Reed may be running for Lt. Gov. to avoid tough questions. - Reporters more inquisitive about a gubernatorial candidate's background. - Casinogate?
This week the Dean Bill Shipp writes:
With plenty of money, unrivaled name recognition and more poise than Oprah Winfrey, Ralph Reed ought to be a shoo-in for election as lieutenant governor.
Georgia has never had such a celebrity candidate for such a lowly office.
More than a year before the campaign begins, Reed's best-known opponent has already quit the race. John Oxendine says he'd rather stay insurance commissioner. The money is better. The headaches are milder. Besides, Oxendine knows he couldn't beat Reed, not in a million years.
A couple of other guys say they intend to run for lieutenant governor. Who has ever heard of Greg Hecht or Casey Cagle? Hardly anyone.
The contest already looks so easy that Reed indicates he'll spend most of his time defending Gov. Sonny Perdue.
Obviously, Reed is running for lieutenant governor for the standard reason: to run later for governor. That is thinking inside the box. It is not daring, not imaginative; it's just the same old stuff. Reed is better than that. Perhaps he knows something the rest of us don't.
Zell Miller, Mark Taylor and the late Ernie Vandiver ran for lieutenant governor because few voters knew their names, and they had little campaign money. The post was the perfect starting place for a near-nobody.
"Near-nobody" is not a proper way to describe Ralph Reed. He comes to the Georgia political scene already larger than life, a fellow who has made millions as a lobbyist and political consultant, the guy who put the Christian Coalition on the international map as a political power. Also, he has great hair.
Ralph Reed running for lieutenant governor of Georgia is like George W. Bush running for surveyor of Echols County. Reed is way overqualified.
As the office is presently constituted, the lieutenant governor has nothing to do but bang the gavel in the state Senate and wait for the governor to be indicted or become too ill to serve. There's nothing else. It is a job for an empty suit.
Instead of defending Perdue, perhaps Reed should consider challenging him. Perdue is in serious political trouble. Two qualified Democrats, Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor and Secretary of State Cathy Cox, are planning to go for governor. Either might make a sap of the incumbent.
Suppose the Republicans suddenly get smart. Suppose the GOP dumps Perdue and wants someone more attractive. Ralph Reed's a fellow with more political savvy than just about anybody else in the world, except maybe Karl Rove and Hillary Clinton.
Reed would seem to give Republicans a much-needed second fresh start at running state government. Perdue and his legislature have messed up.
They weren't prepared for prime time. By contrast, Reed is ready. You would never catch Reed proposing tax increases in his maiden speech to the legislature. You would certainly never see Reed spending a bundle on redecorating the governor's mansion while cutting medical benefits for needy kids and helpless geezers.
Of course, campaigning for governor is more complex and expensive than running for any other state office. Usually, reporters are more inquisitive about a gubernatorial candidate's background, though Perdue's past was strangely ignored.
As a contender for lieutenant governor, Reed will have a much easier time. The stakes are not as high. Opposition research would not be as diligent. Second-string media would be assigned to the race.
For instance, if Reed stays put in the lieutenant governor's race, no one is likely to ask:
• What duties did Reed perform for the Enron Corp. that allowed him to rake in $300,000 from the company just before it collapsed into disgrace and bankruptcy?
• Why was Reed, publicly known as a fierce foe of gambling, included in a golfing party to Scotland financed by two Indian tribes with casino connections? Each tribe contributed $50,000 to the outing.
• How does he justify getting paid $4.2 million to help an Indian casino operator prevent another tribe from running a rival gambling hall in Texas?
• Why did Reed once write a column for the UGA campus newspaper, The Red and Black, attacking Mahatma Gandhi as "the ninny of the 20th century," and then suddenly leave the paper amidst charges of plagiarism?
• Precisely what was Reed's job as an intern for Lt. Gov. Zell Miller when Miller was leading the charge for the Equal Rights Amendment and other liberal causes in Georgia?
