aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Reed between the lines
In Slate’s list of the figures most likely to face trouble from Jack the flipper, this is what they had to say about Ralph Reed:
The former executive director of the Christian Coalition is running for lieutenant governor of Georgia and sprinting away from Abramoff. Reed received millions from Jack and his partner in order to wage “grass-roots” anti-gambling campaigns. The problem for Reed is that his work against the evil money-rollers was paid for by other gambling interests eager to get rid their competition. Reed said he didn’t know he was being paid by gambling interests. E-mails suggest that he did.
You can learn a lot about a person from his sense of humor. Take, for example, this so far unnoticed gem in Ralph Reed’s correspondence with Jack Abramoff (pages 52-53). It took place on April 11, 2001, as Reed was mounting a campaign for the chairmanship of the Georgia Republican Party:
Reed writes:
“Jack, would you be willing to contribute personally to my state chair campaign? This race is costing me $50-100K, and i’m asking my friends to help.”
Abramoff responds:
“Sure. Give me the name of the entity.”
Reed deadpans:
“The actual committee is “The Reed Family Retirement and Educational Foundation.” It is a 501(c)(3). The address is 200 Bay Drive, Grand Cayman, BCI, R59876.”
Abramoff:
“Ha ha ha. Make sure you get me the proper committee name.”
After Reed responded with the real name ("Reed for Chairman"), Abramoff wrote:
“Seriously, I’ll get you the $10K this week or next from a source which owes me money.”
The “source,” you’ll be unsurprised to hear, was the Mississippi Choctaw. In early April, the Choctaw cut a $150K check to the American International Center, one of the fake foundation slush funds Abramoff had set up with Michael Scanlon. On 4/12/01, Abramoff wrote to his assistant instructing $10K of the $150K check to be sent on to Reed’s campaign (see page 54).
Meanwhile, the same poll that found Purdue chugging along in the race for governor, has Reed falling behind his Democratic challenger.
