• The Old Gray Drunk Lady vs. Ralph Reed

    The New York Times seems not to like fundamentalist Christians, which by all accounts is what Ralph Reed at least was. (He worked for Pat Robertson for a time.) He’s running for Lieutenant Governor of Georgia as we speak, and the Old Gray Drunk Lady has taken a few more editorial shots at the man, invoking the “grinning, spectral presence of Jack Abramoff, the corrupt superlobbyist.” You see, the paper has a snap of Reed on a golf course with Abramoff.

    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.

    Grover’s made his own bed, and I’m sure the Old Gray Drunk Lady will opine about that one as the night grows older or the plot gets thicker.

    The Times Op/Ed shouldn’t damage Reed. He’s running in Georgia, where voters need not hold the effete boys on the NYT’s editorial board in high esteem. Or even listen to them from a distance, for that matter.