By now, most people know that former Christian Coalition executive director, Ralph Reed, lost the GOP primary for Lt. Governor of Georgia. This was taken as good news for those of us who felt that if the talented Mr. Reed was able to shake of the Abramoff scandal and win the primary -- odds were good that he would go on to win the general election, and have a future in national politics. Perhaps someday moving up to governor or senator. Maybe gaining a place on the national GOP ticket someday. All such speculation is moot now, in light of his 55-45% loss to a once-obscure state senator.  

But there is only so much to celebrate in Reed's loss. Reed lost not primarily because of his views, (although some Democrats crossed over to vote against him) but because he was seen as a hypocrite, a liar and a possibly a crook.

The victor, State Senator Casey Cagle, while not a flame thrower in the mould of Ralph Reed -- is also a stalwart of the agenda of the Christian Right.  

Ralph Reed lost a hard-fought primary for the GOP nomination for Lt. Governor of Georgia, yesterday. He had, before the Abramoff scandal crept up on him, been a rising star in the state and national party. After leaving the Christian Coalition, he moved to Georgia, and opened a consulting firm. He played prominent roles in both Bush campaigns for president and served as the elected chairman of the Georgia Republican Party. His race for Lt. Governor was thought to be a springboard for running for higher office. Maybe governor, maybe senator. Maybe a spot on the national GOP ticket someday.  

But he lost decisively 55-45, in the wake of exposure of his ties to his pal, convicted crook Jack Abramoff.  Indeed, Reed was attacked hard by his opponent, State Senator Casey Cagle, who highlighted how Reed took $5.3 million from Abramoff's gambling industry clients -- claiming not to know where the money was coming from. Cagle even went so far as to publicly suggest that Reed might be indicted in connection with the scandal.

Tough politics. Nevertheless, Reed offered a gracious concession statment, and promised to work for the GOP ticket in the fall.  "Stay in the fight," Reed told his supporters. "Don't retreat. And our values will win in November."

This stands in dramatic contrast to three term Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut -- once a star of the Democratic party.

The Wall Street Journal has joined a chorus of national publications chronicling the political woes of Ralph Reed, once the boy wunderkind of the Christian Right, who is running for his political life in the GOP primary for Lt. Governor of Georgia.

Several surveys show Mr. Reed still holding a narrow lead, but with high unfavorable ratings and many voters undecided.... Will Mr. Reed, a star of the national Republican Party, become the first campaign casualty of the Abramoff scandal when he squares off with state Sen. Casey Cagle in the July 18 primary?

I could be wrong, but I think I smell burning toast.

Blogorama on the religious right is an occasional round-up of signficant posts from around the blogosphere on the religious right and what to do about it.  

Jonathan Hutson, writing at Talk to Action, has the latest fallout from the Abramoff scandal that has busted out beyond the Beltway:  

The Christian Coalition of Alabama (CCA) is accusing trial lawyers, without any evidence, of funding an anti-Christian agenda through its contributions to judicial candidates. That's a whopper, and CCA knows it. CCA leader John Giles has surely not forgotten that he has criticized trial lawyers in The New York Times for contributing nearly a million dollars to the 2004 campaigns of three conservative Christian candidates for the Alabama Supreme Court. Those candidates advertised that they share the same judicial philosophy as former Alabama Chief Justice Roy S Moore, the "Ten Commandments" judge, who wants to remake America as a Christian nation.

So why is CCA engaged in a baseless smear campaign over judicial contributions? Maybe it's because the agenda that the CCA is pushing these days is not so much a pro-Christian agenda as a pro-corporate agenda. And maybe they're trying to distract conservative Christian voters from the fact that the CCA is embroiled in a scandal over its acceptance of $850,000 in contributions that trace back to one of the Indian tribal clients of convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

The Abramoff scandal -- the inside-the-beltway story of Congressional corruption and the influence of connected lobbyists, that finally brought down former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) -- will probably, eventually, also consume longtime Christian Right political leader, Ralph Reed.  

