Virginian Pilot:Ralph Reed's questionable coalition

[PhilipShore]

Virginian Pilot
Ralph Reed's questionable coalition
News / Special Report
February 12, 2006

http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=99450&ran=189579&tref=po

ATLANTA — For once, Ralph Reed’s timing is off.

As Reed crisscrosses Georgia campaigning for lieutenant governor, from the piney mountains to the moss-draped coast to the bustling streets of Atlanta, he keeps hearing the same refrain:

What about Jack Abramoff?

When 350 evangelical Christians gathered last month in a big Baptist church in the rolling wooded hills of an Atlanta suburb for the Christian Coalition of Georgia’s Families and Freedom Kickoff, this was the moderator’s first question in a forum featuring Reed and his Republican primary opponent...

[varkam]

1. Reed is such a sh*tbag.

Him getting into politics en force is about the last thing this country needs.

[The Backlash Cometh]

13. Yeah, but those Christians fell for his boyish looks.

They love that Opie Mayberry look.

[Erika]

2. Evangelicals do believe in right and wrong

They won't vote for wrong, if it's known.

[Bozita]

3. The article links to this -- wow!

[Wilms]

4. That is impressive.

Time to tell the story.

[calimary]

15. Now, THAT. IS. COOL! Bulleted numbers, photos, and some air in and

around the layout. Makes it VERY easy on the eyes, easy to follow, nicely written, really helps people connect the dots. Takes you gently by the hand and leads you through the steps. VERY well done. I'm glad it's linked to the story. REALLY good. I hope others look at it, too.

ralph reed is one of the serpents in the garden. He's a vicious viper disguised as a pretty little kiddie jump-rope. You pick it up and you're dead meat.

[SquireJons]

5. Reed is the worst kind of hypocrite

He has no conscience nor principles. I went to ODU in Norfolk during the 80's and had a front row seat to the Christian Coalitions rise and fall. A couple of things about him and the organization come to mind. First, Pat Robertson formed the Christian Coalition in response to two personal failures. The previous year, he had lost badly in his attempt to gain the nomination for republican presidential candidate. That was a big lose of face in the macho right wing world. Also at that time, Robertson was found to have paid a large amount of money to a secretary at his 'university' to keep her quiet about a sexual affair that he had with her. So Robertson was reeling and needed a new organization to use for his attempted rise in power and influence. But he couldn't lead it himself because he had so much negative baggage. Enter Ralph Reed.

The second thing that comes to mind is an interview that Reed gave several film crews during the 1996 presidential campaign. In an attempt to display his and the Christian Coalition's clout, he gave friendly media a tour of the Coalitions headquarters in Va Beach. He was making claims that he represented 'tens of millions' of Americans and set himself as the leader of a powerful grass roots political organization. The media crews went from room to room throughout the headquarters and were treated to a frenzy of activity everywhere they went. All went as planned for the event and the Christian Coalition got lots of free publicity and a seat at the table of power. Unfortunately for Reed, it was later revealed that the Christian Coalition headquarters walk through was mostly a sham. Like Russia under Catherine the Great, the Christian Coalition had hired actors to pretend to be busy talking to members and receiving hundreds of donations at their phone banks. None of it was real. It was these revelation's that first got the Coalition in hot water with the electoral commission and paved the way for Reed's exit and the ultimate downfall of the Christian Coalition.

Quite frankly I am amazed that Reed is still on his feet (rather than on his stomach in a prison cell). My guess is that either powerful republicans owe him big time or he has (or had) a firm grip on the short hairs of these same pug fat cats. Otherwise, it doesn't make sense that he has survived multiple scandals and failures. Perhaps he has pushed his luck a little too far this time, but only time will tell. Southern rural conservative christians are nothing in not stubborn and willfully ignorant.

[cosmicdot]

18. Enron 'created fake trading room', too

wonder who learned it from whom?

all part of the culture of corruption (and, corporate culture's 'values', too)

creating the perception and/or illusion of 'numbers' ... it can be done fixing/padding/Diebolding the vote number, too, i.e., Bu$h's fake 'capital' to spend; perception of what voting group influenced 'the outcome'; that the GOP actually 'won' the Senate ... Bu$h is a walking media creation ... it's far too easy with a controlled corporate media propaganda machine ...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

Enron created a fake trading room in order to impress Wall Street analysts, a former top executive at the firm has admitted.

Four years ago, the company built a command centre for its Enron Energy Services (EES) power supply arm, and ordered staff to pretend they were doing deals as analysts gathered in Houston for their annual meeting with the firm.

EES later went on to be an active part of the business, but former chairman Kenneth Lay and ex-president Jeffrey Skilling rehearsed staff in looking busy, in the hope of convincing investors that it was already a going concern in 1998.

~snip~

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1833221.stm

[Tanuki]

20. The Enron-Ralph Reed Connection

http://home.earthlink.net/~mjohnsen/Post_911/Ralph_Reed_and_Enron.html

WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 - Karl Rove, President Bush's top political adviser, recommended the Republican strategist Ralph Reed to the EnronCorporation (news/quote) for a lucrative consulting contract as Mr. Bush was weighing whether to run for president, close associates of Mr. Rove say.

<snip>

Enron paid Mr. Reed $10,000 to $20,000 a month, the amount varying by year and the particular work,
people familiar with the arrangement say. He was hired in September 1997 and
worked intermittently for Enron until the company collapsed.

<snip>
Mr. Rove's involvement in Mr. Reed's hiring underscores the close association between Enron and the Bush inner circle.

