Senate Reports Says Abramoff Group Paid Ralph Reed $5 Million
It sounds like a classic game of “hide that money” so the voters don’t find out.
And it sounds like just one more, political pol. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Casino-owning Indian tribes filtered more than $5 million through a series of corporations to satisfy what they said were Ralph Reed’s political concerns that he would be linked to the cash, a Senate committee concluded Thursday.Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition, used the money to mount religious conservative opposition to gambling in competing states.
The findings were contained in a 357-page report by the U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee, wrapping up a two-year investigation into influence-peddling by Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who directed the money to Reed.
The bulk of the report documents the bilking of six Indian tribes of tens of millions of dollars by Abramoff and his partner, Michael Scanlon, both of whom have pleaded guilty to pocketing most of the money and using some of the rest to bribe public officials.
“They sold their access and influence with House leadership as a way to con the tribes out of their money,” U.S. Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said of Abramoff and Scanlon.
Reed was accused of no wrongdoing, but the committee said the use of nonprofit corporations by Reed, Abramoff and others “to obscure the source of funds” was worth more investigation.
This sounds like any story you could read about over the years about a hack politician, of any party.
The report by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee portrayed Reed, a candidate for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor in Georgia, as a central figure in Abramoff’s lobbying operation, the focus of a wide-ranging federal criminal investigation.Abramoff and his former lobbying partner, Michael Scanlon, have pleaded guilty to conspiring to corrupt public officials and bilking some tribal clients out of tens of millions of dollars.
There has been no suggestion by prosecutors that Reed is under special scrutiny by the grand jury. The report also describes efforts by Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) to help an Abramoff client. Ney has not been accused of a crime.
The New York Times puts it this way:
A bipartisan Senate report released 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.The report by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee portrayed Reed, a candidate for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor in his home state of Georgia, as a central figure in Abramoff’s lobbying operation, the focus of a wide-ranging criminal investigation by the Justice Department.
Reed was depicted as using his contacts among conservative Christian groups in the South and Southwest beginning in the late 1990s to block the opening or expansion of casinos that might compete with those of Abramoff’s clients.
In Hollywood they call this overlapping of goals “synergy.”
Reed has an answer. Does it qualify as “spin”? You decide:
Reed, who is running in the July 18 GOP primary for lieutenant governor in Georgia, characterized the Senate report as a clean bill of health that would free voters to focus on issues closer to home.He said the report “confirms I have not been accused of any wrongdoing in this matter. It also confirms that I was hired as a subcontractor for a very respected law firm and had no direct relationship with their clients.”
Reed has maintained that he was assured by Abramoff’s law firm at the time, Preston Gates, that his efforts against casinos wouldn’t be paid with money tainted by gambling.
“It is now clear from benefit of hindsight that this was a piece of business I should have declined,” he said.
That sentence is one on which Democrats, Republicans, Ralph’s advisers, and those who believe in clean government where politicos or aspiring politicos are not seemingly for sale can all agree.
Blog and Tan has an interesting post on the Reed/$$$ matter and writes, among other things:
Here’s the question all this leads to: Given that Atlanta’s lynchpin Delta Airlines is in bankruptcy and that both auto plants are slated to close soon, does Georgia need yet another strike against it? Can we really afford to send someone involved in such questionably unethical activity to the second highest elected office in the state? Do we really want to be known for that?
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Reeds a hypocritical scumbag.
This sounds like any story you could read about over the years about a hack politician, of any party
You can play the above the fray cynic if you wan’t, and you can be part of the CW narritive that all politicians are bought and paid for, but Reed is solidly Republican in a growing solidly Republican scandel.
Heres another glowing testament to this self proclaimed man of god.
But as your inadvertantly palying into Karl Roves desire to paint both parties as eaually corrupt, perhaps you’ll take the time to compare and contrast how the Dems handled their one case of corruption(Jefferson LA) and Tom Delay. You do remember how the etheics committee was nuetered don’t you?
Hate to come on so highly partisan sounding, but middle of the road blogs like yours are growing in importance, and me, or someone who types like me will be around to keep you honest.
The corperate press has lost a lot of credibility and readership by practicing stenography and buying into the conventional wisdom frames, which are a GOP construct. Beware of falling into that trap.
I am not asking you to be partisan left or anything. Just keep it honest and fair and don’t let yourself be used.
