Ralph Reed: Money-Changer

What would Jesus do? He certainly wouldn't take money from gaming interests to support his supposed crusade to halt the spread of gambling. That's right ... taking gambling money to stop gambling. It makes perfect sense. You know, like when Jesus allowed the money-changers to continue defiling the temple after they gave him a 10 percent cut of the take.

Oh, wait, he did no such thing.

"And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves." -- Matthew 21:12 (KJV)

Maybe that particular Gospel was conveniently left out of that hypocrite Ralph Reed's Bible. Reed, who once described gambling as "a cancer on the American body politic," quietly took money from casino-owning Indians who desperately wanted to keep gambling out of neighboring states. It's sorta like selling crack to keep meth out of the neighborhood -- and pocketing a nice bit of change for yourself, say, more than a million dollars.

World magazine takes the darling of the Christian Coalition to task for his role in helping a Mississippi-based Indian tribe stop gaming (and competition) in Alabama -- all as part of his connection to disgraced sleezeball lobbyist (oxymoron alert!) Jack Abramoff. Now, World magazine is no left-wing attack publication; it describes itself as "committed to the Bible as the inerrant Word of God." It's also committed to exposing Wonder Boy Ralph to the very base he's exploited over the last 10 years.

E-mails made public by the U.S. Senate's Indian Affairs Committee show that Mr. Reed told Mr. Abramoff how much money he needed to conduct anti-gambling efforts in Alabama. Mr. Abramoff wrote that he would instruct the Choctaws to send the money through an intermediary organization to the Christian Coalition of Alabama (CCA). CCA later commissioned an investigation of the matter and has commendably posted on its website copies of canceled checks it received and invoices from Mr. Reed's firm that CCA identifies as requests for payment.

CCA did not reply to WORLD's request for further comment, but it has released a statement saying Mr. Reed never revealed that the anti-gambling donations came from tribal sources. In a June 2005 letter to the coalition's chairman, Mr. Reed admitted: "On reflection ... I should have further explained that the contributions came from the Choctaws." Lisa Baron, Mr. Reed's spokeswoman, maintains that Mr. Abramoff's firm told Mr. Reed that any funding from tribal sources would come from the tribe's "non-gambling funds."

Not very saintly of you there, Ralphy, letting the ever-popular "spokesperson" take the fall for "misspeaking" or "failing to clearly explain." Good Lord, did anyone there pass PR101? Had you, you would have learned that we immediately know you're lying when this card is played.

No, Ralphy, you knew exactly what you were doing. It's why you and your sleezeball lobbyist friend were playing shell games with the money, and it's why you clam up now as you try to become Georgia's next lieutenant governor. At least some of his former supporters aren't buying it.

Meanwhile, the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling's Mr. Grey is one of many angered by Mr. Reed's conduct: "The money was given to Ralph to protect gambling interests, and Ralph Reed became an agent for gambling. ... The real story here is that Ralph Reed used social conservatives for his own corporate ends. You don't get much more of a public betrayal than that."

Like in the case of Roy Moore and his Ten Commandments, when will the gullible, wannabe political players stop blinding following false prophets like Ralph Reed? Jesus was born -- and died -- poor and humble. What would Jesus do? Undoubtedly, he'd turn over Ralph Reed's table. Here's hoping the voters of Georgia will do the same.