This stuff with ACORN has one purpose. Well, two maybe. The first is to demonize Obama and every other Democrat for throwing in with a bunch of community organizing ne'er-do-wells.

Second is to disenfranchise voters by paving the way for GOP challenges in key precincts where ACORN and other community organizing rabble rousers have been active. Not only will this result in some legitimate voters being denied the right to vote, it will create chaos and long lines at the polls and lots of folks will just give up and go home disgusted.

And if none of that works, it sets up a lot of whining after the election when the GOP gets their collective asses handed to them. And maybe even a bunch of lawsuits to tie up the results.

This doesn't mean we should trivialize voter registration fraud, though, because it's a serious problem.

For example, if I told you that an organization was hired by a national political party to go out to swing states and pre-screen voters and only register new voters for their party and then shred applications for any others that slipped through, you'd be outraged that such a thing could happen.

But that's exactly what the Republican National Committee and Voter Outreach of America were accused of in the 2004 election. Investigations were launched in Nevada and Oregon, and the FBI was called in.

In contrast, no such allegations have surfaced against ACORN. At worst they are guilty of hiring people literally off the street and setting up voter registration quotas that dishonest employees game to get paid. And when these employees are caught, ACORN turns them in. In fact, ACORN is the victim of employee fraud, not to mention the baseless lies being spread by the GOP.

Ultimately, it's up to each secretary of state and county election board to verify voter registration forms, which ACORN is required by law to submit even if they are suspect (and which ACORN identifies as such). Election boards aren't going to register the same guy fifteen times, and they aren't going to register Bugs Bunny. And if you don't register in person you have to bring proof of identity when you show up to vote the first time. In short, there are plenty of checks and safeguards in place.

So this is much ado about nothing, and just another misdirection play by increasingly desperate Republican dead-enders who don't want to talk about the economy, foreign policy, or anything else of substance.

Unfortunately, with the help of scandal-driven national media reading sensational GOP press releases on the air, these kinds of smear campaigns work with low-information voters. Very few are going to go to the trouble to find out the truth.

SEE ALSO: Katie, ArchCrone, Enclave, and Joe Powell.