Wade Rathke Speaks Out

This comes from Nation DC intern Eric Naing:

Just a few weeks ago, a book talk by ACORN founder Wade Rathke wouldn't have drawn much press attention, but the organization's recent notoriety as a conservative boogeyman has thrust Rathke back in the spotlight.

At an event on Tuesday to promote his book Citizen Wealth: Winning the Campaign to Save Working Families, Rathke drew the attention of major media outlets ranging from The Washington Post to National Review. Notably, a reporter from biggovernment.com, the Web site that brought us the infamous pimp and prostitute videos, was there with a cameraman to get another bite at the proverbial, um, ACORN.

Rathke, who resigned as ACORN's chief organizer last year after news that his brother embezzled nearly $1 million from the organization surfaced, chose not to criticize the current leadership of ACORN but acknowledged that the group "didn't do right."

When pushed about his decision not to fully disclose his brother's actions, Rathke said his brother was reprimanded, he stepped down and the money had been paid back. He also defended his secrecy saying the group worried the news would be "weaponized" to hurt ACORN.

"Any misstep within the organization might become a threat to its very survival," he said. "That's what's happening now."

Rahke believes much of the vitriol aimed at ACORN stems from opposition to the group's mission to give a voice to lower income people (the pimp in the original video admits his stunt was motivated by his anger over ACORN's attempt to help a foreclosed-on homeowner break into her own house) and he worries that mission is being jeopardized by "a rising neo-McCarthyism" coming from the right.

"After the election, ACORN announced it wasn't going to register voters in the future. Now it's announced that it's not going to help people who are poor do taxes. Now it's announcing it's not going to help people buy houses," said Rathke. "Those are huge voids."

Comments (23)

1. "When pushed about his decision not to fully disclose his brother's actions, Rathke said his brother was reprimanded, he stepped down and the money had been paid back. He also defended his secrecy saying the group worried the news would be "weaponized" to hurt ACORN."

   DUH? Democrat justice.

   Anyone jailed?

   ACORN and its founders...I guess the Acorn doesn't fall too far from the tree.

   Posted by YourJomamma at 09/30/2009 @ 7:43pm

2. DUH? Democrat justice.

   Anyone jailed?

   ACORN and its founders...I guess the Acorn doesn't fall too far from the tree.

   Posted by YourJomamma at 09/30/2009 @ 7:43pm

   What because the company chose not to press charges? Isn't that companies business after all?

   Posted by Cccomfo1 at 09/30/2009 @ 8:27pm

3. Also it wasn't the founder who embezzled money it was his brother. I suppose we should blame you if your sibling steals something?

   Posted by Cccomfo1 at 09/30/2009 @ 8:28pm

4. the ACORN "scandal" will go down in history as yet another, in a long series, of ridiculous, baseless attacks (engineered, of course, by the far right) against a democratic president.

   and that most of the democratic congress voted to de-fund acorn is all the evidence we need to know that most of the party is only interested in one thing: re-election.

   Posted by darladoon at 09/30/2009 @ 9:17pm

5. What because the company chose not to press charges? Isn't that companies business after all?

   Posted by Cccomfo1 at 09/30/2009 @ 8:27pm | ignore this person | warn this person

   I bet you felt the same way about Enron!?

   Posted by BigPasture at 09/30/2009 @ 9:20pm

6. Posted by darladoon at 09/30/2009 @ 9:17pm | ignore this person | warn this person

   Just more gangsta rap about gangstas, way to go darlaloon!

   Posted by BigPasture at 09/30/2009 @ 9:22pm

7. bigpasture, i want you to give me detailed evidence of criminality on the part of ACORN.

   and then, once you've done that, i want you to compare/contrast the amount of federal funding ACORN receives (or sorry, no longer receives) with that of Blackwater and Halliburton, and their history of rampant criminality.

   serious. put your money where your mouth is. please, do tell us, what has ACORN done so wrong.

   please, no talking points, i want evidence.

