Bush campaign official and former Christian Coalition hatchet man Ralph Reed can’t seem to shake a major gambling industry scandal that’s been on his heels the past few months.
The Nation had the scoop about two months ago.
When Ralph Reed was the boyish director of the Christian Coalition, he made opposition to gambling a major plank in his “family values” agenda, calling gambling “a cancer on the American body politic” that was “stealing food from the mouths of children.” But now, a broad federal investigation into lobbying abuses connected to gambling on Indian reservations has unearthed evidence that Reed has been surreptitiously working for an Indian tribe with a large casino it sought to protect — and that Reed was paid with funds laundered through two firms to try to keep his lucrative involvement secret.
It’s quite a sordid tale. A federal criminal investigation has been underway into the activities of GOP lawyer/lobbyist Jack Abramoff and Mike Scanlon, Tom DeLay’s former spokesman and head of two campaign and public relations companies. With their help, Reed went to great strides to keep himself out of the mess, right up until it was clear Reed was collecting quite a bit of money from his work on this. How much money? Today’s Roll Call has some great details.
Ralph Reed, a top campaign adviser to President Bush in the South and a power broker among conservative Christians, received nearly $4 million from a GOP public relations expert under federal investigation over huge lobbying fees paid by American Indian tribes with gambling interests.
Reed was paid more than $3.8 million during a yearlong period in 2001 and 2002 by Michael Scanlon, a former aide to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), according to documents obtained by Roll Call.
This is going to get worse for Reed before it gets better. And considering the guy’s history, it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving person.
In just two weeks, the Senate Indian Affairs Committee will open hearings into why Abramoff and Scanlon charged four American Indian tribes $45 million for a lobbying campaign. No one can seem to explain what they did to earn that money. Naturally, Reed’s take will also generate serious questions for which there is no obvious answer.
Of course, it’s not just the Senate that’ll be asking questions.
A federal grand jury is investigating Abramoff and Scanlon as well, and the FBI is looking into whether some tribal members were offered financial rewards in return for big lobbying and PR contracts. IRS officials are also exploring the transactions between Abramoff, Scanlon and a number of companies and nonprofit organizations.
And among those companies are a few owned and operated by Reed himself. Among the questions Reed will have to answer is what he did in exchange for the nearly $4 million he collected and why he went to such lengths to hide his involvement with Abramoff’s and Scanlon’s scheme. I can’t wait to hear the answers.
Keep in mind, Reed has plenty to lose here. In addition to getting caught up in a federal criminal investigation with some of his right-wing cohorts, Reed is currently the chairman of the Bush campaign’s efforts in the Southeast. He’s also been a ubiquitous surrogate for Bush in the media — CNN even inexplicably gave Reed eight minutes immediately after John Edwards’ convention speech to trash the Dem ticket and parrot GOP talking points. (One wonders if the network will return the favor after Cheney’s speech)
If Reed is further implicated in this Abramoff/Scanlon mess, he’s likely to lose his role in the Bush campaign. Indeed, if the campaign had any sense of propriety, Reed would be dismissed immediately. For now, the campaign is balking.
Steve Schmidt, a spokesman for the Bush-Cheney ’04 Committee, declined Sunday to comment on Reed’s activities. “I would refer any questions about Century Strategies to Century Strategies,” he said.
That’s a nice first try, but Reed is on the Bush payroll. If he’s a crook, the campaign better come up with a better response than this.