Defending Georgia’s Indefendable

Why pollster Matt Towery goes well out of his way to champion Georgia’s two most utterly loathsome political creatures, Ralph Reed and now Newt Gingrich, is beyond me. No, it’s not really beyond me, but it’s just icky. Talk about sniffing around the tainted goods. From Towery, writing today for Southern Political Report:

If John McCain and the GOP want to thank someone for helping turn around what seemed a dead-in-the-water campaign in a matter of weeks, they can thank former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Gingrich chose not to enter the 2008 presidential race, but his decision to use his “think tank” American Solutions organization to push for a “Drill Here, Drill Now” petition back in the spring is likely the source of John McCain’s miraculous rebound in the polls.

How stupid does Newt Gingrich still think we are? That we’ll fall for that good ‘ole empty-rhetoric bullshit and Rovian-style spin about Drill Here. Drill Now. As stupid as an arm-waving, hallucinating, religion-addled evangelical, the kind who get all glassy-eyed and foamy at the mouth (and mind) when John McCain responds to Pastor Rick Warren’s question about what in the gosh darn heck are we gonna do with Mr. Evil? Why Defeat it! of course, busted out a dogma-tarted-up McCain that fateful night on Saddleback Mountain. But I diverge…

John Stewart’s take on all that Drill Here. Drill Now yadayadayada is below. There’s absolutely no way I could say it better.

As for Republican campaign stalker Ralph Reed, the bad date that won’t go away for McCain, other than the new Obama ad running in Georgia painting him (Reed), whew, finally as the stinky cheesey shuckster he really is, I direct your attention yet again to… The Book of Ralph. One read says it all. Or just let Brother Bill Maher preach you the gospel for a few. (Always my preferred reality delivery device.)

And that, Mr. T, is the reality of how our peach-flavored tainted political goods play in the new political media powerhouse – the netroots political media comedy nation.

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The World Is Allergic To Ralph Reed

Poor Ralph Reed. Nobody appreciates him. He wrote a decent political thriller of a novel, but it’s not like The New Yorker was going to review it. Heck, I doubt even our local alt-weekly, Creative Loafing, bothered to review Reed’s novel, Dark Horse, as such a review might impact their SEO strategy for this comedic, graphic novel-style gem, The Book of Ralph, by Doug Monore… if Creative Loafing had a SEO strategy in the first place. But I diverge…

Now Reed’s just about the only Georgia Republican willing to raise money for McCain, yet no one wants him at that party either! From today’s AJC:

On Aug. 7, Reed wrote friends and supporters asking them to give to Monday’s fund-raiser. He praised McCain and said he had joined the “McCain Victory 2008” team in a message that was billed as a “special invitation from Ralph Reed.”

McCain Victory 2008 is a joint fund-raising venture of the McCain campaign, the RNC and various state Republican parties.

The first hint of controversy came Monday when Campaign Money Watch, a Washington group that monitors campaign finance, called on McCain to cancel the event.

“Senator McCain knows exactly how Ralph Reed helped Jack Abramoff defraud Indian tribes out of tens of millions of dollars,” Campaign Money Watch director David Donnelly said. “Senator McCain should spare himself any further embarrassment by canceling this event immediately.”

My thoughts on Reed and McCain and The Party, back in June of this year for The Huffington Post’s Off The Bus project, are here.

What’s a pretty, corruption scandal-tainted Evangie Boy gonna do when he so desperately wants to be an inside (R) party player that he’s willing to hang his hat on a Republican (McCain) “notoriously allergic to religion?” These is indeed hard economic and evangelical times.

Republicans – Losing Their Religion

Boy, if anything is more in need of some good old-fashioned inspiration these days, it would be Republicans. As I was trained-up long ago in the ways of impartiality and journalistic neutrality, I went to hear Ralph Reed talk at the Atlanta Press Club about his new novel, Dark Horse, and all the “new politics” going on around us since Reed last held political court.

I thought it would be a hoot to have him sign my copy of the book. Which he did, although he wasn’t terribly engaging, no breezy banter with the ladies that most socially-inclined men would engage in at such a function, obviously looking beyond me for someone he recognized.

Seems Reed doesn’t read Peach Pundit; the nom de plume “SpaceyG” rang zero bells of recognition for him, although it set-off some odd, squirrelly behavior in the person behind me in line, who claimed to have once been a Peach Pundit front pager, but then refused to tell me the name under which he had once so boldly opined. What a bunch of social weirdos Republicans are, but I digress…

Reed is slight, small, well-tailored and smart looking. Attractive and telegenic. As someone once said, he looks doll-ish. Not a terribly big crowd came out to the Press Club for Reed. The ones who did were mostly, ummm, long in the tooth as they say. A handful of blacks and Repug political hopefuls with obnoxiously loud mouths. A couple of photogs from some media outlet, and one AJC political reporter, the one with the blog that gets 5K views a day, or so I hear.

The APC couldn’t get a sponsor for Reed’s book signing event. No one would touch him. No Atlanta media or business, which I thought was rather sad given that he is a prominent Georgia boy. A sign of the times I suppose. As one person said, “He’s toxic. And so is his party.” In Georgia? Yes, even in Georgia.

The saddest part was watching Reed trying to be a good party cheerleader while still maintaining his religion. At one point he talked about how McCain was going to need every bit of the religious-conservative (evangelical and pro-life Catholic I assume) base of the party he could get to ever get elected, especially if Dems were going to register and turn out the anticipated large numbers of young, inspired, new voters.

At that point, I had to ask the question, “How can McCain, who’s notoriously allergic to religion, possibly inspire and motivate religious conservatives then?” To which Reed answered by saying that McCain was really a religious person (oh sure), and that someone he knew, a name I didn’t recognize so it was probably an evangelical preacher-type, had once “talked to McCain about his religion.” Reed thought that McCain worshiped at some church in Arizona, but he didn’t seem to know exactly what the denomination was.

When pressed for examples of how McCain has ever inspired the religious-conservative masses, Reed just said, “He’s just going to have to be himself.” Well ok then. Fine by the secular humanist in me, but if that’s supposed to satisfy, let alone “inspire and motivate” the evangelical masses to the polls, then I might as well be Pastor Rick Warren’s next prom date.

Think I’ll just go read the book now.