A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that disgraced Christian Right/GOP strategist and "coporate humper" Ralph Reed was comtemplating a political comeback in his native Georgia by running for the House seat of retiring GOP Rep. John Linder. Well, the good news is that Reed has decided not to run, announcing it on Twitter and his Web site:
He said in a letter to supporters that he made the decision not to run for Congress after much thought and prayer.
"I can best advance conservative principles by continuing to serve as CEO of Century LLC and founding chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition," he wrote.
Century Strategies is his public relations firm and the Faith and Freedom Coalition is aimed at using the economic crisis and social media to bring a younger and more diverse audience into the GOP fold.
So Reed won't be running for Congress, but as those comments above show, he surely isn't going away. No, it would seem that Reed has decided that since his plan to become President blew up in his face back in 2006, his new political ambitions are to follow in the footsteps of his old college chums (and partners in sleeze) Grover Norquist and Jack Abramoff and become a new GOP kingmaker. As he said here:
"I realized I couldn't do both. I had to decided. I was either going to help put 50 or 100 people like me in the U.S. Senate, Congress and state houses or I was going to spend the next eight or nine months focusing solely on me. I ultimately decided the country was more important than me having a congressional seat."
How very altruistic and noble of you, Mr. Reed.
Reed isn't wasting anytime on his new aspirations, spending this past week in Iowa with the Dog-Humper himself, Rick Santorum. And sure enough, Ralph being Ralph, he was back to his favorite tactic, asking for lots and lots of moolah:
"We need to raise about half a million dollars to execute the program," he said.
And you can almost feel the drool running from his chin with this line:
"Tonight, when you give, we're not a PAC and we're not a candidate," he said. "Therefore, there is no limit to what you give here tonight. Isn't that exciting?"
Of course, he asked for cash. Basically, Reed is doing the same scheme he's always done, ask the conservative rubes for cash and like the gullible lemmings they are, they give it up. This even after the downfall of Abramoff and the destruction of Reed's political plans, not to mention all those e-mails that showed Reed to be the money-hungry fraud that his is. You'd think that might give them some pause, but no.
Dennis G. at Balloon Juice put it best here:
It is amazing to see a grifter like Reed running the same scame that he has run since the eighties yet again. Folks who give Reed money would be wiser giving it to one of those Nigerian emails of a few years ago (or tossing cash out of their car windows as they drive), but fools and their money are easily parted. That is why grifters like Ralph are always in the money and why the Modern Conservative movement survives failure after failure - a sucker really is born every minute.
They really never do learn, do they? How long until Abramoff makes his triumphant comeback?