Obama Camp Defends ACORN, Then Distances Itself

While the Obama campaign contends that Republican challenges to voter-registration drives by ACORN and other groups are illegitimate, it consistently has distanced itself from ACORN.

In a conference call with reporters just completed, Obama campaign general counsel Bob Bauer did it again, calling the GOP case against ACORN “ludicrous” and then denying any connection between the campaign and the organization.

“We have our own registration effort,” he said. He disputed news reports that the Obama campaign has given $800,000 to ACORN.

“We have never paid ACORN a penny for registration purposes,” he insisted. “It’s simply not true.”

This morning, I asked ACORN spokesman Kevin Whelan how he felt about Obama’s disavowal of his organization since the voter-fraud controversy erupted.

He dodged that question, simply saying that ACORN is nonpartisan and functions independently of any campaign.

But I’d imagine that ACORN people must be frustrated to find themselves attacked from the right and abandoned by the left.