I doubt anyone still believes ACORN is anything other than a far-left organization dedicated to propping up liberal causes and politicians through dirty tactics. But just in case anyone hasn’t been paying attention to ACORN-related news over the past, oh, year or so, this should push them over the fence.

Beth Butler, the longtime executive director of Lousiana ACORN, was terminated by the organization’s national leadership Monday amid a power struggle at the embattled advocacy group.

Butler’s sacking came two days after local ACORN leaders criticized President Barack Obama’s planned itinerary for a trip to New Orleans this week — comments that drew an immediate rebuke from ACORN’s national leaders.

On Sunday, ACORN Chief Executive Bertha Lewis said the remarks, which were not uttered by Butler, were “without authority and do not reflect the position of the national leadership.” Lewis said she would “be personally going to New Orleans to deal with the individual involved.”

Less than 24 hours later, Butler was fired. An angry Butler said Monday that the real reason for her firing was not the flap over Obama’s visit, but a simmering tussle over assets that ACORN’s Louisiana affiliate controls and that the national group covets.

In particular, Butler said headquarters has its eye on a land trust set up by the Louisiana branch. The trust owns five relatively modest houses, she said, and has a bank account of perhaps $60,000 intended for rehabilitation work — nothing to sneeze at, she said, “in the nonprofit world.”

As it happens, ACORN officials agree with Butler that her termination was not carried out only as retribution for the Obama critique. Rather, according to an ACORN official who would speak only on background, the episode was “reflective of a lack of accountability to process” on Butler’s part.

Butler had repeatedly breached ACORN protocol, and this was the most recent instance, he said.

“Normally, the theory is that locals can speak for themselves, ” said the official. “But this is in a time of severe challenge for us, and they were criticizing the president of the United States. If they had criticized Ray Nagin, we’d have nothing to say about it.”

The “severe challenge” he described is an effort to recover from a series of scandals that have rocked the organization and threaten its survival. The most devastating was a series of videos in which two guerrilla journalists posed as a prostitute and a pimp, and received counseling from ACORN employees on how to avoid paying taxes on brothel income…

Butler, who has worked for ACORN for 37 years, said her real sin in the eyes of the national organization’s leaders was a failure to concede to their demands. In particular, she said, she had led resistance to a demand to turn over the land trust, called the ACORN Community Land Association of Louisiana, to the national group.

“We were told by national ACORN that we had to give it up to them,” she said. “We got e-mails threatening our jobs because we didn’t push the land trust people to hand over property and money to the New York people who took over ACORN.”

Butler passed along an e-mail message from Lewis calling Butler’s behavior regarding the land trust “unacceptable.”

The national entity is also making a play for roughly $90,000 in hurricane relief money controlled by the local group, Butler said.

“It’s hardball here,” she said. “Our local resources are being spirited to New York. ACORN Louisiana is the most lucrative chapter in the country, and we knew they were aiming to take us over. There’s a major meltdown in ACORN. They’re trying to scramble all of us who would fight them.”

Apparently ACORN is a bit more tied to Obama than we’re lead to believe. Criticize liberalism or liberals, especially Obama, and lose your job. That’s the ACORN culture.

Via HAH.