A Scandal At The Nation's Largest Community Organizing Group?

Last week The New York Times reported that 8 years ago ACORN's chief financial officer embezzled almost $1 million from the organization, but that top staff agreed to keep it secret. ACORN put new financial controls in place and the money has now been repaid. Even so, covering up the embezzlement revealed poor judgment. Now that the story has leaked, ACORN's allies and funders are understandably upset by this episode. Most have already indicated their willingness to continue to support ACORN, but with more scrutiny over its finances.

"In the world of scandals, ACORN's missteps don't even register on the radar compared with the swindles perpetrated by top executives at Halliburton, Enron, WorldCom, Countrywide, and other major corporations who ripped off the government, stockholders, and consumers of billions of dollars. But progressive groups have to be squeaky clean. They must live by a higher standard, in part because they are constantly under scrutiny by powerful business and government officials and in part, because they depend on the good will of funders (who typically get federal tax breaks for their donations) and low-income members (who sacrifice to pay ACORN dues)," write Peter Dreier and John Atlas, who examine the current controversy surrounding ACORN.