Ralph Reed's Gambling Problem!

[reprehensor]

(Previously linked in LBN, this is for posterity... -r.)

Ralph Reed's Gamble

snip

Two casino industry lobbyists--Philip Thompson and Bill Grimes--say they were in a meeting in Baton Rouge early in 2002 and heard William Worfel, vice chair of the Coushatta tribe, say he was hiring Reed to lobby for the tribe with the BIA to neutralize the influence Barbour had with the Bush Administration. According to Thompson, Worfel, who also did not return phone calls, "said he was putting Reed on his payroll. He said, 'If they have Barbour, we need Reed.'" A third casino lobbyist at the meeting, who requested anonymity, says Reed helped "mobilize Christian radio and ministers against the casino." But, he says, "He wanted to be able to deny it. Or if it came out, he wanted to be able to claim he was against the Jena casino, without anybody knowing he was getting paid by a bigger tribe with a bigger gambling operation."

The documents obtained by The Nation show that Reed sent bills to Abramoff and Scanlon and that one of his consulting companies, Century Strategies of Duluth, Georgia, received $250,000 from one of Scanlon's companies, Capitol Campaign Strategies. An invoice to Abramoff from another Reed company, Capitol Media, for $100,000, states only that the payment is for "Louisiana Project Mgmt. Fee." (The main thrust of the Justice Department investigation involves money laundering among Scanlon, Abramoff and Republican campaigns. Abramoff was fired by his firm for not disclosing $10 million in payments from Scanlon.)

Reed's involvement with the casino effort followed his departure from the Christian Coalition in 1997 and his reinvention of himself as a corporate lobbyist and campaign hatchet man. One of his first clients was the Enron Corporation--a deal arranged by Karl Rove when George W. Bush was starting to think about running for President in 2000. Rove wasn't ready to put Reed directly on a campaign payroll but presumably wanted to cultivate good will from Reed toward the coming Bush candidacy. Enron paid Reed's Century Strategies more than $300,000 to generate support for energy deregulation. In the 2000 GOP presidential primary, Reed justified his big Enron fee by helping to smear John McCain during the South Carolina primary. Now McCain's Indian Affairs subcommittee is investigating Indian gambling in the context of lobbying abuses, kickbacks and money laundering, with public hearings scheduled for early September.

Reed is in charge of Bush's 2004 election campaign in the Southeast, including Florida. In 2000, he was paid almost $3.7 million for helping Bush. In 1995, when he was still exploiting intolerance and fear, Time did a story on him that included the cover line "The right hand of God." Today God's right hand seems to be holding dice and a bloody political hatchet.

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[Crachet2004]

1. I heard him defending beating his kids on television, several years back.

He said they were afraid of the dark, and would'nt stay in bed, so he beat them a half a dozen or so times a night. Some of them were two or three or four years old.

What a guy!

[Cronus Protagonist]

4. Are you sure they're his kids?

Perhaps they're really the spawn of Satan.

Wait! If they are his kids, they are the spawn of Satan!

Drop Bush Not Bombs - Fuck Bush - Who Would Jesus Bomb?
http://brainbuttons.com/home.asp?stashid=13

[Lefty48197]

2. It's sickening. Reed will take any money from anybody for any reason

He's just a pimp for his who'/sheep followers.

[BootinUp]

3. He is scum embodied n/t

[Old and In the Way]

5. The essence of Republican values, as practiced by Mr. Reed.

Hypocrisy and $ always trump their rhetoric.