Reed Defies Gambling Claims..( "voter's don't care about this")

[RedEarth]

Ralph Reed, the former Christian Coalition chief, defended himself Wednesday against charges he knowingly took gambling industry money in his consulting business, even though he publicly opposes gambling.

Reed is in a fight for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor.

In an exclusive interview with 11Alive's Denis O’Hayer, Reed declared himself as a subcontractor on the project and charged the media with creating a distraction.

“I don’t think the voters care about this,” said Reed, who also denied personal knowledge of receiving money from gambling interests.

http://www.11alive.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=70756

[leesa]

1. The GOP has been reduced to this sole talking point "The people don't

care about our crimes" They may be right.

[On the Road]

2. “I Don’t Think the Voters Care About This”

:wtf:

I thought Ralph Reed at least made the pretense of being about moral stances rather than poll results.

[Mithras61]

3. He may be right about the gambling money...

but I think he may be wrong about the hypocrisy part. If he was completely honest/ethical, he wouldn't be willing to accept donations from groups that he (at least publicly) opposes. The fact that he's willing to take money from anyone tells me that he is at best a hypocrite, and possibly far worse (but then, WE already knew that, didn't we?).

[daa]

4. I live in Georgia - this guy is TOAST

Continued revelations of Ralph Reed's lobbying activities have sparked a high-level debate in Georgia GOP ranks over whether his campaign for lieutenant governor would harm other Republican candidates on next year's ballot, including Gov. Sonny Perdue.

Much of the concern is expressed in private. But some indicate a growing nervousness over Reed, a specialist in grass-roots campaigning whose first attempt at public office was once widely viewed as unstoppable.

"Certainly Republicans are talking about the impact — pro or con — that Reed would have on the governor's race. Anybody who says otherwise is a liar or a fool," said former state Sen. Chuck Clay of Marietta, who, like Reed, is a former state GOP chairman.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently disclosed Reed's work with Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff in helping to defeat a 2000 congressional effort to restrict Internet gambling.

Reed, who has denounced gambling, already has been tied to Abramoff in several enterprises involving Indian tribes with casinos, now under investigation by two U.S. Senate committees.


Reed hasn't been accused of any wrongdoing. But with U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay under indictment, accused of violating campaign finance laws, many top Georgia Republicans say they are worried that Reed could be used by Democrats to connect other GOP candidates — including Perdue — to the growing air of scandal in Washington.

Last week, three state senators circulated a memo, directed at "Georgia's Republican leadership," suggesting Reed's candidacy in 2006 could jeopardize not just Perdue, but also the GOP's recently won majorities in the Legislature.

All three senators are allies of Reed's primary rival, state Sen. Casey Cagle of Gainesville.

"This has nothing to do with Casey Cagle. This has everything to do with the survival of our party," Sen. Jeff Mullis of Chickamauga, one of the authors of the memo, said in an interview. "Republicans have struggled many years to get to the place where we are. Ralph Reed has helped. But some people who work behind the scenes should stay there."

The memo questioned Reed's "electability" in a general election, citing an independent poll that showed Reed's unfavorable rating outpacing his favorable rating — though a majority was still undecided.


http://www.ajc.com/news/content/metro/1005/10metreed.html

[sarcasmo]

11. I sure hope that ASSHAT being Toast is true.

[belle]

5. Keep talking, smarm-boy.

Some guerilla warrior. Yo, Ralphie, if you were really that sneaky, you wouldn't keep *talking* about it, neh?

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. Perfect example of a Republican who politicizes crime.

If the voters don't care about that kind of crime, it's okay to do. That must be why prosecution of black crime must be very popular.

[UpInArms]

7. Reed should be No. 1 in the Hypocrite of the Week Contest!

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/metro/1005/02reed.html

Ralph Reed, who has condemned gambling as a "cancer on the American body politic," quietly worked five years ago to kill a proposed ban on Internet wagering — on behalf of a company in the online gambling industry.

<snip>

Anti-gambling activists say they never knew that Reed, whom they once considered an ally, helped sink the proposal in the House of Representatives. Now some of them, who criticized other work Reed performed on behalf of Indian tribes that own casinos, say his efforts on eLottery's behalf undermine his image as a champion of public morality, which he cultivated as a leader of the religious conservative movement in the 1980s and '90s.

"It flies in the face of the kinds of things the Christian Coalition supports," said the Rev. Cynthia Abrams, a United Methodist Church official in Washington who coordinates a group of gambling opponents who favored the measure. "They support family values. Stopping gambling is a family concern, particularly Internet gambling."

Reed's involvement in the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act of 2000, never previously reported, comes to light as authorities in Washington scrutinize the lobbying activities of Abramoff, a longtime friend who now is the target of several federal investigations.

