Bachmann ACORNRecent statements by Rep. Michele Bachmann about ACORN and the U.S. Census have the media and watchdog groups piling on. Bachmann has said several times in the last week that her family will leave most of the census blank because ACORN has signed on to be a partner organization.

Politifact, a Pulitzer prize-winning website, fact-checked Rep. Michele Bachmann’s latest claims about the U.S. Census and ACORN which have earned her the “pants on fire” rating for false statements.

Bachmann told the Washington Times, “Now ACORN has been named one of the national partners, which will be a recipient again of federal money. And they will be in charge of going door-to-door and collecting data from the American public.”

Politifact says that that simply isn’t the case. “ACORN will not be ‘in charge’ of going door-to-door and collecting data from the American public, as Bachmann said. The U.S. Census will be in charge of that,” it said. “Some of the 1.4 million people who get Census-taking jobs may learn about the job through ACORN. Workers who apply to the Census through ACORN have no better shot at the job than those who apply through any of the 30,000 other partners. That’s it.”

Politifact also notes that ACORN will not receive any federal funding to be a national partner with the census, nor will any other national partners.

MPR interviewed U.S. Census Bureau spokesman Steve Buckner who indicated that Bachmann’s plans to leave much of the Census blank would be breaking the law.

“It doesn’t help, I suppose then, to have a congressperson talk about these issues in the way that she did,” inquired MPR’s Cathy Wurzer.

Buckner responded, “We certainly are working with the congresswoman’s office here in D.C. and have already had a briefing with her to explain the rules of the census — why they are there — and explain some of the constitutional law. The Supreme Court has upheld the powers of the data to be collected.”

Bachmann’s statements also prompted the Star Tribune editorial board to issue a scathing response to her statements:

While Bachmann certainly is entitled to her outside-the-mainstream beliefs, she’s too often crossed a critical line. The two-term congresswoman from Minnesota’s Sixth District bluntly said she will not fully fill out the census form, a misdemeanor punishable by up to $5,000. Her census fear-mongering clearly could push others to do the same. What Bachmann is doing — on national television, no less — is encouraging people to break the law. That’s not right-wing. That’s not conservative. That’s just wrong.

Bachmann responded to the editorial with an email to the Strib:

I’ve received calls, e-mails, and letters of gratitude and appreciation for speaking up. For instance, as I noted earlier, the phones have been ringing off the hook in both my D.C. and district offices in support of my statements on the census and American Community Survey from folks throughout the country and Minnesota. But at the end of the day, all that matters is if I’m faithfully representing my constituents, the people who sent me here.