Ralph Reed, the former Christian Coalition golden boy, Bush advisor, and now a candidate for lieutenant governor in Georgia, is up to his ears in the Jack Abramoff/casino-lobbying scandal. How bad is it for Reed? Even TV preacher Pat Robertson, Reed’s one-time mentor, is dismayed.
Some of Mr. Reed’s past patrons – including the Rev. Pat Robertson, the Christian broadcaster who set Mr. Reed on the national stage by hiring him to run the Christian Coalition – say his work with Mr. Abramoff’s Indian casino clients raises questions about how he has balanced his personal ambitions with his Christian principles.
“You know that song about the Rhinestone Cowboy, ‘There’s been a load of compromising on the road to my horizon,’ ” Mr. Robertson said. “The Bible says you can’t serve God and Mammon.”
When Robertson is criticizing Ralph Reed in the New York Times, you know Reed has a problem.
It’s worth noting, of course, that Reed’s been losing friends faster than he’s making them.
His primary opponent in Georgia, for example, isn’t hurting for oppo material.
Mr. Reed’s primary opponent, State Senator Casey Cagle, criticized him last week for inviting at least three lobbyists whose firms have worked for gambling concerns to a Washington fund-raiser tomorrow.
“Ralph has a lot of things he has got to answer for, like this gambling situation,” said Joel McElhannon, a consultant to Mr. Cagle’s campaign. “It strains believability that somebody hands him $4.2 million and he doesn’t know where that money came from.”
Part of Reed’s problem is that he’s not just an associate of corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff, he’s a close and long-time friend. The two ran College Republican National Committee together, Reed used to occasionally sleep on Abramoff’s couch, and it was Reed who introduced Abramoff to his wife.
Yet, Reed now wants everyone to believe that Abramoff hired him to help undermine one casino to benefit another, but that Reed was unaware of the situation. And that Abramoff and Reed exchanged emails about the initiative to help its casino clients, but that Reed was unaware of the situation. And that Reed took in over $4 million in fees from Abramoff and his casino clients, but that Reed was unaware of the situation.
No wonder the religious right is hesitating to leap to Reed’s defense.
Tom Minnery, a vice president of Focus on the Family, said he did not know the facts. He said the group had often criticized Republican politicians, including Mr. DeLay, for taking money from gambling interests. Of Mr. Reed, Mr. Minnery said, “We wish he wouldn’t have done that.”
Looking back, I suspect Reed wishes that too.