Now we are beginning to see why Reed may have chosen to stand for lieutenant governor instead of governor. By the time he goes for governor (possibly in 2010), the public will have forgotten the above piddling questions. He might receive a virtually free ride to the updated and remodeled governor's mansion. After that, who knows where Ralph Reed might wind up? President of the United States is not out of the question. If Jimmy and Dubya did it, why couldn't Ralphie? Tales of Enron, Gandhi, Zell and Indian casinos might not make a bit of difference in 2016.
_______________
On the growing $4.2 scandal involving the casinos, see David Brooks column in the 3-22-05 New York Times ("Reed so strongly opposes gambling as a matter of principle that he bravely accepted $4 million through Abramoff from casino-rich Indian tribes to gin up a grass-roots campaign.")
Also see Jay Bookman's column in the 3-21-05 AJC who wrote:
In 2001 and 2002, Abramoff secretly hired Reed, the former executive director of the Christian Coalition, to gin up a morality-based "grassroots coalition" to pressure Texas officials to close an Indian casino in El Paso. The casino, run by the dirt-poor Tigua tribe, competed with casinos in Louisiana and Mississippi that were clients of Abramoff. He wanted the Tigua casino closed, and he paid Reed $4 million to do the hit.
The $4 million was laundered before it got to Reed, much of it through a fraudulent front in Delaware, but it was gambling money nonetheless. Given Abramoff's role in directing the campaign, Reed had to have known that. He may look like a choir boy, but he is one of the shrewdest operators in Washington.
That was right up Reed's alley. Since leaving the Christian Coalition in 1997, Reed has gone into private consulting work, selling his ability to energize his religious network on behalf of private companies as well as politicians. In this case, Reed recruited James Dobson, the leader of the powerful evangelical group Focus on the Family, to put pressure on Texas officials. He used his standing among conservative Christians to generate anti-gambling letters and phone calls and to "get our pastors riled up" against the casino, as Reed put it in an e-mail to Abramoff.
[T]here's . . . . something troubling about Reed pretending to be doing the work of the Lord, while in reality doing the bidding of gambling interests.
_______________
We have not heard the end of the casinogate scandal.
With plenty of money, unrivaled name recognition and more poise than Oprah Winfrey, Ralph Reed ought to be a shoo-in for election as lieutenant governor.
Georgia has never had such a celebrity candidate for such a lowly office.
More than a year before the campaign begins, Reed's best-known opponent has already quit the race. John Oxendine says he'd rather stay insurance commissioner. The money is better. The headaches are milder. Besides, Oxendine knows he couldn't beat Reed, not in a million years.
A couple of other guys say they intend to run for lieutenant governor. Who has ever heard of Greg Hecht or Casey Cagle? Hardly anyone.
The contest already looks so easy that Reed indicates he'll spend most of his time defending Gov. Sonny Perdue.
Obviously, Reed is running for lieutenant governor for the standard reason: to run later for governor. That is thinking inside the box. It is not daring, not imaginative; it's just the same old stuff. Reed is better than that. Perhaps he knows something the rest of us don't.
Zell Miller, Mark Taylor and the late Ernie Vandiver ran for lieutenant governor because few voters knew their names, and they had little campaign money. The post was the perfect starting place for a near-nobody.
"Near-nobody" is not a proper way to describe Ralph Reed. He comes to the Georgia political scene already larger than life, a fellow who has made millions as a lobbyist and political consultant, the guy who put the Christian Coalition on the international map as a political power. Also, he has great hair.
Ralph Reed running for lieutenant governor of Georgia is like George W. Bush running for surveyor of Echols County. Reed is way overqualified.
As the office is presently constituted, the lieutenant governor has nothing to do but bang the gavel in the state Senate and wait for the governor to be indicted or become too ill to serve. There's nothing else. It is a job for an empty suit.
Instead of defending Perdue, perhaps Reed should consider challenging him. Perdue is in serious political trouble. Two qualified Democrats, Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor and Secretary of State Cathy Cox, are planning to go for governor. Either might make a sap of the incumbent.
Suppose the Republicans suddenly get smart. Suppose the GOP dumps Perdue and wants someone more attractive. Ralph Reed's a fellow with more political savvy than just about anybody else in the world, except maybe Karl Rove and Hillary Clinton.
