Abuser of Faith

Campaigning across Georgia in his increasingly futile quest for the Lt. Governor office, Ralph Reed cannot shake the millstone around his neck. Voters keep asking him - What about Jack Abramoff?

Recently, at a Baptist Church gathering near Atlanta, the moderator’s first question in a forum featuring Reed and his Republican primary opponent was: “As Christians we’re held to a higher standard. Is there anything you’ve done in your political life that you wish you hadn’t done?”

“I thought I might get that question,” Reed began with a smile. He then launched into the same response he has been giving, nearly word for word, to audiences all over the state for the past two months.

“Seven years ago I was approached by a longtime friend … who asked me if I’d be willing to work on campaigns to stop the expansion of casinos with the understanding that I would not be paid with any revenues that derived from gambling. I relied on those assurances. “If I knew then what I know now, I obviously wouldn’t have done that work.....I should have turned it down.....I’ve stated that I regret that and I’ve accepted total responsibility for it. “But let me tell you what I don’t appreciate and what I think the voters of Georgia are going to reject, and that is the unfair attempt by the liberal media and others to engage in guilt by association and to associate me with the misdeeds of others. It’s wrong.”

Yes Ralph, what YOU DID IS WRONG. The favorite line of you and other Rethuglicans appears to be - “The liberal media made me do it.” When lying in the den of wolves..... well you were there, not the media. Abramoff is admitting to numerous counts of fraud, tax evasion, and conspiracy and faces many years in prison. Guess the liberal media made him do it also? Reed has not officially been charged with a crime (yet), but e-mails and other documents discovered in a still-unfolding federal investigation makes it clear that his work as a political consultant was an integral part of Abramoff’s scheme to swindle his Indian-tribe clients out of tens of millions of dollars. These truly are trying times for all those Christians who are “held to a higher standard”, oh dear.

Hundreds of miles from Georgia, another disillusioned Christian is sitting in a cell at Greensville Correctional Center near Emporia, VA. Robin Vanderwall, 37, was convicted in 2004 of soliciting sex with a minor over the Internet and sentenced to seven years......He had run several successful campaigns for local Republican politicians,....

At the Virginia Republican convention in 2000....he was recruited by political consultants Phil Cox and Tim Phillips....to take over a new organization called the Faith and Family Alliance. “They painted a picture of it as something that was going to be taking an active role in the Bush campaign,” Vanderwall recalled.... After a few weeks, Vanderwall said, he began getting phone calls from an assistant to Reed at Century Strategies, Reed’s Georgia consulting firm. “He said, 'You’re going to be getting a package in a few days from Americans for Tax Reform, and I need you to call me as soon as you get this package,’.....“He didn’t tell me what was in the package.”

“For six or seven days, nonstop every day, he was calling, asking, 'Has the package arrived?’ ”The package turned out to be an envelope with a $150,000 check, signed by Grover Norquist. Vanderwall said he was instructed to put it in the bank, write a Faith and Family Alliance check in the same amount, and send it to Reed’s firm. “I didn’t have any idea what the check was for,”.....“There was never any explanation.”

The 2000 presidential election came and went, but Faith and Family Alliance had no role in it. When Vanderwall pressed for answers, he got none. In the end, it seems, Faith and Family Alliance had no reason for being – other than to act as the pass-through to Reed’s firm and a smaller, earlier transfer to a Richmond-area congressional campaign. The group’s incorporation papers lapsed and “it just went away,” Vanderwall said. “It died an inglorious death.....”

It wasn’t until last fall that Vanderwall got answers – from a reporter at The Washington Post. The Post and the Journal-Constitution reported that the money passed to Reed originated with eLottery Inc., a(n) online gambling services company that had hired Abramoff to fight a pending bill in Congress to outlaw Internet gambling. Abramoff, in turn, enlisted the help of Reed, who worked against the bill on grounds that it contained loopholes that would have allowed some forms of online gambling to remain legal.

The legislation was defeated. Since then, online gambling revenues have soared. “I’m a Christian,” Vanderwall said. “I’m very strong about my faith. … It’s time for Republicans to stop duping real, decent Christian people.”

Oh my, those crooked evil bidders of Satan herding the pious, blind Christians – once again. More on Ralph here.
Posted on The Human Stain