Well that’s pretty huge.
Senator Mike Johanns (R) of Nebraska introduced an amendment to a piece of legislation TODAY which barres ACORN from receiving federal funds in the wake of all the recent controversy.
It passed this afternoon 83 to 7. Senate page with vote breakdown here.
Read analysis from the experts who broke the news:
UPDATE: The AP has picked up the story, via ABC:
“The Senate voted Monday to block the Housing and Urban Development Department from giving grants to ACORN, a community organization under fire in several voter-registration fraud cases.”
“The 83-7 vote would deny housing and community grant funding to ACORN, which stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.”
“The action came as the group is suffering from bad publicity after a duo of conservative activists posing as a prostitute and her pimp released hidden-camera videos in which ACORN employees in Baltimore gave advice on house-buying and how to account on tax forms for the woman’s income. Two other videos, aired frequently on media outlets such as the Fox News Channel, depict similar situations in ACORN offices in Brooklyn and Washington, D.C.”
UPDATE II: Which 7 Senators voted in favor of ACORN? Big Government has the answer.
Think about this for a minute. There are 7 United States senators who voted in favor of an organization which is being investigated for vote fraud in 14 states and now is implicated in a scandal of tax fraud and child prostitution in three major US cities.
UPDATE III: Jonah Goldberg of National Review notes the irony:
“I just think it’s beyond hilarious that Acorn gets their dream president, the guy who swears they’ll have a seat at the table, and largely because of the heightened profile the shady group got as a result of Obama’s election, the super-majority Democratic Senate just voted overwhelmingly to deny them governmengt money. Maybe Pelosi will ensure this is just for show by killing the move in the House. But still, what an awful week for Acorn and what a great week for cosmic comeuppance.”
