| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Fredric L. Rice" |
| Date: |
07 Mar 2006 01:46:30 AM |
| Object: |
New Evidence of Ralph Reed Hypocrisy and Lies |
New Evidence of Ralph Reed Hypocrisy and Lies
By pontificator, 2006-03-04 15:50:43
Section: Frontal Lobe
In some ways, Ralph Reed is the ultimate poster child
for the Republican Party's thermonuclear meltdown
over the Jack Abramoff scandal. You see, Ralph
Reed was for many years the chief political officer
for the Christian Coalition, an organization whose
entire raison d'etre was the promotion of what it
characterized as uncompromising moral values.
Well, Reed's shenanigans with Jack Abramoff
reveal that the promotion of those so-called moral
values was a sham, and the real interests being
promoted were those of its high powered corporate
contributors. Today's revelations
[ http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/0304metreed.html ]
in the Atlanta Journal Constitution provide another
chapter in that story.
http://www.politicalcortex.com/story/2006/3/4/155043/9576
---
"Well be sure to wear a cup, because if it reaches your nads, its going
to do some chewing and you'll be in a world of hurt. It starts out by
clinging to your pants leg and the next thing you know, SPLUNCH!, you
have a crucifix skewering your jewels. There's a lot of precedent for
this, so be wary." -- HellPope Huey
---
"Never eat a corn tortilla with the face of Virgin Mary on it.
Save it and sell it on e-Bay." -scooter
.
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| User: "stoney" |
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| Title: Re: New Evidence of Ralph Reed Hypocrisy and Lies |
09 Mar 2006 07:21:24 PM |
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On Tue, 07 Mar 2006 07:46:30 GMT, (Fredric L.
Rice) wrote in alt.atheism
New Evidence of Ralph Reed Hypocrisy and Lies
By pontificator, 2006-03-04 15:50:43
Section: Frontal Lobe
In some ways, Ralph Reed is the ultimate poster child
for the Republican Party's thermonuclear meltdown
over the Jack Abramoff scandal. You see, Ralph
Reed was for many years the chief political officer
for the Christian Coalition, an organization whose
entire raison d'etre was the promotion of what it
characterized as uncompromising moral values.
Well, Reed's shenanigans with Jack Abramoff
reveal that the promotion of those so-called moral
values was a sham, and the real interests being
promoted were those of its high powered corporate
contributors. Today's revelations
[ http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/0304metreed.html ]
E-mails undermine Reed claim
By JIM GALLOWAY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/04/06
Ralph Reed has said he didn't know it until last year, but emails
suggest he was informed that eLot — a firm then in the online lottery
business — was behind his effort to fend off a ban against internet
gambling in 2000.
The e-mails passed between Reed and Jack Abramoff, the now disgraced
Washington lobbyist. Abramoff was lobbying for eLot Inc. of Connecticut,
parent company of eLottery Inc., against a bill in Congress that would
have banned most online betting. ELottery opposed the bill because it
wanted to help states sell tickets online.
Reed, a lifelong opponent of gambling, said last year that he did not
know in 2000 he was actually working on behalf of eLottery.
But e-mails obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution show Reed was
offered the name of the company at the beginning of his involvement in
the campaign, in May 2000. The e-mails emerged as dozens of federal
investigators have increased their focus on events surrounding the
defeat of the Internet gaming ban.
Abramoff included the company's name — referring to "the elot project" —
in an e-mail he forwarded to Reed, as the two worked out details of
Reed's contract for the campaign.
A spokesman for Reed, a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor,
said the e-mail does not contradict Reed's earlier statements that he
did not know eLot, or eLottery, was financing the gambling fight.
Campaign manager Jared Thomas declined to discuss the apparent
inconsistency of Reed's earlier statements and the date of the "elot"
e-mail.
Another e-mail exchange written only months after the gambling ban was
defeated suggests that, much earlier than Reed implied last year, he
knew of Abramoff's ties to elottery.
In the Jan. 30, 2001, e-mail, Reed teased Abramoff when the lobbyist
asked about the White House's choice for a new "technology czar."
"Tell your elottery friends that the next czar will be an anti-gambling
[Pentecostal] Christian whose main interest in life is banning smut from
the Internet," Reed wrote.
Thomas acknowledged for the first time that Reed learned several years
ago that Abramoff had a business relationship with eLottery, but said it
wasn't until the gaming ban was defeated. And he said Reed didn't know
the company funded the gaming ban's defeat until last year.
Reed's work on behalf of eLottery came at the same time he was doing
other work for Abramoff. That work had Reed conducting anti-gambling
campaigns across the South on behalf of two Indian tribes that feared
the expansion of gambling would generate competition and harm their
interests.
Although Reed's opponents in the lieutenant governor's race have made an
issue of his work on behalf of gambling interests, Reed has not been
accused of any criminal wrongdoing. Abramoff pleaded guilty in January
to bilking his Indian clients of $25 million, and to conspiring to bribe
public officials.
Reed says Abramoff, a lifelong friend, assured him that he wouldn't be
paid with money derived from gambling. And Reed has expressed remorse
for his association with Abramoff.
