employee of ACORN, testified in a Pennsylvania court on Wednesday that the group’s quality-control efforts were “minimal or non-existent” and just a facade.  She also stated that ACORN was given several donor lists by some Democratic presidential organizations, including – you got it – Barack Obama to solicit contributions.

As what is considered old news, Obama’s campaign has denied having any ties to ACORN, but apparently, Obama’s link to the group is extensive; a good example is the fact that in 1992, he headed a registration for Project Vote – an ACORN partner back then.  so successful was Obama at his job that he was appointed as a top trainer for ACORN’s conferences.  Three years later, Obama represented ACORN in a major case upholding the constitutionality of the Motor Voter Act which created the mandated, nationwide postcard voter registration system that ACORN employees used to flood election offices with fake registrations.

During her court appearance, Ms. MonCrief testified that in 2007 Project Vote development director Karyn Gillette informed her that she had direct contact with the Obama campaign and had obtained their donor lists; she also added that she was given a spreadsheet for use in soliciting potential donors who had spent the maximum on donations already made to the candidate but who could contribute to the voter registrations.  As expected, Project Vote denied the charges.  Ms. MonCrief added that when she had difficulty with what appeared to be duplicate names on the list, Ms. Gillette told her that she would get a revised copy from the Obama campaign.

Further along in her testimony, Ms. MonCrief said that she was upset by ACORN’s “Muscle for Money” program, which she said intimidated businesses ACORN didn’t like into paying “protection money” – Mafia-like, no? – in the form of grants.  Meanwhile while this was going on, ACORN suit Brian Kettering stated that the group only wanted to “change corporate behavior”.  She further added that she became disillusioned with ACORN when she discovered that the group was ran as a personal possession of Wade Rathke, founder of the group back in 1970 who ran the organization until he stepped down this summer.

ACORN has insisted that they operate with strict quality controls, turning in as required by law, all registration forms – even the bogus forms.  Former ACORN employees tell a totally different story.  Obama has delcined to criticize ACORN, despite these allegations, telling anyone in the left-leaning media that he doesn’t need ACORN’s help in doing “get-out-the-vote” efforts of his own.  That may very well be, but if it wasn’t for ACORN, his political career would be nearly inconsequential.