TIME's 1995 "right hand of God" is going to make the GOP more "hip". Ralph Reed

[madfloridian]

In 1995 TIME Magazine put a picture of Ralph Reed on their cover with the words "The right hand of God"



The article was called The Gospel According to Ralph

On Sunday, Ralph Reed rests -- at least he tries to. But on the night of April 30, his two-year-old, Christopher, lay awake for hours, badly sunburned from a picnic, leaving Reed little time for sleep in the modern, red brick house in Chesapeake, Virginia, that he and his wife Jo Anne recently purchased. Reed struggles for time with his family. "I get home as often as I can, even if it's only for a day," says the 33-year-old father of three. Still, the executive director of the formidable Christian Coalition has another mission, and at dawn on Monday he was up and off to catch a 7 o'clock flight to Washington, the beginning of a hectic but typical week of lobbying, socializing and expanding his movement.

..."Even as he courts centrist voters, however, Reed has been determinedly pressing Republican politicians to move toward the Coalition's right-wing policies. Last week the Coalition lobbied hard against the nomination of Dr. Henry Foster as Surgeon General. Next week the Christian Coalition and many of its Republican allies will unveil their sequel to the Contract with America: the Contract with the American Family. Meanwhile, presidential candidates are dropping in on Reed for counsel. Bob Dole's attack on the morals of Hollywood was the result of consultations with Reed. Lamar Alexander, who last summer held that Washington should neither subsidize nor prohibit abortion, began shifting his view to the right after calling on Reed, who then rewarded the candidate by describing him as "pro-life." Says William Lacy, chief strategist for Dole's presidential bid: "Without having significant support of the Christian right a Republican cannot win the nomination or the general election." Reed is so hot a commodity that the presidential campaign of Senator Phil Gramm of Texas offered to hire him as its political director, the No. 2 staff job. Reed declined. It would have been a demotion.

As executive director of the Christian Coalition, Reed is master of a much more powerful and effective machine than is almost any presidential candidate. By mobilizing eager volunteers down to the precinct (and local church) level and handing out 33 million voter guides -- often in church pews -- prior to last November's election, the Coalition is credited with providing the winning margin for perhaps half the Republicans' 52-seat gain in the House of Representatives and a sizable portion of their nine-seat pickup in the Senate. As a result, Ralph Reed is the man to see among Republican lawmakers and candidates for President. He stands astride the most potent faction in the ascendant Republican Party. And with that power comes scrutiny and criticism-from both the left and the right.

Perhaps his agenda sounds familiar...it has made great inroads into our culture and into our own party.

Despite its increasing sophistication and secularization, the movement remains insular, distrustful and eager to impose what it sees as a Bible-backed morality on the American public at large. Reed was brought up short by his own people when he agreed not to press for a school-prayer amendment earlier this year in the House and instead backed the Contract with such fervor. To keep peace, he gave what is now called his "litmus-test" speech, in which he warned that a presidential candidate who did not oppose abortions would not be acceptable to conservative Christians. Meanwhile, a fund-raising letter in March stated in unusually harsh terms that the Coalition was committed to saying "NO to condom distribution in the schools, NO to taxpayer funding of abortion, NO to sex-education classes in the public schools that promote promiscuity NO to homosexual adoptions and government-sanctioned gay marriages." Some of its officials insist that solely the Coalition knows the way, the truth and the right. During a training session in Oklahoma City this spring, Fred Sellers, the state chairman, said, "Only we can restore this nation. Only the people here today, and people like us, can turn this around ... only Christian believers doing the work ... in the thick of battle."

Things got in the way of Ralph Reed's progress, one of them a guy named Abramoff. But he only got a little bit sidetracked. He's baaaccck....to make the party more "hip."

