If Ms. MonCrief had not become a conservative and blown her whistle on Ms. Reid and the ACORN 8, Volpe would still be calling her a whistleblower instead of a sociopath.
At his website called "The Provocateur," blogger Mike Volpe tries to be provocative and to promote the ACORN 8 as well as himself. If the ACORN 8 need him to flip flop, then he flip flops.
On June 22, 2009, in a post titled "What's in a Name," Volpe wrote about ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief as follows:
"Beyond that, the Examiner story said that ACORN's Project VOTE is taking legal action against whistle blower Anita Moncrief. They claim that Moncrief stole proprietary information from their email and used a company credit card in an unauthorized manner. That Project Vote takes the misuse of company credit cards so seriously is also rather ironic. That's because that was one of several things that Dale Rathke did was charge up personal dinners and other personal expenses and then write them off as business expenses. ACORN 8 has put out this statement regarding the legal action taken by Project VOTE.
"On behalf of the National Board of the ACORN 8, we are all saddened by and express great concern due to the ACORN’s court action filed against whistleblower Anita Moncrief. While we do not express an opinion on the merits of ACORN’s complaint; we as reform advocates decry the tactic of suing whistleblowers – especially, low to moderate income people who do not have the financial means to effectively fight back in courts of law. Moreover, this is yet another example of why congress must enact strong corporate, government and tax-payer funded whistleblower protection laws.
"Federal whistleblowers are our nation’s first line of defense against waste, fraud and abuse. Yet, they remain the only group within the labor force that has second class due process rights to protect them from retaliation when they make the difficult decision to blow the whistle. HR. 1507, the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2009, would offer full access to court, enforced by access to jury trials, for all employees paid by the taxpayers, just as President Obama promised in his campaign. We support H.R. 1507 for these reasons, and expect the President to deliver on his commitment to whistleblowers and the public by making this reform a cornerstone of any transparency measure until it is passed.
"Additionally, the Government Accountability Project (GAP) released a new report that both advocates for greater whistleblower protections and acts as a guidebook for corporate whistleblowers to best protect themselves from retaliation. Running the Gauntlet: The Campaign for Credible Corporate Whistleblower Rights surveys the dangerous landscape of corporate whistleblower laws, and recommends strategies for those in need of help. Likewise Representative Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) has pledged comprehensive corporate whistleblower legislation to institutionalize six new piecemeal laws passed since the 2006 elections for workers ranging from defense contractors to truck drivers to retail commerce employees regulated by the Consumers Products Safety Commission.
"As ACORN reform advocates – we also fear legal retaliation from ACORN due to the reform campaign we are currently engaged in against ACORN. While we anticipate that any such legal action if brought would be baseless and vexatious; it would nevertheless be distracting and expensive. We are already being intimidated through character assignation, cease and desist letters, harassing emails and blogs, and death threats. We need the public’s help to ensure that these bullying tactics won’t work. Please support the ACORN 8, pleased donate to the A8 Legal Defense Fund at http://www.acorn8.com/"
Subsequently, Volpe flip flopped on whether Ms. MonCrief is a whistleblower, as both he and the ACORN 8 had asserted.
Volpe's November 8, 2009 post at "The Provocateur" is titled "The Culture of Corruption Between Michelle Malkin[,] Michael Gaynor, and Anita Moncrief II."
Volpe's title calls to mind Ms. Malkin's best seller, Culture of Corruption, but that book is not mentioned.
Volpe is not only upset that Ms. Malkin's book is a great success, but worried that Ms. MonCrief might write one too.
Volpe is claiming that a corrupt conspiracy among Ms. Malkin, Ms. MonCrief and myself to have Ms. MonCrief write a successful book has determined what each of us has written about ACORN.
Volpe:
"So, what if I told you that a book was about to be published by a thief, a fraud, and an opportunist that turned on everyone that helped them when it benefitted them? It's likely the public would have no stomach for such a book. What if I told you I was going to publish a book by a naive radical that found the courage to become a whistleblower and so began a philosophical journey in which they found God and Conservatism? Now, that's a book you'd likely want to read.
"That's what's at stake for Anita Moncrief. Depending on how you present her story, you could view her as the first or the second. Her future in writing depends entirely on crafting an image that is much more alligned with the second and not the first. So what someone may say. That's Anita Moncrief's problem. Unfortunately, it's now everyone's problem. That's because two journalists, Michelle Malkin and Michael Gaynor, have spent the last six months systematically crafting Anita Moncrief's image so that it's more like the second version. As a result, they have perpetrated a fraud on their readers, and thus on the American people. They have committed a journalistic fraud of the magnitude and scale that's difficult to compare."
Overlook Volpe's problems with grammar, spelling and overstatement and inability to distinguish fact from falsehood or to support his outrageous claims.
