Garrison Keillor has a real gift for crafting our language. In the fine tradition of satire, he doesn't pull his punches. Here's the opening paragraph from a column appearing under syndication around the country (this link to
Chicago Tribune):
If a preacher secretly accepts a bucket of money from a saloonkeeper to organize a temperance rally at a rival saloon and maybe send in a gang of church ladies to chop up the bar with their little hatchets, this would strike you and me as sleazy, but others are willing to make allowances, and so Ralph Reed's political career is still alive and breathing in Georgia. He has bathed himself in tomato juice and hopes to smile his way through the storm.
Ralph Reed and Jack Abramoff together with Susan Ralston. Ralston, who worked for Abramoff at the time of this pic, took a job with Karl Rove in the White House when the Bush Administration came to power
Wish I could copy the whole piece, but copyright doesn't allow, so check out the whole text in Pahrump Valley Times from the heart of Sagebrush Rebellion country from the 1970s/80s. The humor of the Prairie Home Companion would appear able to open some doors where Daily Kos might not be much noticed. Here's a couple more choice paragraphs from same:
"Had I known then what I know now, I would not have undertaken the work," he said, when the details came out in a Senate Indian Affairs Committee report. Mr. Reed insists he didn't know it was gambling money, which, given the e-mail traffic between him and Mr. Abramoff, is a thin twig on which to hang a defense. Either Mr. Reed understands English or he does not. Mr. Abramoff tells him that he'll get a check as soon as the Coushattas send in the money. The Coushattas were in the casino business. You don't come up with $5.3 million from selling beaded coin purses.
...
The sexual trespass of a president is a story any mortal can understand, and the use of your father's influence to sneak you into a military unit where you're less likely to face combat is an act of cowardice all of us cowards can appreciate. But the chutzpah of Mr. Reed in wheedling money from Abramoff to snooker Christians into an uproar against gambling is cold-hearted greed. And his work on behalf of the sweatshops and sex factories of the Marianas, arguing that the Chinese women imported there were being given the chance to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, takes us to yet an entirely new level.
It's good to see the mega-scandal of the Marianas Islands getting some ink in flyover country. Google news doesn't return any results from Georgia papers for the Keillor, but these things usually take a few days to make the syndication rounds, so I still have my hopes that Reed's prospective constituents will get a chance to read this over their morning coffee before the July 18 Georgia primary. Reed is also facing some problems regarding certain abuses of non-profit charity activities.
According to the Washington Times July 5, Reed is currently up in the polls for this race 32-27 from Insider Advantage. By all accounts, it's close, with more votes for Undecided/Not Sure (41%) than for either named candidate. With the primary less than 2 weeks away, the campaigning is in high gear, and not exactly genteel in tone:
Two weeks before his July 18 Republican primary showdown with state Sen. Casey Cagle, Mr. Reed is locked in a battle for political survival. On Monday, after weeks of attack ads from Mr. Reed, the Cagle campaign fired back with what Georgia pollster Matt Towery termed a "hydrogen bomb" -- a TV ad accusing Mr. Reed of "betrayal" for his role in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.
...
A Reed spokesman accused Mr. Cagle of "false attacks and unfair guilt by association ... a desperate attempt to distract voters from his own ethical conflicts," a reference to Mr. Cagle's role as chairman of the state Senate's Finance Committee and his position on the board of a bank in his native Hall County.
But the Cagle campaign retorts that they're hardly making it up:
The Cagle campaign defended the ad by citing a Thursday report in the Wall Street Journal that "Abramoff appears to have funneled $4 million in fees from the Mississippi Choctaw to Mr. Reed's consulting firm" through tax-exempt organizations.
Another WT story (7/4) reports more about the Cagle ad in question:
State Sen. Casey Cagle has been attacked with what he calls "outright lies" in a barrage of TV ads from Ralph Reed, his rival in the July 18 Republican primary for lieutenant governor of Georgia.
Not surprising to say, John McCain, who was at the receiving end of some ugly slander in the 2000 Presidential campaign, particularly in the South Carolina primary.
Yesterday, the Cagle campaign fired back with what one Republican called a potential "hydrogen bomb": a TV ad tying Mr. Reed to the Jack Abramoff scandal.
...
It was a mistake for the Cagle campaign to wait so long to call attention to Mr. Reed's connection to Abramoff, said Georgia pollster Matt Towery. Mr. Cagle's first round of TV ads -- focusing on the candidate's 12 years of experience as a conservative leader in the state Senate -- were "a waste of money ... that did not penetrate," said Mr. Towery, whose latest InsiderAdvantage poll shows Mr. Reed leading by five percentage points. "If [Mr. Cagle] had attacked, he would have gotten massive media coverage," said Mr. Towery, who was a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor in 1990.
...
Mr. Reed began the TV "air war" with ads accusing Mr. Cagle of opposing property rights, an important issue to conservatives in the wake of last year's Supreme Court decision in the Kelo v. City of New London, Conn., eminent-domain case. Mr. Cagle -- who supported legislation intended to protect private-property owners from the types of eminent-domain seizures permitted by the Kelo decision -- says the Reed ads are "completely false."
I must admit, I find GOP mud-slinging at each other to be an entertaining spectator sport. The more mess they leave behind, the better the prospects for Democratic candidates in the general election.
I suppose it would be ideal to see Reed lose in the general election, rather than the primary. Another Republican without his high level of scandal stench ultimately has a better chance at victory. But when it comes to Reed, any time he gets exposed is good news to my thinking.