ACORN'S Talbott's Crocodile Tears

Supposedly they've closed their Chicago offices, but their Chicago presence runs deep. LA Times story in the Trib today with this:

"When you have this big of a mess, it takes time to clean up and your funders drop like flies," said Madeline Talbott, a former head organizer for ACORN's operations in Illinois.

ACORN's Chicago office closed in January 2008, when Talbott -- along with 365 community members, the local ACORN board and at least a dozen paid staff members -- quit over concerns about mismanagement and a lack of financial transparency at the group's national headquarters.

"I feel so torn about what's happening now," said Talbott, who today is an organizer with Action Now, an advocacy group for the poor in Chicago.

"I'm so relieved not to be part of the organization anymore, and so sad because they are trying to clean things up."

Oh, yeah, right. From my April 2009 post, ACORN Chicago Coup?:

An interesting interview with Anita Moncrief, an ACORN whistleblower. She alleges ACORN Chicago founder Madeline Talbot, Barack Obama's mentor in his early work for them, turned a blind eye to corruption within the organization, took ACORN Chicago over and changed its name to continue their activities:

There’s evidence that Chicago folks knew of Rathke’s embezzlement, Moncrief told me. “They talked about it between SEIU, ACORN Housing and ACORN how best to handle it in the election year,” she explained. “So, there was basically a coup, it was not an uncovering of an embezzlement. The embezzlement was known within private circles for years. I knew about it and they considered me to be a low-level employee as they liked to say.

Chicago was an especially sensitive location, shall we say, so they apparently dove for cover.

P.S. And some wonder, where is ACORN's union--protecting these numerous "rogue" fired workers? Hint, SEIU.

More. Questions arise in Pennsylvania. Jeffrey Lord, TAS:"I Am a Member of ACORN" -- Is Legislator Blocking Probe? Instructive for Illinois as well, given not one but two of our U.S. Senators and numerous House members voted against defunding ACORN at the federal level. Here's what was blocked in the state of Pennsylvania, aside from a broader investigation:

The rejected bill would have denied all public funding for groups that are engaged in political activities such as:

• Actively managing a political campaign
• Soliciting or handling political contributions
• Soliciting votes
• Endorsing or opposing candidates
• Circulating partisan nominating petitions
• Organizing partisan voter registration drives