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Ryan's Real Values? Reed and Rand

Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan will hold a town hall teleconference with Ralph Reed, the disgraced former head of the Christian Coalition who is making a political comeback(link is external) with a conservative voter turnout project called the Faith and Freedom Coalition(link is external). That group is sending voters flyers warning(link is external) that reelecting Obama would allow the president to “complete America’s destruction.” They also compare(link is external) Obama’s policies to the threat posed to America by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

For all Paul Ryan’s talk about values, it’s worth remembering who his pal Ralph Reed is: a self-enriching(link is external) win-at-any-cost political operative whose own campaign for office was tanked by revelations of Reed’s involvement in a scandal(link is external) with Jack Abramoff, the convicted corrupt lobbyist who helped Reed get business “humping in corporate accounts” after he left the Christian Coalition and started his own consulting firm.

As Kyle has noted(link is external):

font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#323232">There are few political operatives active today that are as ruthless and cynical as Ralph Reed.

color:#323232">Reed is, after all, the man who infamously declared(link is external) that he specializes in "guerrilla warfare," and bragged "I paint my face and travel at night. You don't know it's over until you're in a body bag." 

color:#323232">Reed also knowingly took hundreds of thousands of dollars(link is external) from corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff to manipulate and mobilize his Religious Right allies to fight gambling expansions in order to protect Abramoff's client's gambling interests.  Reed even had some of the money laundered through third-parties in order to try and conceal its origins, yet continues to insist to this day that he is "proud" of the "outstanding"(link is external) work he did on behalf of Abramoff and his clients.

Ryan cites his Catholic faith to distract attention from his devotion to Ayn Rand and her infamous hostility to charity toward the poor.  Reed himself preaches the Tea Party’s notion that federal government programs that serve the poor and elderly are unconstitutional(link is external). (And of course, for a big chunk of the Religious Right, the social safety net is not only unconstitutional, but unbiblical(link is external).)

The FFC held several events(link is external) at the Republican National Convention featuring other notable “values” stalwarts such as Newt Gingrich, union-busting Scott Walker(link is external), anti-gay activist Jim Garlow(link is external) and down-the-government-in-the-bathtub anti-tax zealot Grover Norquist(link is external).

Reed said(link is external) earlier this year that American Christians must get down on their knees and beg God for forgiveness for “what we have allowed to happen” to the country – then God might have mercy on America (the implication being that God would help Romney defeat Obama).

 Back in 2008, John McCain was embarrassed(link is external) by watchdog groups over his participation in a fundraiser organized by Reed; in the end Reed did not attend. Four years later, the values-promoting Paul Ryan seems to have no hesitation embracing Reed, who exemplifies the self-promoting values of Ryan inspiration Ayn Rand.