Mother of mercy, a RICO suit against ACORN?

There are a lot of rumors on conservative sites about an upcoming RICO suit against ACORN, the community organizing group Barack Obama worked with (although he denies it) in the 1990s.

ACORN has been implicated in voter registration fraud in over a dozen states in just the last two weeks--the extreme left-wing group has a history of such mischief. ACORN claims to be non-partisan, but its political action committee endorsed Obama for president in February.

Ace of Spades says a RICO suit will be filed against ACORN tomorrow in Ohio. Earlier today, the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections in Cleveland authorized a prosecutor to begin an investigation of voter registration misdeeds in Ohio's most populous county. The board heard testimony about allegedly fraudulent registrations from Clevelanders in a hearing this morning. Ace says a RICO suit is coming tomorrow in Ohio, but since RICO is a federal statue, I'm afraid Ace might have jumped the gun. For now, perhaps.

ACORN stands for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

About RICO, from Wikipedia:

The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (commonly referred to as RICO Act or RICO) is a United States federal law that provides for extended penalties for criminal acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization. (Emphasis mine.) It also provides a civil cause of action for those injured by violations of the act. RICO was enacted by section 901(a) of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 (Pub.L. 91-452, 84 Stat. 922, enacted October 15, 1970). RICO is codified as Chapter 96 of Title 18 of the United States Code, 18 U.S.C. § 1961–1968. It was intended to make it easier to prosecute organized crime figures, but has been applied in several other cases as well.

It has been speculated that the name and acronym were selected in a sly reference to the movie Little Caesar, which featured a notorious gangster named Rico. The original drafter of the bill, G. Robert Blakey, refused to confirm or deny this.

As I noted last week, at the end of Little Caesar, Rico Bandelli, the character played by the great Edward G. Robinson, cries out, "Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico!?"

As for a RICO suit against ACORN: I can't see this story ending differently.

The end of ACORN could be near. Good riddance to bad trash. And not all gangsters carry tommy guns.

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