{"id":6346,"date":"2006-01-16T10:03:38","date_gmt":"2006-01-16T15:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=6346"},"modified":"2006-01-16T10:03:38","modified_gmt":"2006-01-16T15:03:38","slug":"watching-ralph-reeds-career-fall-apart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/watching-ralph-reeds-career-fall-apart\/","title":{"rendered":"Watching Ralph Reed’s career fall apart"},"content":{"rendered":"

The close personal and professional relationship between Ralph Reed — former Christian Coalition director, Bush campaign advisor, and current lieutenant governor candidate in Georgia — and Jack Abramoff is well documented<\/a>. What’s new, however, is the toll it’s taking on Reed’s career. If Reed assumed voters in Georgia wouldn’t get caught up in what some bill as a DC scandal, he wildly underestimated<\/a> the power of this controversy.<\/p>\n

Similarly damaging has been a torrent of e-mails revealed during the investigation that shows a side of Reed that some former supporters say cannot be reconciled with his professed Christian values.<\/p>\n

“After reading the e-mail, it became pretty obvious he was putting money before God,” said Phil Dacosta, a Georgia Christian Coalition member who had initially backed Reed. “We are righteously casting him out.” […]<\/p>\n

Random interviews on Main Street in heavily Republican Alpharetta — a rapidly growing town of 37,850 on the far northern suburbs of Atlanta — suggested that even many people who follow politics casually are aware of the linkage between Reed and Abramoff. […]<\/p>\n

Todd Guy, owner of Trader Golf, said succinctly in response to an inquiry: “Ralph Reed of the Christian Coalition? My God! Abramoff.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The emails, which have received significant attention in Georgia’s news media, are as damaging as they are stunning. One email from Reed to Abramoff in late 1998 said, “I need to start humping in corporate accounts!” Shortly thereafter, Abramoff hired Reed on behalf of the Mississippi Band of Choctaws, who wanted protection for their casinos. In another instance, Reed said he had “no direct knowledge” of Abramoff’s clients or interests, which conflicted with an email from to Reed explicitly citing the Choctaws: “It would be really helpful if you could get me invoices [for services performed] as soon as possible so I can get Choctaw to get us checks ASAP.”<\/p>\n

Here’s my personal favorite:
\n<\/p>\n

One of the most damaging e-mails was sent by Abramoff to partner Michael Scanlon, complaining about Reed’s billing practices and expenditure claims: “He is a bad version of us! No more money for him.” Scanlon and Abramoff have pleaded guilty to defrauding clients.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s right, Abramoff saw how Reed operated and was shocked. Think about that — the most corrupt lobbyist in the country was taken aback by Reed’s<\/i> duplicity.<\/p>\n

It’s likely to end Reed’s career. A recent Zogby poll showed Reed losing to an unnamed Democrat statewide. I’ve also learned that internal polling from state Dems shows even more encouraging results.<\/p>\n

If there’s a way out of this mess for Reed, I don’t see it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The close personal and professional relationship between Ralph Reed — former Christian Coalition director, Bush campaign advisor, and current lieutenant governor candidate in Georgia — and Jack Abramoff is well documented. What’s new, however, is the toll it’s taking on Reed’s career. If Reed assumed voters in Georgia wouldn’t get caught up in what some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6346\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}