Topic category:  Government/Politics

Matthew Vadum's book on ACORN, attractively titled "Subversion, Inc.: How Obama's ACORN Red Shirts are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers," does not lack endorsements.

Its jacket includes the following high praise:

"A riveting journey through the tangled web of ACORN! This is one of the most comprehensive compilations of evidence against ACORN available." -Congressman Steve King (R-Iowa)

"A well-researched, irresistibly written book that every American should read. The criminal enterprise called 'ACORN' is the largest, most elusive, and most dangerous radical organization in America. If you are wondering about the operations and influence of a vast left-wing conspiracy, this is it, with tentacles that reach right into the heart of the Obama White House." - David Horowitz, author of New York Times bestseller The Shadow Party

"I dare anyone to defend ACORN, and its radicals, after reading this book." - Hannah Giles, Investigative Journalist

"It's dynamite with a short fuse." - G. Gordon Liddy, Nationally Syndicated Talk Show Host

"Through his careful research, Matthew Vadum shined a light that exposed ACORN's corruption. For months I fought to cut off the flow of tax dollars to ACORN. In Subversion Inc. Vadum warns that despite the defunding of ACORN, the group has only feigned death." - Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota)

In addition, there is promotion of Vadum himself, such as this biography provided to Amazon.com:

"An award-winning investigative journalist with a lively, witty writing style, Matthew Vadum is a senior editor at Capital Research Center, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C. Vadum's work has been cited by Fox News, WND.com, Weekly Standard, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Christian Science Monitor and many other media outlets.

"Michelle Malkin hailed Vadum in her bestselling expose of the Obama administration, Culture of Corruption, for having 'the foresight and insight to report on the [ACORN] story when nobody else would.' Glenn Beck said he finally 'got it' when Vadum appeared on his TV show to talk about ACORN and helped him draw one of his famous tree diagrams. The Washington Post recognized Vadum as an opinion maker because he 'writes some of the harder edged and more influential briefings' in the conservative movement." (The Amazon description is a bit misleading: Malkin actually described Vadum as being one of two people in the world with that foresight and insight.)

Yet, unlike Malkin's Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies", Vadum's book has not been a bestseller, much less the no. 1 bestseller.

Currently Amazon.com is posting 573 customer reviews of Malkin's book, 30 customer reviews of ACORN expert Stanley Kurtz's Radical-in-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism and 2 customer reviews of Vadum's book.

Neither of my local big chain book stores, Barnes & Noble and Borders, is carrying the book, but they do sell it online and Barnes & Noble graciously sent ONE copy to the store for me to peruse after I asked.

Vadum's book contains noteworthy information, such as Ronald Reagan's warning even before he was elected President that ACORN is "dangerous" and ACORN founder Wade Rathke's suggestion that another W.R. (deceased liberal Arkansas Governor Winthrop Rockefeller) trade initialed cowboy boots with him.

But, and ironically, Vadum's book is a great disappointment, because he failed to follow Malkin's excellent example by including in his book a story that the American voters need to know--the story of how Anita MonCrief, an ex-ACORN insider, became a confidential source for The New York Times in the summer of 2008, The Times killed an ACORN/Obama expose before Election Day 2008, Times reporter left MonCrief a voicemail message that "higher up" had ordered her to "stand down" and then explained that Times policy was not to publish a potential "game changer" close to election day, and MonCrief then testified in an ACORN case in Pennsylvania before Election Day 2008, after voting for Obama, became disillusioned and provided to Congress copies of her email exchange with Strom and the transcript of her testimony in the Pennsylvania case.

Malkin's book was already at the publisher when she discovered the MonCrief story and she quickly added pages to it and also focused on MonCrief in her acknowledgement pages and then on her very successful book tour.

