What a “community organizer” does…

After a year and a half of campaigning, we’re finally finding out exactly what it is a “community organizer” does.  It’s about time.

Personally, I thought it smelled fishy from the beginning.  I mean, Harvard-educated lawyers don’t just jump into pro bono work before they have some savings built up; without a way to pay the student loans, it just isn’t possible.  So, logically, someone had to be paying Barack Obama and paying him reasonably well. 

And what did he do, anyways?

(One night on Fox’s Hannity and Colmes, Alan Colmes defensively replied something along the lines of, “Well, you know, get out the vote stuff, voter registration drives… um…”  Huh?  My parish has volunteers that help people get registered every time election season rolls around, not Harvard-educated lawyers.  That can’t really be all that he did.)

Looks like we’re finally finding out.

Michelle Malkin wrote about Obama’s work at ACORN, back in September.

Another blogger commented on Obama’s participation, while working for ACORN, in lawsuits alleging racism in mortgage lending against banks.  Fearing the costs, in dollars and reputation, banks usually settled out of court, effectively granting ACORN a win.

Thomas Sowell wrote about how all of this ties into the current bailout scandal and why the entire financial crisis, therefore, should not be helping the Democrats.

And guess who almost got a big, fat piece of pork out of the bailout?  That’s right, ACORN.

Yes, ACORN registers voters.  In fact, it is under investigation in several states for illegal voter registrations.  However, what it also does is sue banks to force them to make loans (and pay punitive damages to) people who otherwise would not qualify for mortgages.  That’s the part Barack Obama was involved in.

Some have lashed back at those who cast aspersions on Obama’s community organizer work with the snitty response, “Well!  Martin Luther King was a community organizer, too.”

To re-use the famous rebuttal to Dan Quayle in the vice presidential debate, “Senator, you are no Martin Luther King.”

 

The early feminists who fought for the acknowledgement of women’s right to vote, risking their reputations in a day when that meant everything…

The civil rights leaders, led by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., who risked arrest and death, pounded the pavement, and personally made financial sacrifices to keep the movement going…

The current pro-life leaders, who have faced lawsuits from deep-pocketed organizations like Planned Parenthood and NARAL, who stand in all weathers outside abortion clinics offering real hope to women, who silently pray while being spit on by “pro-choice” protesters, who have given up careers and safe diocesan assignments to be on the front lines for the pro-life movement…

Those are the real community organizers.  Those are the people we respect for their personal sacrifices of money, time, reputation, and safety.  Those are the people who attract real grassroots movements for profound change.

Working as a legal attack dog for a shady organization that makes millions pales to nothingness in comparison.