I am an attorney and an independent commentator who writes on political and religious subjects.
The incomparable Ms. Malkin's biography at www.Townhall.com reads as follows:
"Michelle Malkin makes news and waves with a unique combination of investigative journalism and incisive commentary. Michelle Malkin is not afraid to expose hypocritical environmentalists, needle pork-loving politicians or criticize the MTV generation's morally deprived icons. Most of all, Michelle Malkin is not afraid to hold up the Immigration and Naturalization Service to the relentless scrutiny it deserves post-Sept. 11. Michelle Malkin's ground-breaking research and reporting led to her first book, Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists, Criminals, and Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores (Regnery 2002), in which Michelle Malkin argues 'immigration must be treated as a national-security issue.' The book debuted on The New York Times' nonfiction best-seller list at No. 14 (week of Nov. 17, 2002).
"Michelle Malkin's second book, In Defense of Internment: The Case for 'Racial Profiling' in World War II and the War on Terror, was released in August 2004. Michelle Malkin is releasing her third book, Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild, this fall.
"Michelle Malkin began her career in newspaper journalism with the Los Angeles Daily News, where she worked as an editorial writer and weekly columnist from 1992-94. In 1995, Michelle Malkin was named Warren Brookes Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. In 1996, Michelle Malkin joined the editorial board of the Seattle Times, where Michelle Malkin penned editorials and weekly columns for three and a half years. Today, Michelle Malkin's syndicated column appears in over 100 papers nationwide. Michelle Malkin's work has been cited in The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, Reader's Digest and U.S. News and World Report. Michelle Malkin's freelance work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Weekly Standard and Reason magazine. Michelle Malkin has appeared on 'The O'Reilly Factor,' 'Hannity and Colmes,' 'The McLaughlin Group' and '20/20,' and is currently a Fox News commentator.
"Michelle Malkin's hard-hitting -- and news-breaking -- commentary has been honored by several national organizations. Among the journalism awards Michelle Malkin has received:
"The 1998 Council on Governmental Ethics Laws (COGEL) national award, for outstanding service for the cause of governmental ethics and leadership, for investigative columns that exposed campaign finance abuses by Washington state Democrats, Republicans and political organizations.
"The 1998 Second Amendment Foundation's James Madison Award, for excellence in journalism 'promoting the individual right to keep and bear arms.'
"The 1997 National Society of Newspaper Columnists writing award, for general interest columnists in newspapers with a circulation of at least 100,000 (2nd place).
"The 1997 Evert Clark Science Award for journalists under the age of 30, for commentary and analysis of environmental regulations and science policy (honorable mention).
Michelle Malkin, the daughter of Filipino immigrants, was born in Philadelphia and raised in southern New Jersey. Michelle Malkin has worked as a press inserter, tax preparation aide and network news librarian; Michelle Malkin is also a lapsed classical pianist. Michelle Malkin hobbies include crocheting and pier fishing with her dad.
"A graduate of Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, Malkin currently lives with her husband and daughter in Maryland."
If Ms. Malkin and I were co-conspirators, that biography would have been updated to include Culture of Corruption and I'd have an autographed copy of Culture of Corruption, but we are not, it is not and I do not.
The next time I have the pleasure of meeting Ms. Malkin will be the first time.
Volpe is interested in discrediting Ms. Malkin, Ms. MonCrief and me, not the truth. He is promoting Marcel Reid and her ACORN 8 and, just as the American Communist Party switched from opposing American entry into World War II as soon as Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, Volpe suddenly switched to trying to discredit Ms. MonCrief.
Volpe:
"Back in 2007, Anita Moncrief was working for Project Vote. There she witnessed a lax environment in which rules weren't always followed. She was struggling for money as she was a recent SINGLE MOTHER. So, one day she decided to falsely apply for a company credit card and she used that credit card for personal items. Soon enough, Project Vote figured out her theft and fraud and they fired her FOR CAUSE. She then turned on her former employer and began reaching out to media telling them that Project Vote was sharing email lists with the Obama administration. Upon being fired, Anita Moncrief befriended Marcel Reid. Reid was a former board member at ACORN. Reid took Moncrief under her wing and acted as a mentor to her. In fact, when Moncrief first began writing herself, Reid would often proof read her work. Reid often helped open doors for her. For instance, Reid helped Anita Moncrief give testimony to Darrell Issa's committee that investigated ACORN."
In due course the truth will become well known. Volpe either doesn't know the truth or chose not to write it.