Thank you for the bandwith
The problem is: no, I’m not playing into Karl Rove’s hands by pointing out that this story is one that reads like any story over the years of a politician who’s getting money from special interests and doesn’t want the voters to know. You could go back to the 60s, 70s (or even further back) and find similar instances including the spin he gives here. This isn’t posted as evidence of the Republican culture of corruption or as because I read anything Rove said. It’s because I’m a news junkie and have read this kind of story a zillion times before. The corruption under the Republicans is a different matter (and, yes, it is indeed weighted more towards what the Republicans have been doing in pay for play in Congress). I posted this because I’ve read this kind of story so much and Reed since he burst on the scene has been positioning himself as someone somhow special. So, nope, I haven’t been used. I saw this and felt I’ve read it many times before over the years — about politicians of BOTH parties. And if I failed to make that clear I’m making that clear now — and by not making that clear then I would truly be trying to post a partisan-motivated post. I think in 2006 and 2008 many Americans will mentally put the Culture of Corrpution issue on a scale and conclude it’s weighted far more on the GOP side. But that’s a separate issue from this post.
OK..I see you’re up to date. There really was nothing wrong with your original post, and I was just kind of nervous about that one phrase. You sound well enough informed to understand why.
To me, there is a special place in Hell for those that use religion for self gain. I think that place has Relphies name on it.
I hope Ga does not elect this man to anything.
I like your blog, and I especially like your posts. So keep up the good work.
BTW..I love that picture. Makes him look like a run-down hobo.
If I was a righty, I probalby would think you were showing liberal bias;-)
Has he been drinking? he just looks god-awfull. Damn, now I almost feel sorry for him.
Curse you for that Joe {/snark}
The photo is strictly something off the internet that I liked due to the shading around the edges.
*waits for conservatives to cop pleas*
trust if this was a democrat i’d be wanting dude’s head on a platter too! corruption knows no political boundaries.
C.Prez
Me too. Thats why I was proud of the Dems for stripping Jefferson of his chair. The CDC tried to make noise, but got slapped down.
$90,000 in a freezer? Cold hard cash indeed. The pubs were all set to try a moral equivilency ploy, and it would have worked had the dems remianed inactive.
Fortunatly Pelosie did the right thing and “culture of coruption” is still in play.
Joe Said;
The real question is will they then have the guts to vote for a Non-republican Candidate, whether it be Dem, Green, or indy?
I think the election between Busby and Bilbray was a good example of folks not caring so much about the corruption, but what do they do or say about a local issue. Considering it was mostly voted on the immigration deal, and a former lobbiest (sp?) got voted in after Cunningham got bribed. That one still stuns me, considering the immigration debate will be decided by more than one congresscritter/senator.
Just a swipe at the Repubs and Bush. This is systemic of the corruption and dishonesty of this administration and the right. Like with the torture issue, I expect a “Preachy” religious politican to be Gahdi/MLK not Elmer Gantry. Reed is no better that Robertson and this idiot, link to SC pervert(I can’t accept any “god” who won’t smite these idiots).
Beverly Russell should be gay Arab – is christian
Is not the link I would have used first, but after quick Google found Russell’s name.
Wouldn’t it be a wonderful irony if Reed gets elected Lt Governor and then Georgia subsequently enacts gambling to stave off looming economic woes? Heh!
Ralph Reed has built a political career on using evangelical Christians and social conservatives for his own cynical purposes. While leading the Christian Coalition, Reed was more interested in promoting big business causes like free trade agreements than representing the moral values of social traditionalists. Reed is very typical of Republican political strategists who use values voters to promote a corporate, big money agenda. I hope that he goes down to a well deserved defeat at the polls this year.
Hahahahahaha….Thank You Joe!
Money….the root of all evil and the one candy a politician cannot refuse. Sucks them right in. I wonder What the religious right will have to say about this? religiousI’m sure they will come up with some stupid excuse to minimize it all. Friggen phoney bastards.
Jefferson should have given Ralphy Reed a ring before taking all that dirty money. Cause Ralphy sure knows how to scrub that stuff till it shines baby!
I heard that Reed is in trouble in his race for Lt. Gov. Seems the story of his Abramoff connections regarding the North Marianas Islands has surfaced, and he’s having some problems explaining his role. Apparently at Abramoff’s urging Reed wrote letters to Alabama congressmen requesting that they vote against extending U.S. labor laws on safety and wages to the U.S. territory.
Partly as a result, female workers were used as sex slaves and forced to have abortions. Just one more reason to mistrust these self-righteous Christian right leaders, who quite often on deeper inspection are the worst of hypocrites.
What’s next? we find ol’ ralph snarfing cocaine in a hottub with a transsexual hooker?
PING:
TITLE: Warren Buffett Turns Against God
BLOG NAME: Jon Swift
God gave Buffett his wealth and now Buffett is turning his back on God by taking this gift and giving it away.
PING:
TITLE: Warren Buffett Turns Against God
BLOG NAME: Jon Swift
God gave Buffett his wealth and now Buffett is turning his back on God by taking this gift and giving it away.