From Progressive Puppy blog a good summary of his new goals


Picture courtesy of Progressive Puppy blog

Ralph Reed departed from the Christian Coalition in 1997 while the Federal Election Commission was investigating it for breaching campaign finance regulations. (The FEC eventually concluded that violations did occur, and the IRS revoked the Coalition’s tax-exempt status.) Reed devoted himself to working on George W. Bush’s presidential campaign, then he served as chairman of the Georgia GOP. In 2007, his bid for lieutenant governor was stymied when longtime pal Jack Abramoff was convicted in a massive lobbying scandal. (Reed avoided jail time, but was linked to the lobbyist's illegal activities.) In the ensuing years, the Christian zealot has been nurturing a "low-profile comeback" leading to his recent re-entry onto the national stage...

More on Reed from that blog.

I really want to see this group of "younger, hipper, less strident" evangelicals Ralph Reed hopes to attract. (On second thought, I really don't.) And, ahem, "more inclusive?" Maybe Reed means that fundies who openly malign gays will now allow into the fold those who merely vote against LGBT rights. That sort of inclusion.

I wonder if we're witnessing a repeat of evangelicals' earlier "outreach" scheme. Rob Boston on Americans United: I was at the National Press Club in Washington on Jan. 30, 1997, when Reed announced the "Samaritan Project," an effort by the Christian Coalition to reach out to blacks, Hispanics and even Democrats to combat poverty through "faith-based" efforts. I was more than a little cynical, knowing that the Coalition had no track record on helping the poor. (Unless by 'poor' they meant CC founder Pat Robertson whose estimated net worth is $1 billion. He was undoubtedly helped by all those contributions.) In fact, opposing legal abortion, bashing gays and beating on public schools constituted the bulk of the group’s work. Despite all of the hype, the Samaritan Project turned out to be nothing more than an effort to recruit minorities into the Republican Party. It made no progress on this front and was quickly abandoned, and Reed left the Coalition to start a political consulting firm nine months later. So much for helping the poor.

Here is a link to Reed's Faith and Freedom Coalition.

I notice one of their goals is "Protest bigotry and discrimination against people of faith."

Perhaps they could look at their own policies of bigotry and discrimination first.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

1. I can't imagine anything LESS hip than Ralph Reed, the Christian Coalition, and the GOP.

[madfloridian]

2. Wasn't it the Michael Steele who is going to make them hip and hipper as well?

It is so artificial. They have nothing, and they don't know which way to turn. All they have is bigotry and divisive tactics.

[Gabi Hayes]

6. Imagine this:

you haven't lived till you've experienced these gems....

You've Got Another Thing Coming - Judas Priest (314 kB AU file available at Hip-O Records site)

Smoke On the Water - Deep Purple (385 kB AU file available at Hip-O Records site)

It's A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock And Roll) - AC/DC

Panama - Van Halen (93 kB RA file)

No More Mr. Nice Guy - Alice Cooper

Love Hurts - Nazareth (originally Roy Orbison)

Enter Sandman - Metallica

Holy Diver - DIO (53 kB RA file)

Paradise City - Guns 'n' Roses (75 kB RA file)

The Wind Cries Mary - Jimi Hendrix

Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne (87 kB RA file)

Stairway To Heaven - Led Zeppelin

[ControlledDemolition]

13. I believe you're the 'Devil's Child' young lady! n/t

[madfloridian]

19. That picture hurts my eyes.

Pat Boone's freaky stage.

[roguevalley]

26. someone wrote about them, that the moral majority was a small

media savvy sham. When people would come to visit them they would bring people in and make it look like they had huge activity and membership. they lie. a sin I am told.

[Kalyke]

42. Nothing wrong with being a real Christian, though.

What makes Reed so unhip is his hypocrisy.

[Initech]

52. Like Demitri Martin said -

"It's easier to take something cool and make it lame than it is to take something lame and make it cool."

Or like David Cross said - "Because of this bullshit, we cant buy beer after 10:00 on Sunday nights."

[Ilsa]

3. The business of doing good...???

Despite all of the hype, the Samaritan Project turned out to be nothing more than an effort to recruit minorities into the Republican Party. It made no progress on this front and was quickly abandoned, and Reed left the Coalition to start a political consulting firm nine months later.

Compare Ralph to Jimmy Carter, an humble man who has brought success to his charitable venture, Habitat for Humanity, which has brought immense peace ad security to thousands of others. Carter stuck with what he knew would really help people. RR just wanted to further his career.

