WP, Dionne: Ralph Reed and The End Of a Road: Redefining "Values"

[DeepModem Mom]

Reed and The End Of a Road
Redefining 'Values'
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Friday, July 21, 2006; Page A17

AYNOR, S.C. -- A little more than six years ago, the voters in South Carolina's Republican presidential primary set the GOP on a clear course. The news of this week, particularly from neighboring Georgia, suggests that journey is reaching an end.

On Feb. 19, 2000, George W. Bush defeated John McCain here with an approach that was to mark his presidency. It emphasized the importance of rallying "the Republican base," particularly conservative Christians, and the imperative of attacking political opponents in times of trouble -- preferably through surrogates who could provide plausible deniability.

One of the architects of the Bush strategy was Ralph Reed, a brilliant political operative who built the Christian Coalition into a formidable force and then made serious money as a political consultant.

When Bush seemed on the brink of political collapse after McCain overwhelmed him in the New Hampshire primary, Reed went to work. He organized the churches and got his phone banks busy contacting South Carolina's many religious voters. The McCain campaign was bitter over the nasty things spread about their candidate. McCain loyalists blamed Reed. He denied anything out of bounds, and won many political chits in Bush's world.

But a funny thing happened to Reed this week: He lost a Republican primary in a Southern state -- exactly the sort of electorate that Reed was an expert at courting....Reed was upended by his very success as a consultant: An old friend named Jack Abramoff had some Indian gambling clients who wanted to beat back the effort of a competing tribe to open a casino. Abramoff arranged for Reed's companies to be paid $4 million to organize grass-roots anti-gambling sentiment to oppose the competitor's casino bid. So Reed got to be on the anti-gambling side publicly, even as he was being paid privately by gambling interests to do what they needed done....One (of Reed's opponent's ads) declared that Reed had "sold out our conservative values" and concluded: "Ralph Reed: His values are for sale."...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/20/AR2006072001630.html

[Skittles]

1. maybe conservatives are tired of being played for fools

we can only hope

[Cha]

2. Look at how the

slimey have fallen.