Ralph Reed Casualty of Jack Abramoff Ties

In the Georgia Republican primary for lieutenant governor, Ralph Reed was defeated by Casey Cagle; here's an excerpt from an article by Matthew Bigg of The Washington Post:

Cagle's attacks focused on a U.S. Senate Indian Affairs committee report on Abramoff last month that said Reed, in work as a lobbyist, rallied Christian conservatives to stop gambling initiatives. But it said that work was in part funded by competing gambling interests represented by Abramoff.

A recent Cagle ad said Reed took millions of dollars from Abramoff to help casinos. Reed and Abramoff are longtime friends and business partners. Reed has not been charged over the case and denies wrongdoing.

Justin Rood of TPMMuckraker has more:

Ralph Reed barely finished his concession speech when press accounts began fingering Jack Abramoff for Reed's failure. Reed -- Jack's longtime political companion, who was running for Georgia Lieutenant Governor -- appears to be the first electoral casualty of the Abramoff scandal.

Paul Kiel, also of TPMMuckraker had a story yesterday:

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.

Republicans on the far right sure seem to have access to awful lot of money these days. Note the operative word in the scandal: millions. Of course billions have disappeared in Iraq and billions more in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Those old $25,000 speaking fees politicians and pundits used to help themselves to seem pretty tame in the current era.