[graywarrior]

4. Abe Vigoda is hipper than Ralph Reed.

[madfloridian]

16. Heh heh, agree on that.

[lob1]

5. The unhip can't make the unhip hip. Even with hip-hop.

[timtom]

38. I believe the GOP

is ready for a hip replacement!

[timtom]

39. I believe the GOP

is ready for a hip replacement!

[iris27]

7. Boy, between 47-yo Ralph Reed, and that 38-yo newly elected head of the Young

Republicans, the GOP is certainly the party of the hip and fresh!


If they want a younger image, they need to be putting Meghan McCain front and center as much as possible. But wait, that might mean they'd actually have to take a few steps to the left...never mind!

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

8. about as hip as a leisure suit at a polka convention

about as hip as the Sears catalog ... about as hip as a pastel yellow cardigan

[Mind_your_head]

9. I don't know how to react......should I unrecommend Time Mag's premise

or should I recommend that Ralph Reed and THEIR "Coalition of God" are HUCKSTERS, SNAKE-OIL SALESMEN, as P.T. Barnum said, "there's a sucker born every minute"

and that premise is obviously FALSE.

So should I recommend or unrecommend?

[madfloridian]

10. Good question.

[madfloridian]

11. Interesting comment...about who Reed says controls things....

"The future of America is not shaped by who sits in the Oval Office but by who sits in the principal's office," Reed told a group of activists in New Hampshire last week. If the Coalition grows large enough, he advised, "then everyone running for President will be pro-family; they'll have to come to us." And so they have. The latest closed-door meeting of Coalition state directors held in Washington in January drew both Dole and Gramm. Furthermore, Coalition lobbyists sat among the select group of outsiders who met regularly in House Speaker Newt Gingrich's suite to coordinate the campaign to pass the Contract with America."

Yes, they did go to them on women's rights issues...unfortunately.

[ControlledDemolition]

14. Wow! This is the reason for their efforts against public, non-secular, education! Frightening. n/t

[Adsos Letter]

12. "hip"...Hopelessly Impacted Pinheads?

[ControlledDemolition]

15. The rise of the 'Christian Taliban'? n/t

[Vickers]

17. "his two-year-old, Christopher, lay awake for hours, badly sunburned"

Way to go, dad.

[Frank Cannon]

41. It's those born-again family values

In the book of Leviticus, it says that sunscreen is an abomination before the Lord. Got to teach these kids early.

[mitchum]

18. Ralph...a zany bowtie is not hip

Ya need to try harder

[moggie]

37. Trying hard is unhip

If you have to try, you're not hip.

[BrklynLiberal]

20. Is that callled "Drinking your own Koolaid?"

[starroute]

21. There is *so* much dirt on Reed if he really tries to make a comeback

Reed wasn't just "linked to" Abramoff's illegal activities -- he was in the thick of them, at least when Abramoff wasn't making fun of him behind his back. Most notoriously, he was taking money from Abramoff's Indian casino pals in order to work up an anti-gambling crusade with the Alabama Christian Coalition to shut out potential rival casinos.

Reed was also in tight with Karl Rove right after he left the Christian Coalition in 1997. As I recall, Rove was tossing business to Reed's consulting firm -- like the Microsoft account -- so that he could use Reed's services without actually having him on the George W. Bush payroll.

I think there was also some funny business connected with the 2002 Georgia elections -- whatever it was that stymied Reed's own political ambitions -- but I'd have to dig into my files to get the details right.

This stuff has kind of faded off the radar because Reed's been laying low. But you can bet that the second he pokes his ugly head above the horizon, it will all come pouring out again.

[madfloridian]

27. But the dirt just seems to have rolled off their backs...

I mean look at corrupt Karl Rove. He is all over the media. He is seen in forums with high level Democrats.

I agree it should be hard for Reed to make a comeback....actually it should be impossible.

[defendandprotect]

57. What I was remembering that stymied Reed's political ambitions was a homosexual affair. . .

As I recall it -- and it must have been in a magazine because I remember the pics --

he had a firm that did fund-raising and a very cute male co-executive working closely

with him. Has to be some info on the internet about that??

