When there is a buck to be made, all the high-minded moralizing of Christian Nationalist leaders like Ralph Reed flies out the window:
A bipartisan Senate report released on Thursday documented more than $5.3 million in payments to Ralph Reed, the former director of the Christian Coalition and a leading Republican Party strategist, from an influence-peddling operation run by the corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff on behalf of Indian tribe casinos.
By calling it a “bipartisan Senate report,” the Times infers that the Republicans who control the Senate determined that there was no way to cover up Reed’s malfeasance and so decided to throw him to the wolves.
Reed’s college pal Grover Norquist, who operates an anti-government nonprofit group called Americans for Tax Reform (where “reform” means to de-fund the government so that anarchy arises), and who is a close ally of White House political boss Karl Rove, was all too willing to help his Christianist buddy launder the money:
Moving money from a casino-operating Indian tribe to Ralph Reed, the Christian Coalition founder and professed gambling opponent, was a problem. Lobbyist [Jack] Abramoff turned to his longtime friend Norquist, apparently to provide a buffer for Reed.
The result, according to evidence gathered by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, was that Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform became a conduit for more than a million dollars from the Mississippi Choctaw to Reed’s operation, while Norquist, a close White House ally, took a cut.
When you hate the government, as these guys do, you entitle yourself to ignore the rules the government sets forth. See how that works?
- Topic: News & Comment
- Topics: Conservative Values
Don’t forget that Bill Gates also paid off this sleazy influence-peddler for access to Bush.
Ralph Reed has been collecting from many more sources than Jack Abramoff and his tribal suckers.
No, please, don’t send me to prison, where I will get buggered mercilessly by large, well-hung Negro men. I beg you!!
On second thought…..
Was any expecting the religious right to be above corruption? Let’s get real. They broke through the separation of church and state and they just got started!
Sorry, Sandy, but “The REAL Four Horseman of the Apocalypse”, Pat Roberson, Pat Buchanan, J. Falwell and “King” Dodson, were scalping their “tax exempt” status while Baby Face Reed was still in grade school!
Since Baby Bush and gang stole the white house and as “they” are HIS SPIRIT LEADERS, the next move to giving “them” the keys to the US Treasury was the quickest way possible to BUY THE RED NECK VOTE AND WITH TAXPAYER MONEY AT THAT!
(Enter the “Faith Based Initiative!)
Now that should be enough to get a lot of folks into jail, but ain’t nun of ‘em GONE YET, and I doubt if any ever will….Welcome to BUSH WORLD!