It is true that Ms. Reid used Ms. MonCrief as a source and a conduit and gave her the telephone number of Heather Heidelbaugh, Esq., first vice president of the Republican National Lawyers Association and the lawyer for the Pennsylvania Republican Party in the Pennsylvania ACORN case last year. It was Ms. MonCrief who testified in that case and it was Ms. MonCrief's testimony in that case that highlighted Ms. Heidelbaugh's presentation to a House Judiciary subcommittee last March.
Volpe: "Marcel Reid helped to form the group, ACORN 8. In the spring of this year, Anita Moncrief asked Reid and ACORN 8 to get behind her in her expose of the connection between ACORN/Project Vote and the Obama administration. ACORN 8 asked for documentation. The documentation she provided too dubious for ACORN 8 to get behind. The group had decided that they would only attack ACORN with accusations they had incontrovertable evidence to back up. They asked Moncrief for more. She refused to give any more and so they refused to back her up. Then, it became public that Moncrief had committed theft and fraud and ACORN 8 cut ties completely."
Volpe's June 23, 2009 article, quoted above, proves that's false. Ms. Reid accompanied Ms. MonCrief when Ms. Heidelbaugh testified last March and Ms. MonCrief had made the credit card matter public last year, by testifying about in the Pennsylvania ACORN case, talking about it on Laura Ingraham's radio show and writing about it on her blog, www.anitamoncrief.blogspot.com.
Volpe: "After this, Moncrief turned on ACORN 8 and Marcel Reid specifically. She's spent the last seven months attacking Reid."
Seven months ago would be April. I wish it was true, but it's not. And the ACORN 8 would not have issued that statement quoted by Volpe in his June 23, 2009 article quoted above if it was true.
Volpe: "Now, when I say that, this means that Anita Moncrief will attack her herself. She'll have Michael Gaynor attack her and she'll have Michelle Malkin attack her."
I KNOW that's false as to me, and I am confident that it is false as to Ms. Malkin too.
Volpe: "Prior to April, Michael Gaynor had written about Anita Moncrief a handful of times."
How many fingers are on Volpe's hands? I wrote about Ms. MonCrief 9 times in 2008, beginning on October 22, 2008, and 8 times prior to April 2009.
Volpe: "Michelle Malkin had written about her once. Since then, Malkin has written about her almost thirty times and Gaynor too many times to count. Every time, Moncrief is painted in a glowing fashion. Beyond that, Malkin and Gaynor will attack enemies of Moncrief, like ACORN 8, mercilessly."
Apparently Volpe finds the truth written about Ms. MonCrief "glowing" and the truth about there ACORN 8 "merciless attack." Ms. Malkin joined me in writing about Ms. MonCrief after connecting with Ms. MonCrief and reviewing evidence.
Volpe then quoted from articles by Ms. Malkin and me.
That's fair, but readers should read the whole articles.
Volpe also reviled Ms. Malkin and me for our reporting on Ms. MonCrief and the ACORN 8 and whine that Ms. Malkin has ignored him.
Ignoring Volpe makes sense. His articles on ACORN and the ACORN 8 are not only error-riddled, but foolishly insulting.
Volpe: "...Anita Moncrief was a development associate. That means she helped a senior level staffer develop reports. Her duties mostly included getting coffee, lunch and doing whatever the senior staffer told her. Such a person should not be the main source for anyone and they aren't for anyone but Malkin and Gaynor."
At best, Volpe doesn't know what Ms. MonCrief's duties were or for whom she has been a source.
What obviously had irritated Volpe was that Ms. MonCrief herself recently had exposed the ACORN 8 as not true reformers. (I'd done that months earlier.)
Volpe: "...that excerpt includes an attack by Moncrief on ACORN 8. In it, she compares the Republican relationship to Scozzafava to ACORN 8's relationship to ACORN. ACORN 8 has done no work in New York 23, endorsed no candidate and I don't believe they even have anyone that lives in the district. There's absolutely no reason to include them in a piece on New York 23, unless it's nothing but an excuse to attack them. To me, writing a political piece that's nothing more than an excuse to attack your enemies is trash...."
Trash is an appropriate one-word summary of Volpe's articles mentioning Ms. MonCrief and/or Ms. Malkin.
Volpe's "Conclusion": "I am no psychiatrist however Anita Moncrief's behavior exhibits far too many of the characteristics of a sociopath.... She went from being a self described radical to a self described conservative at the very moment she began communicating with two conservative journalists."
I know that description of Ms. MonCrief's political development is false. I've been in regular communication with Ms. MonCrief since she contacted me in early October 2008. She did not become a conservative until she watched the Age of Obama unfold. And it took much longer for her to appreciate that Ms. Reid and the ACORN 8 were not true reformers.
If Ms. MonCrief had not become a conservative and blown her whistle on Ms. Reid and the ACORN 8, Volpe would still be calling her a whistleblower instead of a sociopath.
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.