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Thursday, October 4, 2012





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Witness

"Right hand of God"?







Ted Rudow III, MA, Encina Ave, Palo Alto, CA

At age 33, Ralph Reed was the Christian Right's wonder boy. He was anointed in a 1995 Time Magazine cover story as the “right hand of God” for spinning the trust of conservative Christians into political gold. It was Reed who built the Christian Coalition of televangelist Pat Robertson into a powerful arm of the Republican Party.



But Reed fell from grace in 2006 after he was implicated in the biggest Washington scandal since Watergate. His pal and colleague, the lobbyist Jack Abramoff, pleaded guilty to defrauding clients of millions of dollars, some of which had landed in Reed's pockets as well. The money spigot was now wide open. Abramoff was being paid millions as a lobbyist. Reed was being paid millions to dupe his fellow Christians.



He says he intends to build the 21st century version of the Christian Coalition, with an annual budget of $ 100 million, five million members, full-time lobbyists in all 50 state capitols, and an enormous database.



The pharisaical ultra-conservative, hard-Right support he receives comes largely from a hard-core of misled, fanatically anti-communist, fundamentalist, evangelical, bigoted, self-righteous religious minority, as well as from the vast silent majority, of the indifferent, couldn't-care-less, self-indulgent, self-satisfied. The fact is these fanatical religionists also consider themselves above the law and the courts and are willing to commit any crime in the name of national, religious or so-called family security!