Ralph Reed -- "Those sneaky redskins made me do it"
- From: "Joe S." <anon@xxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2006 21:25:22 -0400
No, Ralph -- the correct phrase is "The devil made me do it." Either way,
Reed is a rightwing Republicon whose practice is to blame it on someone
else, he's not responsible for anything.
But wait -- I thought the rightwing Republicons were all about individual
responsibility? Maybe they mean individual responsibility for everyone
else.
QUOTE
Reed Blames Tribes for Laundering Scheme
By Paul Kiel - July 17, 2006, 12:36 PM
The Indians made me do it.
On the eve of a tense primary election, that's Ralph Reed's defense against
corruption accusations that threaten to capsize his candidacy for Georgia
lieutenant governor.
Reed is suffering some punishing body blows from his opponent for his
schemes to use money from Indian casinos to pay for Christian anti-gambling
efforts -- by funneling the cash through shell companies to disguise its
true source.
The charges have been around for months, of course -- accompanied by ample
evidence that Reed played a key role in concocting the schemes and putting
them into practice. To date he has dodged the allegations by first claiming
ignorance of the clients, and then woodenly chiming that "Had I known then
what I know now, I would not have undertaken the work."
But yesterday, he changed his tune -- and blamed the Indians. During a
debate with his primary opponent Saturday, Reed claimed:
I would have been happy if they [Abramoff's tribal clients] paid me
directly. They were the ones who made the decision that I would be paid
through nonprofits.
Quick reality check: It has been long-established that Abramoff's
casino-owning tribal clients hired Reed to whip up religious anti-gambling
fervor and use it to squash any neighboring competition. In order to obscure
the fact that Abramoff's casino money was funding Reed's anti-gambling
campaigns, the money was funneled through various entities (shell companies
and non-profits) before making its way to Reed. Read all the nitty-gritty
here.
McCain's Senate investigation found that the funneling had been Reed's idea,
because that is what the tribal representatives told investigators.
As Nell Rogers from the Mississippi Choctaw told the Committee: "Ralph Reed
did not want to be paid directly by a tribe with gaming interests. It was
our understanding that the structure was recommended by Jack Abramoff to
accommodate Mr. Reed's political concerns."
And Former Louisiana Coushatta Vice-Chairman William Worfel told
investigators that Abramoff "asked whether the Tribe had any business
through which payments to Reed could be made."
All other available evidence shows that Reed and Abramoff came up with the
funneling idea to protect Reed's Christian bona fides -- which is, after
all, the only narrative that makes any sense.
Let's think of what Reed is asking us to believe when he says that the
tribes "were the ones who made the decision that I would be paid through
nonprofits."
Remember that Reed worked for two different tribal clients of Abramoffs -
the Louisianna Coushatta and the Mississippi Choctaw. In both cases, Reed's
fees were laundered through nonprofits and shell companies.
Did both of those tribes come up with this scheme independently?
And what about another client of Abramoff's, eLottery, Inc.? In 2000,
Abramoff hired Reed to kill anti-gambling legislation moving forward in the
House. The eLottery, Inc. money was funneled through Grover Norquist's
Americans for Tax Reform, then to a sham organization called the Faith and
Family Alliance, and then on to Reed's firm. Robin Vanderwall, the man who
ran the Faith and Family Alliance, has since admitted that he was "operating
as a shell" - the organization had no other purpose than to pass on payments
to Reed's company.
Was that eLottery's idea? Abramoff's other Christian rabble-rouser on the
gambling bill, Rev. Louis Sheldon, was paid directly by eLottery.
The primary is tomorrow. What other excuses will Reed come up with before
then?
END QUOTE
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001147.php
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