In the 1990s, Reed epitomized the emergence of the Christian Right as an organized political force. Times have changed, and several major political careers may turn on the widening gyre of the scandal.  

Bob Moser, writing in the current issue of The Nation, has a long and revealing look at the trajectory of Reed's career -  from boy political wunderkind to the combustion of the Abramoff corruption scandal.  

Every week brings a new revelation about the millions in dirty money Reed earned by duping his fellow evangelicals into putting their political muscle behind "Casino Jack" Abramoff's gambling clients. Reed's huge leads in both popularity polls and fundraising have almost disappeared. Instead of making his triumphant debut as a politician, the man Time magazine called "The Right Hand of God" is fast becoming the new poster boy for Christian-right corruption.

According to the "Washington Wire", the Campaign to Defend the Constitution has "taken on three icons of the religious right: Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, Rev. Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition, and former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed."

The group "launched an online and TV campaign Wednesday...saying the three 'have a serious gambling problem' and citing ties to disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff who worked on behalf of Indian casino gaming."

In addition, they're placing a single ad in the New York Times.

Although the campaign was launched just yesterday, Political Cortex's own Frederick Clarkson has been the primary driver for this story from the beginning:

Way back in December of 2005, it was Fred who alerted us to "Lucky Louie" Sheldon and his implication in the Abramoff-related Gambling Scandal:

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 in the Atlanta Journal Constitution provide another chapter in that story.

What did James Dobson know, and when did he know it?  That's what Max Blumenthal writing in The Nation wants to know.  

Christian Right consultant and now, Georgia GOP pol, Ralph Reed and former GOP super lobbist Jack Abramoff, and now admitted felon, persuaded Christian broadcaster James Dobson to use his national radio broadcast in part of a complicated scheme to help one of Abramoff's clients.  

At stake was the possible opening of an Indian casino in one state. Abrammoff's client, a tribe that owned a casino in a neighboring state didn't want the competition. So they hired Abramoff, who in turn hired Reed to whip up the Christian Right to stop the casino. Dobson claims he didn't know he was shilling for gambling interests. But Blumenthal points out that he isn't taking questions.

In a January 6 press release issued three days after Abramoff's indictment, Dobson declared, "If the nation's politicians don't fix this national disaster, then the oceans of gambling money with which Jack Abramoff tried to buy influence on Capitol Hill will only be the beginning of the corruption we'll see." He concluded with a denunciation of vice:
"Gambling--all types of gambling--is driven by greed and subsists on greed."

What Dobson neglected to mention--and has yet to discuss publicly--is his own pivotal role in one of Abramoff's schemes. In 2002 Dobson joined a coterie of Christian-right activists, including Tony Perkins, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, to spearhead Abramoff's campaigns against the establishment of several Louisiana casinos that infringed on the turf of Abramoff's tribal clients. Dobson and his allies recorded messages for phone banking, lobbied high-level Bush Administration officials and took to the airwaves. Whether they knew it or not, these Christian soldiers' crusade to protect families in the "Sportsmen's Paradise" from the side effects of chronic slot-pulling and dice-rolling was funded by the gambling industry and planned by the lobbyist known even to his friends as "Casino Jack."

Much more.

Sadly, religion played a role in this corruption scandal that Jack Abramoff lobbying activity included.  Let us begin with Tom DeLay.  DeLay's pastor, with whom he prayed, was also his chief of staff.  Edwin Buckham and DeLay often prayed together at work.  It was Buckham who helped introduce Tom DeLay to Jack Abramoff.

Continuing the cast of characters in this colorful corruption scandal resembles a Hollywood movie.  Next, Tony Rudy joined Abramoff as a lobbyist.  Rudy used his e-mail from GOP strategy sessions he attended.  This corruption scandal involved both Republicans and Democrats.  Abramoff was associated with 9 Democratic Senators, and 6 Democratic House members.

