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 Kid Rock has added the R-word to the list of slurs he still uses. Man wakes from coma, says girlfriend crashed car on purpose. Jodi Picoult says she's first author to be banned in two mediums. Andrew Windsor has an uncertain future as a commoner. Report an error