<snip>

Since his days with the Christian Coalition, Reed consistently has identified himself as a gambling opponent. Speaking at a National Press Club luncheon in Washington in 1996, for instance, Reed called gambling "a cancer" and a "scourge" that was responsible for "orphaning children ... turning wives into widows."

...more...

Antitax activist says he got $1.5m from tribes

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/05/13/antitax_activist_says_he_got_15m_from_tribes?pg=full

WASHINGTON -- Antitax activist Grover Norquist said yesterday that his organization has received nearly $1.5 million from Indian tribes in the past five years and that he arranged for tribal leaders to attend meetings to discuss tax policy with President Bush every year for the past four years.

<snip>

Norquist also said for the first time that his group, Americans for Tax Reform, sent $1.15 million, which came from a single Indian tribe that runs a casino in Mississippi, to two antigambling groups who were opposing rival gaming operations in next-door Alabama.

The Alabama Christian Coalition, which has a strict policy against receiving money tied to gambling interests, received $850,000, and Citizens Against Legalized Lottery received $300,000, Norquist said.

Norquist said he sent money to the two antigambling groups in Alabama because the tribe wanted to block gambling competition in that state. He said he and his staff never informed the Alabama Christian Coalition about the original source of the funds.

<snip>

''While there is nothing illegal about taking gambling money, for the to willingly do so would be abhorrently unethical," the website reads.

...more at link...

The Gimme-Five Game

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/06/28/abramoff.tm/

At this stage, it's not easy to make Jack Abramoff's reputation worse. The Washington superlobbyist has been caught, in his e-mails, calling his Indian tribal clients "monkeys" and "morons."

It has been made clear, in congressional hearings, that he charged the tribes outlandish fees and got them to make donations that underwrote his lifestyle, his kids' education and the luxury travel of his favorite politician. But for those who were recipients of the largesse that Abramoff could afford with his clients' money, exposure is a frightening prospect.

House majority leader Tom DeLay, that luxury traveler, has already been burned by his association with Abramoff. The latest disclosures about the lobbyist's methods have dusted up two more Republican notables: antitax activist Grover Norquist and Christian conservative Ralph Reed. Their names came up in the thousands of e-mails released last week by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, which is investigating Abramoff.

<snip>

Norquist, Abramoff and Reed first worked together in 1981 as members of the college Republicans organizing protests against communism in Poland. From there, the three rose steadily to the tops of their fields. Reed, as leader of the Christian Coalition, built a national grass-roots following of religious activists. Abramoff tapped into massive casino profits by representing newly rich tribes. And Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), established himself as the high priest of tax cuts.

According to the e-mail trail, Reed and Norquist contacted Abramoff separately in 1999 to say they wanted to do business.

...more...

[CottonBear]

8. I live in GA. I leave this flyer on cars with Jesus fishes:

*********************************************************************
Ralph Reed/Scam Artist –
He Was AGAINST gambling before
he took money FOR it

Jesus wouldn't approve of Ralph Reed’s scams and lobbying efforts.
Remember that Jesus threw the moneychangers out of the temple.

"I suspect that, behind closed doors, most Washington Republicans take religious conservatives for suckers. This has been evident from the Washington Post's recent revelations about GOP activist and lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Three years ago, a casino-owning Louisiana Indian tribe called the Coushatta hired Abramoff to help stop another tribe from opening a casino, which the Coushatta feared would dilute their business. Abramoff hired former Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed, who enlisted Focus on the Family's James Dobson, who spurred his followers to send thousands of letters opposing the new casino. The poor souls riled up to stop legalized gambling had no idea that they were pawns of another casino. It's a perfect metaphor for the relationship between the Republican elite and the voters who put them into office."
Jonathan Chait , LA Times opinion column, April 1, 2005
*********************************************************************

I also put these flyers on cars at a local 4th of July event where Reed was the featured speaker. Did I mention that the event also featured a booths sponsored by Neo-Confederates complete with Confederate flags and regalia? :eyes:

[TexasLawyer]

13. good for you!

Ralph Reed is a first class hypocrite and thief.

[sofa king]

9. Voters don't care about this...yet.

Because most of the voters don't know... yet.

Seriously, I'm having trouble figuring out why Reed hasn't been brought up on federal charges yet for his participation in this vast money laundering and fraud scheme.

Oh, wait. I think I figured it out:

http://www.churchexecutive.com/2003/01/The_50_most_influential_Christians_in_America.asp

[gratuitous]

10. Odd excuse

Isn't character defined by what you do when people aren't looking? Caught with his hand in the cookie jar up to the elbow, Ralphie declares that folks don't care where his bankroll is coming from. Really, Ralph? And who have you talked to about that? The good folks at the First Church of the Hypocrites?

[napi21]

12. Well, I live in Ga. too, and believe me, the voters CARE about

gambling! Somebody's always pitching a fit over the evils of gambling, and they'll hold it against Reed.