Christian Coalition gambled, and lost

QUICK, SOMEONE SHOULD REPORT THIS. To whom? How about William J. Bennett, who could get the Christian Coalition back on the path to righteousness based on his own experience. ---BBB

Christian Coalition gambled, and lost
Friday, September 03, 2004
Birhamington News
John GilesChristian Coalition President

The Christian Coalition of Alabama is in a jam - a mess of its own making. The group that considers itself the last word on morality in politics is on pretty shaky ground right now. And its top leader is squirming worse than a liberal Democrat filling out one of the Christian Coalition's notoriously loaded questionnaires.

You see, it turns out the Christian Coalition, long the leader of the fight against gambling in Alabama, has been fueled in part by money from out-of-state Indian casinos.

Not directly, of course.

As reported by The Washington Post, The Montgomery Advertiser and Roll Call, the Indian casino money was filtered through Washington, D.C., lobbyists, to Ralph Reed's consulting firms, to various anti-gambling fights in the South, including Alabama.

Reed - a former national leader of the Christian Coalition and now a top campaign adviser to President Bush - acknowledged getting as much as $4 million from the Indians. But he says he was assured the money came from other tribal enterprises, not casino revenue. (Yeah, and we've got some oceanfront land in Arizona to sell, too.)

No matter how Reed couches it, the fact is that Indians protecting their casino business were bank- rolling gambling-opposition groups - including a Reed/Christian Coalition team that fought back video poker at Alabama dog tracks.

All of this might be chalked up in the category of strange bedfellows, except for this: Over the years, dog tracks have accused the Alabama Christian Coalition of taking gambling money, and the coalition has hotly denied it. But the coalition steadfastly refused to disclose where its money actually came from. That made the Christian Coalition look suspicious then, and it does even more so now that the Indian connection is coming out.

This newspaper, which has strongly opposed expanded gambling, has said all along the Christian Coalition should reveal its contributors. That's a good rule for any group involved in a political battle. If nothing else, knowing the names will be disclosed ensures that groups are more curious or cautious about who's giving them money.

Christian Coalition President John Giles undertook a weak attempt at damage control. "This appears to be a well-orchestrated attempt to distract from the president during the convention - the timing is most suspicious," Giles wrote.

Actually, the story is a byproduct of a congressional committee's investigation of the exorbitant fees Indian tribes paid to lobbyists Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon (who, incidentally, was once press secretary to Gov. Bob Riley).

Giles' chief concern shouldn't be why this is coming out now. His chief concern should be whether his group breached its standing promise not to take gambling money. From where we're sitting, we'd say Giles and the Christian Coalition gambled with their credibility - and lost.