Reid: Senate hearings on ACORN would be distraction

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., isn't nuts about having the U.S. Senate investigate the community activist group ACORN, 'Congressional Quarterly' reports.

Reid says he won't call for hearings about alleged illegal acts by the group whose activities have become fodder for Republican rhetoric.

After myriad accusations of extremely sloppy and potentially illegal voter registration efforts in the 2008 election cycle, ACORN made news again recently when some activists in Baltimore were caught on tape by conservative activists giving tax advice to a pimp. The pimp was actually a conservative activist seeking to catch ACORN activists breaking the law.

Here's what Congressional Quarterly reported on Reid's reaction to the idea of Senate hearings:

“Reid, D-Nev., said Tuesday that he would not ask the Senate committee chairmen or Congress ''to do anything that would distract from efforts to address'' health care, climate change, an overhaul of the nation’s financial regulatory system and oversight of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Reid made the comments in letters to 28 Republican senators, who had asked for the investigation into the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. ... The group of GOP senators, led by National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn of Texas, lodged the request Sept. 17 amid a flurry of legislative activity related to ACORN.”

Follow this link to the CQ item.

Even if the Senate doesn't investigate, it looks like authorities in Maryland will. Here's an editorial from the Baltimore Sun praising a recently announced investigation of ACORN.

And a Review-Journal story from May reporting on charges stemming from ACORN voter registration efforts in Las Vegas.