Progress Illinois

On Friday's week-in-review edition of WTTW's Chicago Tonight, the panel discussion at one point turned to the controversy surrounding ACORN's voter registration drives in certain swing states.  When asked by host Joel Weisman to lay out the "vote fraud charges," Tribune editorial page editor Bruce Dold gave an insufficient explanation -- one that left out crucial facts and left Weisman looking pretty confused.  Specifically, Dold never mentioned that there's no evidence the faulty voter registrations turned in by ACORN will actually lead to fraud at the polls.  ABC 7's Andy Shaw then pivoted to the connections between ACORN and Barack Obama, saying: "This is the same sort of taint he's faced in other ways. It's a little bit of guilt-by-association, but nothing direct."  Business writer Bob Reed went on to refer to the group's history of mismanagement.  Dold finally added that ACORN is "running a very aggressive defense of these charges. I mean, they've become partisan in their handling of this issue." Watch it:

Of course, Dold's claim that ACORN has "become partisan" completely overlooks the fact that it was the Republican Party and the McCain campaign that manufactured the uproar in the first place.  ACORN's "aggressive" defense did not come from any political motivation, but rather from the need to rebut the GOP's scurrilous suggestion that they're attempting to steal the election.