(more at link)

[autorank]

6. GA: Ralph Reeds Questionable Coalition (VA paper takes him down!)

GA: Ralph Reed – a Fraud Running for Election in Georgia (Remember GA 2002!)
What a pity. Ralph was Mr. Values (like Bennett) and holier than thou for years. Now it turns out that he’s been into the pockets of gambling interests and associated with you-know-who, Abramoff. REMEMEMBER GA 2002 – Cleland and Barnes had net shifts of 10% and 16% respectively from polls just a day or two before the election. Coincidentally, a Diebold service tech put a patch on all the voting machines just before the election. We never found out what the patch was. Maybe it was the “Screw the Democrats Patch.” Reed is a bumb period.

This article from the Virginia Pilot takes Reed apart as only the guy’s hometown paper could (he’s from Portsmouth).

Ralph Reed's questionable coalition

By BILL SIZEMORE, The Virginian-Pilot
© February 12, 2006

Ralph meet Jack; Jack, Ralph.
You guys were made for each other.

“I thought I might get that question,” Reed began with a smile. He then launched into the same response he has been giving, nearly word for word, to audiences all over the state for the past two months.

“Seven years ago I was approached by a longtime friend … who asked me if I’d be willing to work on campaigns to stop the expansion of casinos with the understanding that I would not be paid with any revenues that derived from gambling. I relied on those assurances.

“If I knew then what I know now, I obviously wouldn’t have done that work. On reflection, I should have turned it down. And to the extent that it caused me difficulty with the pro-family movement, I’ve stated that I regret that and I’ve accepted total responsibility for it.

“But let me tell you what I don’t appreciate and what I think the voters of Georgia are going to reject, and that is the unfair attempt by the liberal media and others to engage in guilt by association and to associate me with the misdeeds of others. It’s wrong.”

[radfringe]

7. link?

[Peter Frank]

9. Some things are common Knowledge in LBN...

I've posted countless links showing Ralph & Jack as cronies.

Here's a link (and you're right for asking):

<snip>Among those who boarded the plane were: Abramoff, House Administration Committee Chairman Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed who’d helped Abramoff subversively lobby against competing casinos in the South, and Safavian.<snip>

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Beyond_Abramoff_Gambling_lobbyist_joined_forces_with_antigambling_congressman_derailed_gambling_0901.html]

[ClintonTyree]

8. Ahhhhh, the old "Liberal Media" ploy.........

that dog ain't 'gonna hunt, Ralph. His own people want him the hell out of the race. That he doesn't have the integrity to withdraw speaks volumes about his supposed squeaky clean persona. This must be another "test" from god, god does that a lot to his followers to make sure they're truly devout. It seems odd though, if Ralph has been SUCH a god fearing man and a servant of the lord, why is he facing these trials? It couldn't be because Ralph is a flaming hypocrite? Nah..... ;)

[Peter Frank]

10. How quickly the "morally superior" fall when it's discovered...

...that they're immoral.

[bleedingheart]

11. I remember someone debunking the magnitude of the christian coaltion

years ago....that or the moral majority...but who ever it was stated that when you dug into the records the actual number of members of these organizations was small...so small in fact that the number of Roman Catholic parishoers in just the Chicago area parishes was ten times greater....the fellow who brought this up was trying to point out how small a group this really is...

[goforit]

16. Sucha love fest Ambramhoff has created!!!

Adios Senior Reed!!!!

[momster]

17. Venal or Stupid?

Take your pick. Either R.R. is an idiot who will trust any 'friend' without bothering to verify what's going on or he knew perfectly well what he was getting into and is now trying to lie his way out. Either way, is this somebody who should be a Lt. Gov. or aspire to any other elected office? He's going to have to stop practicing his presidential smirk in the mirror and saying 'some day, my boy,' and start writing his memoirs a la James Frey.

[AndyTiedye]

19. The Only Votes Ralph Reed Will Be From…

…
Republican Electing Machines

Unfortunately, that is all he needs to "win"

[peacebird]

12. this is printed in the Virginia Pilot?!?

Guess Pat Robertson is peeved with Ralphie.....

[seafan]

14. What an article! Read all of it!

A couple of quotes from it:

At last month’s Christian Coalition forum, the Abramoff connection haunted Reed like a ghost.

It should have been friendly territory for the man who put the coalition on the political map. But the sympathies of the cheering, foot-stomping, sign-waving crowd appeared evenly divided between Reed and Cagle.

Some, such as Lettie Nixon of Marietta, were unswerving in their loyalty to Reed: “We’ve been watching him since his Christian Coalition days. He’s a good person, a family man. And as the family goes, so goes the nation.”

Her husband, Frank, ascribed the negative news about Reed to “a bunch of lying liberals.”

snip

There have been defections, however. Last month, nine members of Reed’s 600-member statewide steering committee switched their allegiance to Cagle.

One of them is Bruce Garraway, a city councilman in Snellville who teaches in a Christian high school.

“I hung on to Ralph for a while,” Garraway said, “but it just seemed like every day more was coming out, more was coming out, more was coming out. It was like, when is this ever going to end?”

Some Republicans are warning that if Reed is nominated, he could bring down the whole GOP ticket this fall, undoing the gains he has helped the party achieve.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published an open letter to Reed last year from Bob Irvin, a former Republican leader in the Georgia House, that began: “Please withdraw your candidacy for Georgia lieutenant governor, in order to avoid a grievous, majority-wrecking split in the Republican Party.”

As an evangelical Christian himself, he finds Reed’s activities offensive, Irvin said in an interview: “Ralph is someone who uses Christians for his own purposes.”