Updated April 16, 2010

ACORN Chief: 'We're Not Dead'

FOXNews.com

AP2009
Bertha Lewis is chief executive of ACORN, which is closing its doors, but which Lewis says is not dead.


ACORN is not dead. That's the message from ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis, who issued a letter to supporters on Friday saying that "ACORN is alive" despite its plan to close all its local chapters.

In the morale-boosting letter, Lewis wrote that the work of the community activist group "has literally changed our country and exceeded expectations."

Lewis went on to explain that as ACORN grew into a major political force in America, it left itself "open to legitimate criticism from our allies and vulnerable to slanderous attacks from our corporate-funded opponents."

The group came under fire for allegations after a series of undercover videos last year showed its employees offering tax advice to a couple posing as a pimp and prostitute, tarnishing the group's reputation. After the videos were released, Congress voted to block any federal money to ACORN though a judge later ruled the vote was unconstitutional.

Nevertheless, its image battered and revenues falling, it announced it would be closing.

But Lewis said that vindication has come -- investigations by the Brooklyn District Attorney's office and California's Attorney General, confirmed that the videotapes released to the media last September grossly misrepresented what actually occurred during the interviews at ACORN offices.

"We're not dead," Lewis wrote, "We will continue to fight for working families with the support of members and supporters like you. We'll be here, on the web, and in the media."

Congressman Steve King, R-Iowa, reacted to the letter Friday saying "Tigers do not change their stripes and neither do people operating in a corrupt fashion." King called for the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service to jointly investigate ACORN and perform a complete forensic analysis of the activities and finances of this group.

"People need to go to jail for criminal activities," King said.

Although the future for ACORN is not certain, Lewis promised supporters that they would be hearing from group members regularly over the next several months and encouraged them to continue working within their communities.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/04 ... olitics%29