Friday, April 22, 2005

"Uh Oh!" for the Boy Scout

So, is it possible that the golden boy of the religious right has gotten some of the dirt on him? Poor Ralph Reed. I wonder if we need to remake 'A Christmas Story' and recast Ralphie with Ralph Reed? Maybe even the Clenis would guest as Scud Farcass.

Of course, would it really surprise any of us if Reed has been invovled in financial shenanigans? What's some malfesance between friends?

I have to wonder what is it about these fellows who came up through college republican circles? I guess that was the training ground for dirty politics that is now the rule rather than the exception in mainstream republicans. Boy, I would give almost anything for a working time machine to stop Rove, Norquist, Reed, and all the others who came up through the college repug training.

Excerpted from Roll Call

Organizations headed by two of the best-known figures in conservative political circles, Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist, have been subpoenaed by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee in its long-running probe of GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

The committee is planning to hold its next hearing in the investigation in late June. The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, one of Abramoff's former clients, is expected to be the focus of that hearing, according to sources close to the investigation.

Americans for Tax Reform, for which Norquist serves as president, is refusing to disclose its donor list to the Senate committee, said two officials with the group. Reed's firm, Century Strategies, is complying with the subpoena. Senate investigators are seeking four years' worth of records detailing Century Strategies' business dealings with Abramoff and GOP political consultant Michael Scanlon and entities under their control, said several sources familiar with the issue.


[...]

The relationship between Abramoff, Reed and Norquist goes back to the early 1980s when all three worked together for the College Republicans. When Abramoff, then at the firm Preston Gates Ellis Rouvelas Meeds, began lobbying for the Mississippi Choctaws, he used his ties to Norquist, who had by that time founded ATR, to help block new federal taxes on Indian gambling revenue.

According to The Washington Post, the Choctaws, who have become an economic powerhouse in Mississippi thanks to their casino operations, donated "hundreds of thousands" to ATR, although Norquist has refused to reveal how much the tribe gave to his organization.


Anyone willing to bet that the Abramhoff could be the undoing for some on the far right? Naw, me neither but it sure is entertaining.

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