   Posted by darladoon at 09/30/2009 @ 9:38pm

8. Blackwater and Halliburton, and their history of rampant criminality. Posted by darladoon at 09/30/2009 @ 9:38pm | ignore this person | warn this person

   What convictions and proof of criminality are you talking about? You in with the AG, quick, you've got a scoop to sell!

   Posted by BigPasture at 09/30/2009 @ 9:54pm

9. Just to prove that the stupidity of the Obamanation that make desolation administration knows no ends gitmo islamic terrorist have achieved a new statust to this perverted administration!

   Yesterday State Department spokesman assistant Sec. of State P.J. Crowley referred to Gitmo terrorists as "REFUGEES" ! The Obamanation Pres. thinks they are "persons persecuted for political opinions or religious beliefs in his or her own country and may be protected by another."

   Talk about your sheer idiocy! I would expect a leftist nutbag like darlaloon to come up with that..

   Posted by BigPasture at 09/30/2009 @ 9:56pm

10. Acorn is going down because of its own actions and bedcause from the begining it became criminal, even with the founders not being honest...

    It is dying of it own rot and deservedly so.

    Posted by YourJomamma at 09/30/2009 @ 10:03pm

11. What because the company chose not to press charges? Isn't that companies business after all?

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 09/30/2009 @ 8:27pm

    So....Madoff, if he paid back the money..could avoid trail, charges, jail, and keep his homes?

    I believe if you take money from a company, it is called embezzling..and is a crime against the state...you still have to face the music..

    Ronald Reagan had an adviser who was drummed out because he received a watch(less than $300) and didn't report it...

    An officer steals a million bucks and gets a pass? Only in a Dem organisation.

    Posted by YourJomamma at 09/30/2009 @ 10:07pm

12. 'Anyone jailed?' asked "YourJomamma."

    Let me answer that with another very simple question: Anyone convicted?

    "DUH," yourself.

    Posted by JakobFabian at 10/01/2009 @ 08:15am

13. Weekly Standard columnist General Jack D. Ripper put it best...

    "I can no longer sit back and allow ACORN infiltration, ACORN indoctrination, ACORN subversion and the international ACORN conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids."

    Posted by Mask at 10/01/2009 @ 08:20am

14. Acorn should keep doing what they are doing and just change their name like companies that get in trouble because of defective products or consumer law suits. It's the American way.

    Posted by johnredmond at 10/01/2009 @ 12:54pm

15. Many questions enter my mind from reading these posts and here are a few: How many employees does ACORN have? How many volunteers? How many contract/ part time workers? How many no bid contracts have been awarded to ACORN? At what cost? How many competitive have they won and at what cost? What has the parent company ever been charged and convicted of? I ask this of some of these commentators since they seem to have such vast knowledge of ACORN.

    Posted by sandune at 10/01/2009 @ 3:01pm

16. Going Nuts

    ACORN: Alien Children Offered Regularly Nationwide ACORN: Authorities Caught One Registering "Napoleon" ACORN: Assembly of the Complacent: Organized, Registered & Non-productive! ACORN: Association of Criminals Obama Represented in the Nineties ACORN: Assorted Crazies, Oddballs, Reprobates, and Nincompoops ACORN: "Audacity" and "Change" that Obama Represents Nationally ACORN: A Crooked, Offensive, Repulsive Nut ACORN: Agitators, Cheats, Offenders, and Repugnant Nonentities ACORN: Association of Crooks O'Keefe Revealed in a Nanosecond ACORN: Advising Criminals, Organizing Radical Nutjobs ACORN: Assisting Call-girls, Obama, Reid & Nancy ACORN: Advancing Collectivism, Obamamania, Reparations Now! ACORN: After Clinton, Obama Retards a Nation ACORN: Alike Carter, Obama is Regretful and Negative ACORN: America, Could Obama Resign Now?? ACORN: Against Conservatives, Order, Republicans, and the Nation ACORN: American Cash Outflows to Rathke's "Nonprofits" ACORN: Apparently "Community Organizing" Really is Nefarious ACORN: Awarding Capital to Objectionable Rent-seeking Noncontributors ACORN: Apathetic, Crybaby, Odiferous, Rejected Nothings ACORN: Andrew Clearly Outplayed the Resentful NYT ACORN: Anyone Can Observe that this is Rank Nonsense ACORN: Ascent by Creepy Operation / Resented in the Nation ACORN: Almost as Commendable as an Outflow of Rectal Necrosis ACORN: Associated Congressmen Ought to be Replaced in November 2010 ACORN: Always Cheating, Often Ruining Neighborhoods ACORN: Addled Crack-heads and Obnoxious Race-baiting Neurotics ACORN: Appalling Cesspool; Obscene Revolting Nightmare ACORN: A Clan of Odious, Ridiculed Nitwits ACORN: Another Corrupt Obama Run Network

