Religious right leader Ralph Reed compares Obama to Jim Crow segregationists

[DonViejo]

The conservative activist compares the first black president to George Wallace

ELIAS ISQUITH

Religious right leader and conservative activist Ralph Reed’s speech at CPAC on Friday morning was perhaps the most strident, uncompromising and sweeping condemnation of the Obama administration delivered at the conservative convention thus far.

While Reed ran through a greatest hits of religious right complaints about Democrats — their supposed hatred of religious liberty, disdain for the faithful, and obsession with pushing their “radical” agenda — his most incendiary charge was a comparison of the first African-American president to George Wallace, the infamous former governor of Alabama who in the 1960s became the face of Jim Crow’s defenders in the American South.

“Fifty years ago, George Wallace stood in the schoolhouse door and said that African-Americans couldn’t come in,” Reed told the conservative crowd. “Today, the Obama administration stands in that same door and says those children can’t leave. It was wrong then, and it was wrong now,” Reed said, “and we say to President Obama, ‘Let those children go!’”

Reed’s comparison echoed one put forward a day earlier by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. In both instances, the attack stemmed from the Obama administration’s resistance to Jindal’s charter-school policy, which is considered by its critics, including Louisiana’s Supreme Court, to divert public money to private and parochial schools in an unconstitutional manner.

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http://www.salon.com/2014/03/07/religious_right_leader_ralph_reed_compares_obama_and_holder_to_jim_crow_segregationists/

[cbayer]

1. Glad to see that Salon is covering this event.

It's always entertaining, that's for shore.

[longship]

2. CPAC: So much projection, so little time. nt

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Why are conservatives so in love with fraudsters like Reed?

Reed was named in the scandal arising from lobbying work performed by Jack Abramoff on behalf of Indian gambling tribes. E-mails released by federal investigators in June 2005 revealed that Reed secretly accepted payments from Abramoff to lobby against Indian casino gambling and oppose an Alabama education lottery.[16] Additional e-mails released in November 2005 show that Reed also worked for another Abramoff client seeking to block a congressional ban on Internet gambling. These cases are being investigated by multiple federal and state grand juries and by the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. Abramoff pleaded guilty to three felony counts in federal court, raising the prospects of Abramoff testifying against others.

Those e-mails and other evidence revealed the participation of the Christian Coalition in the alleged fraud, particularly the Alabama chapter of the Christian Coalition, which received large amounts of donations from the casino money. It is alleged that Abramoff engaged Reed to set up an anti-gambling campaign to include the U.S. Family Network, the Christian Coalition, and Focus on the Family in order to frighten the tribes into spending as much as $82 million for Abramoff to lobby on their behalf. To represent him in connection with the scandal, Reed retained defense attorney W. Neil Eggleston of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP. Eggleston served as White House associate counsel during the administration of President Bill Clinton.

In December 2005, three Texas public interest groups filed a complaint with Travis County Attorney David Escamilla on December 1, 2005, alleging that Reed failed to register as a lobbyist in 2001 or 2002 when he was working for Abramoff.[22] Escamilla said on March 27, 2006 "his office had concluded its investigation -- but that a two-year statute of limitations on misdemeanors from 2001 and 2002 had expired."[23]

On June 22, 2006 the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs released its final report [24] on the scandal.

The report states that under the guidance of the Mississippi Choctaw tribe's planner, Nell Rogers, the tribe agreed to launder money because "Ralph Reed did not want to be paid directly by a tribe with gaming interests." It also states that Reed used non-profits, like Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform, as pass-throughs to disguise the origin of the funds, and that "the structure was recommended by Jack Abramoff to accommodate Mr. Reed’s political concerns."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_E._Reed,_Jr.#Indian_gambling_scandals

Half the people appearing at CPAC have been involved in criminal activity - D’Souza, Kerik, Reed, North, Libby, and probably many more. It's an amazing example of cognitive dissonance that these people are frequently thought of by conservatives as 'religious leaders'. They have the morals of sewer rats.