Politics | ACORN ACORN's Founder Blasts GOP Attacks Dismisses them as 'poppycock,' part of anti-Obama vendetta By Nick McMaster Posted Sep 23, 2009 3:53 PM CDT Copied Rep. Darrell, Issa, R-Calif., left, accompanied by Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, R-Ga., discusses a House bill to ban federal funding for ACORN. (AP Photo/Harry Hamburg) The founder of ACORN says the conservative portrayal of the group as a "criminal enterprise" is a “complete fabrication." Claims that the group systematically misuses federal funds for political purposes are being circulated as fact on TV talk shows and blogs, Wade Rathke tells the Washington Post. "It's balderdash on top of poppycock. It is a tactic they are trying to aggressively use to attack Obama.” Rathke, who left the group after failing to disclose that his brother embezzled from it, said the "sneak films" that recently embarrassed the group are "too painful" for him to watch, and he said any employees that violated the "do-right" rule should be fired. He faulted Republican-led investigations of his group as biased and "part of the neo-McCarthyism that's going on this country right now." Read These Next 11 people hurt in a "brutal act of violence" in Michigan. White House makes Hegseth put his polygraph away. A new book argues the Sacagawea legend is all wrong. The NFL's heaviest player told to slim down. Report an error