This decision to hand over the census count to ACORN clearly appeared to be both political payback for the Obama win (potentially BILLIONS in payoffs to them through the January Stimulus bill) as well as an opportunity to enhance and further entrench the liberal bent to the national political scene. These two issues, while disturbing to me, were to be expected as this is right out of the Democrat playbook.

What has shocked me is the fact that the Census Bureau has actually grown a “spine” and has rejected the President and his Rahm/Pelosi/Reed Management team. I applaud the decision and it has caused me to think that there are actually folks who remain in our Government that recognize that our Nation is larger than the political party in power, and that if there is a way to stop what is clearly gaming of the system, there will be folks who will put their nation ahead of their personal protections.

It is obvious that ACORN is rotten and should not be a part of the fabric of our national government. With the manipulation of the registration process as well as confirming that there are likely thousands of illegal registration documents prepared and submitted, the leadership of ACORN should be held criminally accountable for the fraud that they have perpetuated.

Lastly, it is clear that while this issue has become something around which the Census Bureau has developed a spine, it is our responsibility as tax payers to hold our electeds accountable for their decision to encourage or allow ACORN the freedom to manipulate the process and receive billions of dollars.

It is time to demand an answer from every elected official who has voted any funds for, or spoke in support of, ACORN. Further, we must ask them why they continue to support this organization.

It is still unclear what the ultimate cost of this bailout will be. But thanks to inquiries by Representative Alan Grayson, a Florida Democrat, we do know of another, simply outrageous cost. As a result of the Fannie takeover, taxpayers are paying millions of dollars in legal defense bills for three top former executives, including Franklin D. Raines, who left the company in late 2004 under accusations of accounting improprieties. From Sept. 6, 2008, to July 21, these legal payments totaled $6.3 million.

With all the turmoil of the financial crisis, you may have forgotten about the book-cooking that went on at Fannie Mae. Government inquiries found that between 1998 and 2004, senior executives at Fannie manipulated its results to hit earnings targets and generate $115 million in bonus compensation. Fannie had to restate its financial results by $6.3 billion.

(Read the remainder of Gretchen Morgenson’s column at nytimes.com, September 6, 2009)