"The grinning, spectral presence of Jack Abramoff, the corrupt superlobbyist, is the last image any Republican candidate needs wafting about this campaign year. But there Mr. Abramoff stands in a photograph from his infamous 2002 golf junket to St. Andrews, Scotland, beaming next to Ralph Reed, the former director of the Christian Coalition who is running hard now for lieutenant governor of Georgia.

"This is a piece of business I should have declined," Mr. Reed declared last week, following a Senate report that he had enjoyed $5.3 million in lobbying fees plus globe-trotting treats from Mr. Abramoff, whose influence-peddling mill bilked $80 million from Indian casino tribes.

Mr. Reed was described as having used his contacts with conservative Christian groups to drum up anti-gambling fervor so that Mr. Abramoff's tribal clients would be spared competition for their own casinos. That was the world of high-stakes lobbying he had asked Mr. Abramoff to introduce him to in 1998, when he e-mailed, "I need to start humping in corporate accounts!"

Mr. Reed said he had assurances he would not be paid with gambling profits, and indeed Mr. Abramoff was concerned that his associate's choirboy image not seem "kind of like hypocritical," according to one tribal witness. So the money was simply laundered through third parties � nonprofit charities and advocacy groups. The Senate report found one money conduit was the anti-taxation juggernaut of Grover Norquist, the conservative polemicist. Although he was found to have charged a fee, Mr. Norquist insisted his involvement was due to the casino tribes' anti-taxation philosophy.

Talk about kind of like hypocritical. The Senate report recommends a separate investigation of the abuse of tax-exempt advocacy groups as shields for profiteering lobbyists. This is an excellent idea. But don't bet Washington will be fast to enact a cure."

Get the Story:
The Whir of the Political Casino (The New York Times 6/29)
pwnyt

Senate Indian Affairs Committee Abramoff Report:
�GIMME FIVE�� INVESTIGATION OF TRIBAL LOBBYING MATTERS (June 2006)

Exhibits:
Pre-2001 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | Undated | Finance

Misisssippi Choctaw/DOI Letters:
Chief Martin/Jim Cason Correspondence

Relevant Links:
Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians - http://www.choctaw.org
Read About Reed - http://www.readaboutreed.com
Stop Ralph Reed - http://www.stopralphreed.com
Ralph Reed - http://www.ralphreed.com
Century Strategies - http://www.censtrat.com

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