Dr. Eugene T. Paslov: A different view of ACORN

I respect and admire Guy Farmer but occasionally he jumps on a bandwagon that has shaky wheels and instrumental cacophony. His recent commentary on "The well-deserved demise of ACORN" is one such shaky, cacophonous argument.

I have no doubt that ACORN - The Association of Community Organizations For Reform Now - has engaged in some questionable practices with their government contracts, but probably not as questionable as Halliburton, Blackwater, Northrop and a multitude of other government contractors who have misused, misappropriated, or stolen taxpayer money by the billions.

If we are going to cause the demise of ACORN, we should think about causing the termination of all government contractors who misused government funds. This is not likely, because ACORN serves the poor, and the others, Halliburton, Blackwater, Northrop, all tend to enhance those who are at the pinnacles of power. These contractors all get the opportunity to correct their mistakes when they get caught. ACORN gets to die.

There is a back story to ACORN. During the Bush Administration, Vice President Cheney and Karl Rove were very concerned about voter registration. Traditionally, the Republicans were able to outstrip the Democrats in voter registration. The 2004 election was very close and it came down to one state, Ohio. There was a question about not putting enough voting machines in cities - with large Democratic voter registration - and placing more machines in rural Ohio areas. The cause of Republican concern was ACORN, which had worked hard on voter registration (especially in poor urban areas) and had produced large numbers of valid registrations. Republicans won, but just barely.

There is a strong indication that the firing of the federal attorneys in 2006 was a direct result of Cheney and Rove believing that these attorneys were not prosecuting perceived voter fraud vigorously against Democrats. ACORN was in their gunsights.

David Iglesias, the New Mexico U.S. attorney, came under direct attack for not prosecuting allegations of voter fraud among Democratic candidates. He claimed that there was not enough evidence to prosecute, and there was no evidence that ACORN had been involved in fraud. He was fired.

The incident involving a faux pimp and prostitute who went around to ACORN offices until they found someone to help them also is suspect. Most of their staged contacts were turned in to the local police, but that was ignored. Those who offered help to the pimp/prostitute were fired. That too wasn't reported.

ACORN must be held accountable for any questionable activities; but then so must ALL the contractors who have bilked taxpayers. We all should be careful not to jump on the bandwagon.

• Dr. Eugene T. Paslov, former Nevada superintendent of schools, is a board member for Silver State Charter High School in Carson City.