From the Dayton Daily News

It would’ve been a normal, everyday political press conference on the steps of the Ohio Statehouse on Monday, Oct. 20.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, Gov. Ted Strickland and Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman — all Democrats — stood shoulder to shoulder in dark business suits in front of a battery of news cameras.

But then a guy dressed in a giant orange squirrel costume showed up, waving a poster that said “Don’t Let Obama + Acorn Steal Ohio.”

Even the three Democrats couldn’t help but chuckle at the scene the squirrel caused.

From The Columbus Dispatch:

Three top Ohio Democrats held a press conference this morning to decry what they called “desperate” and “despicable” — and even “squirrelly” — tactics from Republican presidential candidate John McCain and Ohio Republicans.

The “squirrelly” reference probably wasn’t in the original talking points but was added when someone in an orange squirrel suit showed up at the press conference holding a sign referring to allegations of registration fraud involving ACORN (the Association of Community Activists for Reform Now) such as “Don’t let Obama and ACORN steal Ohio.”

… “They even resort to things like sending squirrels to press conferences because they have nothing else to talk about. Well, I say to Senator McCain and those who are backing Sen. McCain in the way they are doing now is to stop being squirrelly and start being straight with the voters.”

Governor Strickland: the FBI recently launched an investigation regarding ACORN’s possible involvement in voter registration fraud across the country, and ACORN is a group with which Barack Obama has a relationship. Judgment and candor are very important to Ohioans and if you were being “straight with the voters,” it wouldn’t take squirrels showing up at press conferences to get some attention focused on Obama’s connections to ACORN.

Obama Spokeshuman Tommy Vietor: “If they really think this is an important issue, why make a joke of it by dressing up like Alvin and the Chipmunks.”

First of all, we are squirrels, not chipmunks. And while squirrels talking about such a serious issue as vote fraud is a little ridiculous, the fact that Barack Obama has not been seriously questioned about his errors in judgment is a disservice to American voters, not just American rodents.

When asked about his relationship with ACORN during the last debate, Obama said that ACORN’s current practices “had nothing to do with us. We were not involved.”  It sure seems like the Obama campaign is attempting to fuzzy their connection to the group, but irrespective, we squirrels will keep trying to highlight legitimate concerns regarding ACORN’s dubious activities and the group’s relationship with the Democratic presidential nominee.

Even a squirrel knows that giving $800,000 to a group’s subsidiary and signaling strong support for ACORN does not amount to “not [being] involved.”

I was very happy to have my picture on the front of The New York Times website, but the squirrel community would be even more excited if the paper more closely analyzed Barack Obama’s extensive connections to ACORN!  

Yesterday, The Associated Press reported that the FBI is investigating ACORN and “looking at results of recent raids on ACORN offices in several states for evidence of a coordinated national scam.”  ACORN’s subsidiary, Citizens Services, Inc., was of course paid more than $800,000 by Barack Obama’s campaign to conduct “get-out-the-vote” projects—and that is not the only aspect of his relationship with ACORN that should raise questions about Obama’s judgment and which deserves scrutiny.  Highlighting these questions and pushing for answers just days before the 2008 presidential election shouldn’t just be left up to us squirrels: Mom may be excited that I’ve become something of a celebrity over the last few days, but honestly, the squirrel and human communities deserve to know more about Obama’s relationship with this group currently under federal investigation.

It was a very special day for Adrienne Harlow on The Early Show. Little did she know that ACORN has registered her name 37 times in Ohio. (We’re joking… but ACORN registering the same voter multiple times is far from unheard of).