Like finding drunks in a bar, you don’t have to look far to find hypocrisy in politics. Take today’s swift letter-writing campaign by U.S. Sen. John Ensign, for example.

After agents from the secretary of state and attorney general’s office raided the Nevada offices of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) in a search for proof of voter registration fraud, Ensign immediately demanded the Federal Housing Finance Agency stop funding the group. Calling ACORN — which maintains a non-partisan voter registration drive — a “controversial group,” Ensign basically decided to impose a punishment before there’s been proof of a crime.

“With the government takeover of Fannie [Mae] and Freddie [Mac], the government will be taxing itself to create a backdoor slush fund, and we must prevent these taxpayer dollars from going toward ACORN,” Ensign said in a statement. “With the recent news tying ACORN with voter fraud, suspending these funds is even more urgent.”

Note that ACORN hasn’t been convicted of a anything. Nobody has even been arrested. A raid was staged, documents and computers were seized. That’s it.

Now, witness now different Ensign’s attitude is when the funds in question are flowing to him: Back in 2005, Ensign initially refused to return $4,000 given him by GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who was ultimately convicted and sentenced to prison. But at the time Abramoff was merely accused of wrongdoing, what did Ensign say about him? That he should be fired from his job? That nobody should hire him? That he should quit? Nope. Here’s what Ensign said:

“It’s one of those things — innocent until proven guilty,” Ensign said. “We don’t want to assume guilt on somebody, but [returning Abramoff's contributions] is something that we would absolutely consider because that’s part of this campaign. That’s not part of the last one.”

Innocent until proven guilty. But only for Washington lobbyists who favor the Republicans, not for community organizations that work with the poor?

We’re not saying that ACORN is innocent. The group might very well have done something wrong, although in a statement to reporters an ACORN organizer said the group has worked hard to identify suspect voter registrations and ask state and local authorities to investigate, which those agencies were allegedly slow in doing. Moreover, the group said it cooperated with a subpoena for 15 former employees, all of whom had been identified by ACORN as suspects in fradulent registrations.

But those employees, and ACORN, are innocent until proven guilty, just like Abramoff. Right, Sen. Ensign?

We’ll be waiting by our computer to get your statement asking the Federal Housing Finance Agency to hold off on any action until the courts rule.

But we won’t be holding our breath.