Reed would seem to give Republicans a much-needed second fresh start at running state government. Perdue and his legislature have messed up.
They weren't prepared for prime time. By contrast, Reed is ready. You would never catch Reed proposing tax increases in his maiden speech to the legislature. You would certainly never see Reed spending a bundle on redecorating the governor's mansion while cutting medical benefits for needy kids and helpless geezers.
Of course, campaigning for governor is more complex and expensive than running for any other state office. Usually, reporters are more inquisitive about a gubernatorial candidate's background, though Perdue's past was strangely ignored.
As a contender for lieutenant governor, Reed will have a much easier time. The stakes are not as high. Opposition research would not be as diligent. Second-string media would be assigned to the race.
For instance, if Reed stays put in the lieutenant governor's race, no one is likely to ask:
• What duties did Reed perform for the Enron Corp. that allowed him to rake in $300,000 from the company just before it collapsed into disgrace and bankruptcy?
• Why was Reed, publicly known as a fierce foe of gambling, included in a golfing party to Scotland financed by two Indian tribes with casino connections? Each tribe contributed $50,000 to the outing.
• How does he justify getting paid $4.2 million to help an Indian casino operator prevent another tribe from running a rival gambling hall in Texas?
• Why did Reed once write a column for the UGA campus newspaper, The Red and Black, attacking Mahatma Gandhi as "the ninny of the 20th century," and then suddenly leave the paper amidst charges of plagiarism?
• Precisely what was Reed's job as an intern for Lt. Gov. Zell Miller when Miller was leading the charge for the Equal Rights Amendment and other liberal causes in Georgia?
Now we are beginning to see why Reed may have chosen to stand for lieutenant governor instead of governor. By the time he goes for governor (possibly in 2010), the public will have forgotten the above piddling questions. He might receive a virtually free ride to the updated and remodeled governor's mansion. After that, who knows where Ralph Reed might wind up? President of the United States is not out of the question. If Jimmy and Dubya did it, why couldn't Ralphie? Tales of Enron, Gandhi, Zell and Indian casinos might not make a bit of difference in 2016.
_______________
On the growing $4.2 scandal involving the casinos, see David Brooks column in the 3-22-05 New York Times ("Reed so strongly opposes gambling as a matter of principle that he bravely accepted $4 million through Abramoff from casino-rich Indian tribes to gin up a grass-roots campaign.")
Also see Jay Bookman's column in the 3-21-05 AJC who wrote:
In 2001 and 2002, Abramoff secretly hired Reed, the former executive director of the Christian Coalition, to gin up a morality-based "grassroots coalition" to pressure Texas officials to close an Indian casino in El Paso. The casino, run by the dirt-poor Tigua tribe, competed with casinos in Louisiana and Mississippi that were clients of Abramoff. He wanted the Tigua casino closed, and he paid Reed $4 million to do the hit.
The $4 million was laundered before it got to Reed, much of it through a fraudulent front in Delaware, but it was gambling money nonetheless. Given Abramoff's role in directing the campaign, Reed had to have known that. He may look like a choir boy, but he is one of the shrewdest operators in Washington.
That was right up Reed's alley. Since leaving the Christian Coalition in 1997, Reed has gone into private consulting work, selling his ability to energize his religious network on behalf of private companies as well as politicians. In this case, Reed recruited James Dobson, the leader of the powerful evangelical group Focus on the Family, to put pressure on Texas officials. He used his standing among conservative Christians to generate anti-gambling letters and phone calls and to "get our pastors riled up" against the casino, as Reed put it in an e-mail to Abramoff.
[T]here's . . . . something troubling about Reed pretending to be doing the work of the Lord, while in reality doing the bidding of gambling interests.
_______________
We have not heard the end of the casinogate scandal.
posted by Sid Cottingham | 7:00 AM
2 Comments:
Speaking of Casinos, have you heard anything about Mark Taylor running on bringing casinos to Atlanta?
I have not. Interesting, very interesting. It is the sort of thing the Zell we used to know would have suggested to him, and it would not surprise me -- assuming it is true which I do not know --if Zell did suggest it to him. I am going to check around.
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