On national TV both Republican and Democratic Senators and Congressmen who had received cash from Abramoff were shown as they stated they were returning the cash, now that Abramoff's scandal ridden conduct had been exposed.  The King of Lobbyists made a plea deal, which helped him not being forced to spend the rest of his life behind bars.

President Bush's former procurement policy head, David Safavian, was indicted for allegedly hiding dealings with Abramoff while ambitious Abramoff was seeking to seize control of government-managed land.

Ralf Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition, was Abramoff's connection to the "anti-gambling" forces.

Bloomberg News is reporting that the growing Washington, DC scandal centered around GOP superlobbyist Jack Abramoff, is damaging the campaign for Lt. Governor of Georgia, of former Christian Coalition executive director Ralph Reed -- who has been caught-up in the scandal for months.

Reed, who is the chairman of the Georgia GOP, is making his first run for public office. Since leaving the Christian Coalition in the late 1990's he has worked as a political consultant, heading a firm called Century Strategies. Among other candidates, he worked for George W. Bush's 2000 presidential campaign; and he also ran the Bush campaign in the Southeast in 2004.

Rev. Lou Sheldon, founder of the California-based Traditional Values Coalition has long been among the most stridently anti-gay crusaders of the Christian Right.

However, The Washington Post reveals that he is now implicated in the widening Washington, DC corruption scandal centered around conservative Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Previously, Ralph Reed, the founding executive director of the Christian Coalition, and now a political consultant, had been linked to receiving money from gambling interestests tied to Abramoff -- even as he was publicly working on anti-gambling issues for another client.

Canada, our neighbor to the north. You've probably heard of them; they've been in the news recently, what with their government collapsing and all. As of late, we've had an interesting trade relationship with them. I'm sure that you know that they send us prescription medication, but did you know that we're sending them right-wing nutjobs? It's true!

The man known to have blazed the trail for the religious-conservative movement in the United States rallied Canadian faith leaders yesterday, urging them to get behind the vote.

Ralph Reed, who led hundreds of thousands of members of the religious right to get the vote out during the era of former U.S. presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush, told delegates to a Christian conference last night to put on their work boots and tennis shoes and knock on doors.

"Come Jan. 23, there's going to be a new Canada of conservative traditional values," he told a cheering crowd of 400 people who greeted his remarks with a standing ovation.

Oh, boy.

I don't even know why Reed was allowed to leave the country, seeing as he was in on Jack Abramoff's little con game. But then, he's slipped out of similar jams before. Perhaps a bit of a history lesson is in order.

New e-mails reveal American Talibaner Ralph Reed bragged about choreographing the closing of the Tigua indian tribe's casino in Texas. How is this connected to the Abramoff Scandal?

In the Nov. 30, 2001, e-mail, Reed told Abramoff that 50 pastors led by Ed Young, of Second Baptist Church in Houston, would meet with Cornyn to urge him to shut down the Alabama-Coushatta tribe's casino near Livingston, Texas. He said Young would back up the request in writing.

...The previously released e-mails... showed in 2002 Abramoff and [his partner Michael] Scanlon secretly funneled millions to Reed to help fund the campaign to get the Tigua casino shut down. The lobbyists then persuaded the Tiguas to hire them to reopoen it.

And the kicker? Texas senator John Cornyn is implicated in the dirty dealing -- a fact that John McCain tried to cover up:

The Senate Indian Affairs Committee, led by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., blocked out references to Texas senator John Cornyn in the e-mails it released last week. But, in previous Reed e-mails released by the committee, Cornyn's name was not removed.

Cornyn denies any wrongdoing on his part, claiming that he was only acting as he believed the law called upon him, as the state's attorney general at the time, to act.

We must thank Scanlon for calling the Christian Right "whackos" in writing.  The link to the pdf file is below.  It's 318 pages, and the comment is on p. 119.  

http://indian.senate.gov/20 05hrgs/110205hrg/110205exhi bits.pdf