PLUS, as I recall it, the company's funds weren't all accounted for . . .

skimming? And I believe the business had to be closed down right afterwards?

Reed has always looked like a cross dresser to me --- and I think the marriage took

place during his claimed "having been saved from homosexuality" period???

[Mrs. Overall]

22. Only insofar as "hip" is a component of "ass".

[PBS Poll-435]

23. Why isn't he in fucking prison?

He should be sharing a cell with Abramoff.

[malaise]

24. No other question is relevant n/t

[Initech]

55. They could have a whole wing in Supermax dedicated to Bush-admin criminals.

It'd be like visiting a white-collar criminal museum.

[Blue For You]

25. The excrement from all this was the Bush/Cheney administration.

That's the best Reed and his Christian cronies could pull out of their collective asses.

[madfloridian]

28. TIME 2006: The Rise and Fall of Ralph Reed

The Rise and Fall of Ralph Reed

In considering the collapse of Ralph Reed's political dreams, it's tempting to conjure up biblical parables about Jesus instructing his followers in humility by suggesting they go "sit in the lowest place"--or of pride going before a fall. Reed was the preternaturally boyish spear carrier for the religious right, the brash Evangelical who transformed the Christian Coalition into a populist power center, then helped usher Republicans into control of Congress and George W. Bush into the presidency. The next step was launching his own political career in his native Georgia: Reed would be elected Lieutenant Governor this November, then Governor four years hence. After that, his friends said, the White House would be within reach. The young man who at 33 graced TIME's cover in 1995 as "The Right Hand of God" might appear there again, perhaps a decade from now, taking the oath of office on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.

..."Instead, there was Reed, just 45 but with crow's-feet carved gently into his temples, offering a meager group of supporters a curt concession speech in a hotel ballroom in Buckhead last week. He had lost the primary to a little-known state senator named Casey Cagle in a 12-point landslide, Reed's once invincible lead in the polls and fund raising eroded by a year of steady revelations about his ties to the convicted former G.O.P. superlobbyist Jack Abramoff. In the political vernacular that Reed loves to employ, he was waxed.

I'm proud of the campaign we ran," Reed, weary but ever positive, told TIME. "I'm glad we did it." He didn't want to talk about why he lost, but those who know him say he blames the media--particularly the Atlanta Journal-Constitution--for their extensive coverage of his business ties to Abramoff, his friend from their days running the College Republicans in the early 1980s. For a high-profile religious conservative like Reed, the stories of being paid millions by one Indian tribe to run a religious-based antigambling campaign to prevent another tribe from opening a rival casino made him look like something worse than a criminal--a hypocrite. He had once called gambling a "cancer" on the body politic. And the e-mails to Abramoff didn't help, especially those that seemed to suggest that the man who had deplored in print Washington's system of "honest graft" was eager to be part of it. "I need to start humping in corporate accounts!" he wrote Abramoff a few days after the 1998 election.

Great article.

[ellie]

29. Why do all repukes

look like the spawn of satan?

[H2O Man]

30. Okay.

I'm sure that you think of Ralph as "hip," in the same way I do.

It seems likely that he will be joining with people like Glen Beck (very "hip," too) and supporting that hipster from Alaska.

[madfloridian]

32. Reed, Beck, Palin....samples of the new GOP

[H2O Man]

43. I think they will

fracture the republican party in 2012.

[KamaAina]

31. Protest bigotry and discrimination against people of faith. Uh-huh.

I can just see Ralph Reed crusading (literally) against rising anti-Semitism, and especially the anti-Muslim sentiment that has pervaded much of American society since Nineleveninelevenineleven. Oh, yes, indeed.

[scarface2004]

33. pasty white old southern crackers ain t too hip!!

except haley barbour...he s the epitomy of kool!

[shadowknows69]

34. Damien Thorn anyone?

[DFW]

35. Poor irrelevant Ralph--if he's God's right hand, then God must be left-handed. n/t

[peekaloo]

44. I was thinking more of Gawd being right handed and what he uses

that hand to do and how that so aptly describes Ralph Reed .