"If I had known then what I know now, I would have turned that work
down," Reed told a Republican student group at Emory University last
weekend.
Where it started
The eLottery story began in 1997, when a bill banning most Internet
gambling was filed by U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) — with the backing
of Reed, then head of the national Christian Coalition. Reed left the
coalition shortly afterward to start Duluth-based Century Strategies, a
political consulting firm.
The Internet Gambling Prohibition Act didn't gain traction until three
years later, when a deal was struck among sponsors of the bill,
representatives of the gambling industry, and some of the nation's most
prominent religious conservatives.
On May 17, 2000, James Dobson, president of Focus on the Family; Charles
Donovan, then the acting head of the Family Research Council; Jerry
Falwell, founder of the Moral Majority; and Pat Robertson, founder of
the Christian Coalition, put their names to a compromise that gave the
bill serious heft.
In a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), the religious
leaders said they were willing to accept "minor" exceptions to an
Internet gaming ban, for such things as dog racing and horse racing.
But essential to the bill, they said, was a ban on the sale of state
lottery tickets over the Internet — which put the biggest names in
Christian conservatism in conflict with eLot.
That's when Reed entered the picture. Abramoff's law-lobbying firm at
the time, Preston Gates, hired Reed's firm for $20,000 a month to rally
grass-roots voters against the ban in targeted congressional districts.
In an interview with the AJC in October, Reed said he found out that he
had worked for eLottery five years after the fact — as a result of
federal probes into Abramoff's activities. "I believe we learned as the
facts emerged during the ongoing inquiry," he said.
But the e-mails obtained by the AJC indicate he was provided the
company's name in 2000.
'Elot' mentioned by name
Within five days of the evangelicals' letter to Hastert, Abramoff had
drawn up a contract for the services of Reed and his firm. Abramoff
e-mailed the draft to his boss, Jonathan Blank, managing partner of
Preston Gates.
It was preceded by a personal note: "Jonathan, here is a draft for the
retainer letter with Reed on the elot project. Can you review and
approve, or give me your edits?"
Blank made his revisions and sent the entire message back to Abramoff,
including the reference to "the elot project."
On May 23, 2000, Abramoff forwarded the contract to Reed, with the
"elot" reference still intact, and the notation: "Ralph, are these
changes okay?"
Reed responded, "Yes."
The letter of retainer itself did not mention eLot, or eLottery. Nor did
it include restrictions as to what kind of funds — gambling-related or
not — Reed was to be paid with.
The contract had three basic points: Reed would be paid a stipend of
$20,000 a month plus expenses; his services would be "at the direction
of Jack Abramoff," and none of his activities would "require
registration as a lobbyist in any state or with the federal government."
The latter clause allowed Reed to keep his work against the gambling ban
quiet until last year.
Facts on record
At the time of the lobbying effort, there was a public record of
Abramoff's association with eLottery.
Several days after Preston Gates retained Reed, Abramoff's firm
registered as eLottery's representative on Capitol Hill, citing the
Internet gaming ban as the company's chief interest. The information was
available to anyone who inquired with the secretary of the U.S. Senate.
Asked whether Reed ever checked the register, his spokesman declined to
comment.
Through direct mail and other tools, Reed's task was to persuade
religious conservatives in the districts of wavering congressmen that
that the exceptions agreed to by Robertson and the others had turned the
ban on Internet betting into an endorsement of gaming.
ELottery paid Abramoff's firm $1.15 million to defeat the Internet
gaming ban. Expense money from eLottery was routed to Reed's firm
through two organizations. Documents and copies of e-mails from
Abramoff, obtained by The Washington Post last year, documented the flow
of cash.
First the money was sent by eLottery to Americans for Tax Reform, a
Washington anti-tax group headed by Grover Norquist, who knew both Reed
and Abramoff from their days as college Republicans.
Norquist then wrote a check for $150,000 to a group called Faith and
Family Alliance of Virginia Beach. Faith and Family Alliance wrote a
check for the same amount to Reed's Century Strategies. That wasn't the
only connection between the groups: One of Faith and Family's founders,
Tim Phillips, was a vice president for Century Strategies.
This month, the Senate Finance Committee received unpublished documents
generated by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, detailing transfers of
cash by Abramoff to nonprofit organizations. Sen. Charles Grassley
(R-Iowa), the committee's chairman, said it would review the evidence as
part of its "ongoing, broad-scale look at whether tax-exempt groups are
misused for financial or political gain."
The Internet gaming ban was defeated on July 17, 2000.
Goodlatte, the sponsor of the ban on Internet gaming, has placed blame
for the 2000 defeat on "the efforts of Jack Abramoff and those who acted
on his behalf."
Goodlatte reintroduced the measure last month, and predicts victory this
time.
© 2006 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
in the Atlanta Journal Constitution provide another
chapter in that story.
http://www.politicalcortex.com/story/2006/3/4/155043/9576
--
Fundies and trolls are cordially invited to
shove a wooden cross up their arses and rotate
at a high rate of speed. I trust you'll
be 'blessed' with a cornucopia of splinters.
.
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