    Others? Please suggest!

    Posted by JupiterSuite at 10/01/2009 @ 5:17pm

17. Posted by JupiterSuite at 10/01/2009 @ 5:17pm | ignore this person | warn this person

    Thank you for your very thoughtful and intelligent addition to this dialogue. I suddenly feel enlightened. I can rest easily for the rest of the day.

    Posted by sandune at 10/01/2009 @ 6:09pm

18. Acorn should keep doing what they are doing and just change their name like companies that get in trouble because of defective products or consumer law suits. It's the American way.

    Posted by johnredmond at 10/01/2009 @ 12:54pm | ignore this person | warn this person

    ACORN international already has to avoid bad connotations to; "Community Organizations International."

    Posted by BigPasture at 10/02/2009 @ 12:35am

19. Christopher, This is a little off subject, but the article below is from 2008 out of the WSJ. Doesn't this look a little suspicious? Perhaps a little insider trading considering the banks stocks have quadrupled in value?

    Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the Citigroup shareholder that came to the bank's rescue during the credit crisis of the early 1990s, might do so again now, the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

    The billionaire from Saudi Arabia, along with China Development Bank, is expected to invest about $2 billion in Citigroup Inc., one person said, according to the Journal. The Journal also said, however, there is a chance the deal could fall apart.

    The cash-strapped Citigroup, hurt by the mortgage crisis that boiled up last year, ...

    Posted by Wolfgang1 at 10/02/2009 @ 07:17am

20. Again, something to keep in mind...especially our anti-ACORN posters from the Right...

    the new law the House is trying to pass, eliminating funding to groups or CORPORATIONS involved with corruption, can hit not only ACORN...

    but DEFENSE CONTRACTORS as well.

    Posted by Mask at 10/02/2009 @ 07:36am

21. Again, something to keep in mind...especially our anti-ACORN posters from the Right... the new law the House is trying to pass, eliminating funding to groups or CORPORATIONS involved with corruption, can hit not only ACORN... but DEFENSE CONTRACTORS as well. Posted by Mask at 10/02/2009 @ 07:36am | ignore this person |

    --and what are the chances our gutless democrats in congress would actually use such a law to put a defense contractor out of business? hmmm?

    Posted by urmygyro at 10/02/2009 @ 08:19am

22. Nice to know that some Republidiots read the Nation. Welcome to the light.

    Posted by jaialin at 10/03/2009 @ 04:00am

23. This is not a partisan issue, though people may be using it as such. The truth is: Acorn has always had a sleazy reputation. I live in Washington, DC. I worked on the Hill in the eighties. Acorn had a huge scandal, and I can't remember what it was, nor can I find it on Google. But I know my memory is correct. I always thought of them as akin to moonies or scientologists.

    Re: the recently removed founder and his brother: Herein lies the answer to the sleaziness of the organization. Your brother steals a million from your organization and you don't report it? And you keep him on the payroll? That says it all.

    So those two clowns are gone and you can't turn an organization around overnight, and this is where we are. If the director really wants to change the culture of this organization, there needs to be a much tighter leash, much more oversight.

    This whole situation with Acorn is sad because they are working with people in difficult situations and they're helping people no one else seems to be inclined to help. I wish them the best of luck, and I hope they are sincere about wanting to change.

    Oh, and one more thing: it is ridiculous to attach this corruption to President Obama. I wish the right fringe would for once conduct itself with honesty and dignity.

    Posted by killerkitten at 10/03/2009 @ 9:47pm