[Solly Mack]

36. The little fucker

[tanyev]

40. Baby Face Reed is back for another crime spree.

[peekaloo]

45. explains why most of 'em need hip replacement surgery.

[bulloney]

46. Notice that with all of those conservative "Christians," it comes down to money and power.

If it's choosing between the actual teachings of Christ, or acquiring money and/or power, they go with the latter every time.

These idiots couldn't tell you what Christ really stood for if you ask them. If they could, they wouldn't be living the lives they've led.

Hypocrites!

[Wapsie B]

48. They somehow forget the time where Jesus went medieval in the temple

with the money changers. Idolaters all of them.

[Torn_Scorned_Ignored]

50. good point

[saltpoint]

47. I sensed that Reed ran up against his own significant limitations after

he tried to engineer the defeat of the late Julia Carson (D-IN) by running the show for her Republican opponent.

Julia Carson prevailed.

Reed's own political career hit a major roadblock in Georgia as well.

My guess is that beneath the choir boy veneer Ralph Reed is an overt psychotic. I'm not sure how you make authoritarianism 'hip,' but Reed is welcome to try.

[onehandle]

49. It worked briefly. Just long enough to destroy America.

I Pray that Europe can take us over before China does.

That's my prayer.

[madfloridian]

51. The 2004 election was an example of their success.

We knew another Bush term would be disastrous, and it was.

[Torn_Scorned_Ignored]

53. Memo from FFCoalition

A Memo From Ralph Reed
Sotomayor Hearings Give Republicans Opportunities Against Red And Purple State Democrats
As the Sotomayor hearings wind down Republicans have an opportunity to parlay her controversial positions, statements and writings into running successfully against red and purple state Democrats. Republicans have done an excellent job of raising several key issues that resonate with the American people, so much so that any red or purple state Democrat contemplating a vote for her should be very nervous. If you're Sen. Blanche Lambert Lincoln in Arkansas, Michael Bennet in Colorado, Byron Dorgan in North Dakota, and even Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania -- among others -- a vote for Sotomayor is a vote for:

Someone who has repeatedly and consistently declined to affirm the 2nd Amendment's inclusion of a basic constitutional right to self-defense. The NRA's opposition to Sotomayor's confirmation has potentially epochal consequences for Democrats in 2010 and 2012.
Someone who has embraced racial preferences and set-asides.
Someone who has placed foreign law on the same level as the U.S Constition in matters of jurisprudence.
Someone who has advocated taxpayer funding of abortion.
Someone who embraces judicial activism and rejects judicial restraint.
Sotomayor's attempts to walk back controversial positions she has repeatedly taken have fallen flat, giving Republicans every reason to cast votes against her and make a vote for her an issue in the next election. The American people have repeatedly told pollsters they prefer judges who abide by a philosophy of judicial restraint, they want judges who will fairly apply the law and not make it up from the bench or impose an agenda from the bench. Sotomayor's repeated flip-flops during her hearings betray the nervousness among Democratic Senators (and her White House handlers) that her record as an activist is clear.

Law professor Jonathan Adler, writing in the Washington Post, notes that conservatives and Republicans may lose the confirmation battle but may yet win the war: "It seems conservatives are winning the larger war over the judiciary, even if losing the battle over this nomination. President Obama's nominee will be confirmed, but not because she embraced his philosophy of judging. Indeed, it seems she will be confirmed, in part, because she rejected it."

Republicans can reap significant political benefits by voting against her confirmation and making her an issue in key races next year. Any Democratic Senator facing the accountability of voters in 2010 and 2012 will be giving their imprimatur for these issues if they vote to confirm Judge Sotomayor.




Ralph Reed additionally claims "they" will enact Legislation.

[Initech]

54. I cant imagine wanting to see a "hip" christian conservative.

The mere concept makes me want to .

[onager]

56. Doucheassbaghole!

That is all.

Fundamentalist Atheist.

[XanaDUer]

58. Jeez, he looks old in the 2nd pic

HE must have been baking in the sun too long.