GOP operative Ralph Reed, the former executive director of the Christian Coalition, a Clinton-era political group that lost its tax-exempt status for publishing Republican-only voter guides for distribution in churches, is staging a comeback. He has launched a new group he is calling the Faith and Freedom Coalition:

“This is not going to be your daddy’s Christian Coalition,” Reed said… “It has to be younger, hipper, less strident, more inclusive and it has to harness the 21st century that will enable us to win in the future.”

And: “Even though I’ve been doing other things, this is kind of like Steve Jobs returning to Apple,” Reed said.

By “other things,” Reed means resigning in disgrace from the first Christian Coalition, staving off charges of receiving millions of dollars that convicted GOP lobbyist/con man Jack Abramoff bilked from Native Americans and failing in his bid to win the GOP nomination for lieutenant governor of Georgia. More about all that to follow.

What’s new, young and hip about Reed’s Christianist 2.0 organization? It will use the Internet, not a printing press, to spread its moralizing propaganda:

Attracting younger voters and activists, Reed knows, takes a robust Web-based campaign that uses the new gadgets and social networks that dominate young people’s lives.

(Notice how the group’s younger, hipper website has a look and feel similar to the Obama campaign’s.)

Reed faces at least four daunting hurdles:

First, Christians simply cannot do “hip.” Even the fact that Reed used the word “hip” marks him as clueless. But mainly, the arc of recent American pop culture is littered with the Christian establishment’s failed attempts to reach out to the younger generation: e.g., the Christian coffee house movement in the 1960s, the entire Christian rock oeuvre (Amy Grant was never “hip”), Christian computer games and the recent spate of films like the “Omega Code.” (The only real crossover success was the 1970s theatrical production, “Jesus Christ, Superstar,” but its British creator, Andrew Lloyd Weber, is not an evangelical.)

Second, the disastrous presidency of George W. Bush, followed by the nomination of John McCain, who has never had appeal among evangelicals, has soured younger white conservative Chrisitans on the Republican brand. A Pew Poll last year found that GOP affiliation had dropped 15 percentage points among younger evangelicals.

Third, the Christian Coalition’s success was fueled by the demonization of Pres. Bill Clinton, whom GOP operatives like Reed presented to their followers as a moral reprobate. The endgame of this, however — the Grand Guignol of impeachment — is now perceived as a massive over-reach, especially in light of the 9/11 attacks, which were being planned in the caves of Afghanistan while the Republicans persecuted the president over a sex lie in a disposition in a frivolous failed sexual-harassment lawsuit.

The Republicans’ attempts at similarly demonizing Pres. Obama — casting him as a undocumented pal of terrorists and the rest — have failed to resonate beyond the Christianists’ feeble-minded core. Plus, today it’s the family values-proclaiming pols like Sens. David Vitter (R-La.), Larry Craig (R-Id.) and John Ensign (R–Nev.) and Gov. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) who have proved to be the real reprobates.

Finally, there is Reed himself. In June 2006, a report from the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate documented $5.3 million in payments to Reed from Jack Abramoff, who is in prison now after pleading guilty to three federal counts of defrauding Native-American tribes and bribing public officials. Reed was never charged with a crime, but the taint of the scandal contributed to the failure of his Republican primary campaign for lieutenant governor of Georgia.

If one were inclined to view Ralph Reed as a sympathetic character — rather than the ruthless political takedown artist that he is — this new announcement would be tinged with sadness: The old grifter, sidelined by a string of failures and comeuppances, giving it one final go.