Ralph Reed Feels the Heat

Posted on January 16, 2006

The Washington Post examines the political future of former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed who is running for lieutenant governor of Georgia. The youthful-looking Reed has been one of the most visible political figures of the religious right and has been looking to embark on an ambitious political career. But just as his campaign in Georgia was getting underway, the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal broke. Now all of Reed's emails and documents have been subpoenaed by the FBI.

Reed always talked about Christian values, but his emails and other correspondence seem to be at odds with his amiable television persona. His emails show a rather shocking tendency towards avarice and a fondness for overblown military metaphors.

At age 44, he still has the choirboy looks that have been noted in dozens of profiles over the past 20 years. But the first major dent in Reed's carefully cultivated image came with the disclosure in the summer of 2004 that his public relations and lobbying companies had received at least $4.2 million from Abramoff to mobilize Christian voters to fight Indian casinos competing with Abramoff's casino clients.
Similarly damaging has been a torrent of e-mails revealed during the investigation that shows a side of Reed that some former supporters say cannot be reconciled with his professed Christian values. "After reading the e-mail, it became pretty obvious he was putting money before God," said Phil Dacosta, a Georgia Christian Coalition member who had initially backed Reed. "We are righteously casting him out."
Among those e-mails was one from Reed to Abramoff in late 1998: "I need to start humping in corporate accounts! . . . I'm counting on you to help me with some contacts." Within months, Abramoff hired him to lobby on behalf of the Mississippi Band of Choctaws, who were seeking to prevent competitors from setting up facilities in nearby Alabama. In 1999, Reed e-mailed Abramoff after submitting a bill for $120,000 and warning that he would need as much as $300,000 more: "We are opening the bomb bays and holding nothing back."
One of the most damaging e-mails was sent by Abramoff to partner Michael Scanlon, complaining about Reed's billing practices and expenditure claims: "He is a bad version of us! No more money for him." Scanlon and Abramoff have pleaded guilty to defrauding clients.

Abramoff and Scanlon think Reed "is a bad version of themselves"? Now that's a terrible thing to say about anyone.