A Most Dangerous Fellow, Part II

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I wrote what follows a bit down below about one month ago, long before any thoughts about a Government Shutdown became today's looming nightmare.

I'm re-posting this because I believe what's really Going Down on the Shut Down Front actually represents the First Major Battle of the 2012 National Elections.

The pre-eminent question on my mind is this: why would the House Speaker tell Democrats where the "Break Point" lay -- at $33 Billion (Boehner's Number) -- and then pull one of the all-time weasel deals known to American Politics by upping the number to $40 Billion?

Then, after getting Democrats to swallow his $33 Billion Rat, Mr. Speaker permits the Tea Baggers in his Caucus to add amendments outlawing something that is already not permitted by law: federal funding for abortions, and then slashing all funding for Planned Parenthood.

The answer: Boehner has thrown in with the Obama-Bashing, Liberal Hating, Neo-Con, Tea Bagging Wing of the GOP.

Boehner et. al. smell opportunity on several fronts: to draw a hard line exempting all federal dollars for health Care Reform; to frame all federal spending on national defense and homeland security; to cut all Social and Cultural Funding from the federal budget their own brand of a Social Agenda --one that was crafted to shore up their support among Evangelicals, Southern Baptists, and other Religious Fundamentalists (excluding the Muslims, of course.)

It is an exquisite Red State Southern Strategy, one which, if allowed to go unexposed and unchallenged, will secure both Congress and the White House for the Neo-Con Tea Baggers in 18 months.

Or so they calculate...

In any event, this Conservative, Neo-Con, Tea Bagging Social Agenda has been framed, and will be their rallying point.

The Major Domo, the Main Orchestrator, the Guru of this blatant Right-Hand Thrust? None other than our Old Friend ... Ralph Reed.

One other Architect has surfaced, Art Finkelstein. More about him later...

Herewith my original commentary... from March 9th.

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My Liberal and Progressive friends keep blowing me off every time I mention this, so I’ll bring the matter to the forefront and let you think about it.

I maintain that the Most Dangerous Man in America is Ralph Reed.

I met Reed personally many years ago, when he was a mid-level spear-carrier working on the Reagan for President Campaign. His age, at the time, probably worked against his advancement to a high leadership position in Reagan’s run for the White House.

But he executed his sole task – getting out the Morality Vote for The Gipper – brilliantly.

Using the religious / evangelical networks as they existed back then in their infancy, Reed was able to deliver a 92 % Reagan vote out of a 67% Election Day turnout from that targeted group.

Those numbers only added Salt To The Wounds in Reagan’s Landslide victory over Jimmy Carter.

Reed’s “Get Out The Vote” skills most certainly caught the attention of the Republicans back then, especially the Conservatives. He had tapped into a Grass Roots Strategy that was alien to the Ivy Leaguers who called most of the shots for the GOP in those days.

And Get This: Reed had lifted just about all of his tactics from the Democratic Party Play Book!

Reed went on to become a Player in the George H.W. Bush campaigns, but I always believed that he was somewhat marginalized by the Bush Team’s Ivy League elitism.

First, Bush never played that well to Southern Baptists and the other members of the Religious Far Right. Second, Reed could have changed that situation if he was given that portfolio.

Nevertheless, Bush and his Yale Crew never used Reed’s skills to their full advantage and, as a result, Bush lost to Bill Clinton in 1992.

But Reed Kept on Truckin’, as they say.

He launched his consulting and polling businesses in support of Conservative /NeoCon pols, kept his coalitions together, and waded through the political Back Waters of a handful of Southern States for four years supporting state-level candidates until ...

… Reed caught the attention of then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush, Carl Rove, and a few others in the Texas Republican Mafia.

They hired Reed back in 1998 to execute one task – and one task only:

To Galvanize the Evangelicals / Southern Baptists / Fundamentalists into the Christian Coalition in full-throttle support of W’s run for the Oval Office in 2000.

Reed and his staffers spent much time in Florida back then. They succeeded in harvesting a 92% vote out of a 77% Election Day Religious Far Right turnout for Bush in the Sunshine State when "W" went on to defeat Al Gore – thanks to a little help from the courts involving “hanging chads.”

I call this seminal moment in US History the “Ralph Reed Factor.”

Without Reed’s two-year effort to get out more than 2.7 million, motivated, Religious Far Right votes, Gore would have cake-walked into the White House – and America would have ended up being a much different place in which we now live.

Until The Proverbial Cows Come Home, we could argue whether or not Gore would have invaded Afghanistan or Iraq. I, for one believe Gore would have had a different response to 9/11 and Saddam…

Nevertheless …

The Reed Organization is Back In Business. They're working for the GOP, preparing the Ground – especially Southern Ground -- for the 2012 national election.

They approach politics with a fervor that borders on zealotry.

I read an article a few days ago that predicted the GOP will spend more than $1 Billion on the Presidential Race alone! Another $2 Billion has been projected to be spent on US House and Senate races. That’s Billions with a Capital “B.”

All of this fund-raising, organizing, Grass Roots, GOTV, and candidate-grooming is taking place to accomplish one goal:

To Put The Big Hurt on Democrats, Progressives and Liberals in November, 2012. To make this happen, Reed's work in energizing the Religious Far Right will go a long way in accomplishing that goal.

I don’t need to remind my L/P Friends what’s at stake here.

But I do, indeed, need to remind them to get off of their Duffs and Wake Up -- Get To Work in amassing your campaign resources.

Otherwise, the NeoCons win. We Lose.

And that, my friends, is why I consider Ralph Reed the Most Dangerous Man in America.