Astonishly, Vadum, who, as Malkin wrote, had "the foresight and insight to report on the [ACORN] story when nobody else would," foolishly omitted the most important aspects of the story MonCrief bravely told--how The Times, ABC and CNN all declined to report on the illicit relationship between ACORN and Project Vote (identified by Rathke as part of "the ACORN family" and to expose the falsity if Obama's description of his relationship with ACORN and Project Vote. (Vadum reported on MonCrief's disclosure of ACORN's "Muscle for the Money" program and the Congressional testimony in 2009 of Heather Heidelbaugh, the lawyer for whom MonCrief had voluntarily testified in the Pennsylvania case after The Times spiked an Obama/ACORN expose, but not the information which bears directly on now President Obama's credibility and fitness.)

The need to tell MonCrief's story to America's voters is greater than ever: Obama was elected without close inspection by most voters and is running for re-election, and the "Pimp and Pro" sting allowed him to distance himself from ACORN in the public perception by dropping ACORN as a census partner and approving the defunding of ACORN.

Vadum also omitted to report that still radical Marcel Reid, a former ACORN national board member and Washington, D.C. chapter head who is mentioned and quoted many times by Vadum, suddenly dropped two longtime Obama ACORN cronies (Madeline Talbott and her husband Keith Kelleher), about whom Vadum wrote, from a complaint filed with the United States Justice Department in January 2009. See MonCrief, "For CPAC and Beck, The Truth About The ACORN 8" (http://anitamoncrief.blogspot.com/2010/02/for-cpac-and-beck-truth-about-acorn-8.html). Kurtz described Talbott as "the woman who first drew Obama into an alliance with ACORN," and Kelleher as "the Chief Organizer of SEIU Local 880 in Chicago.” Vadum wrote about them, but not dropping them from the complaint. I think that's something people who want evidence that "Obama's ACORN Red Shirts are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers" should know and Vadum could and should have told them, to further enlighten them about Obama, Talbott, Kelleher and Reid.

If you can afford one book, make it Malkin's. If you can buy two, get the Kurtz book as well. If you can afford all books about ACORN, Vadum's is available.

Michael J. Gaynor

Biography - Michael J. Gaynor

Michael J. Gaynor has been practicing law in New York since 1973. A former partner at Fulton, Duncombe & Rowe and Gaynor & Bass, he is a solo practitioner admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts and an Association of the Bar of the City of New York member.

Gaynor graduated magna cum laude, with Honors in Social Science, from Hofstra University's New College, and received his J.D. degree from St. John's Law School, where he won the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence and served as an editor of the Law Review and the St. Thomas More Institute for Legal Research. He wrote on the Pentagon Papers case for the Review and obscenity law for The Catholic Lawyer and edited the Law Review's commentary on significant developments in New York law.

The day after graduating, Gaynor joined the Fulton firm, where he focused on litigation and corporate law. In 1997 Gaynor and Emily Bass formed Gaynor & Bass and then conducted a general legal practice, emphasizing litigation, and represented corporations, individuals and a New York City labor union. Notably, Gaynor & Bass prevailed in the Second Circuit in a seminal copyright infringement case, Tasini v. New York Times, against newspaper and magazine publishers and Lexis-Nexis. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, 7 to 2, holding that the copyrights of freelance writers had been infringed when their work was put online without permission or compensation.

Gaynor currently contributes regularly to www.MichNews.com, www.RenewAmerica.com, www.WebCommentary.com, www.PostChronicle.com and www.therealitycheck.org and has contributed to many other websites. He has written extensively on political and religious issues, notably the Terry Schiavo case, the Duke "no rape" case, ACORN and canon law, and appeared as a guest on television and radio. He was acknowledged in Until Proven Innocent, by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson, and Culture of Corruption, by Michelle Malkin. He appeared on "Your World With Cavuto" to promote an eBay boycott that he initiated and "The World Over With Raymond Arroyo" (EWTN) to discuss the legal implications of the Schiavo case. On October 22, 2008, Gaynor was the first to report that The New York Times had killed an Obama/ACORN expose on which a Times reporter had been working with ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief.

Gaynor's email address is gaynormike@aol.com.