Ralph Reed’s Revival
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on June 1st, 2011 4:40 am by HL
Ralph Reed’s Revival
Five years after a “humiliating loss” in the Republican primary for lieutenant governor of Georgia, Ralph Reed “is escaping the political purgatory that even many Republicans had predicted and may be gaining some traction as he seeks to emerge as a player in the 2012 campaign,” the New York Times reports.
“Reed is pursuing these grand, some say grandiose, plans with a nonprofit group that he has described as ‘a 21st-century version of the Christian Coalition on steroids.’ As the name implies, the Faith and Freedom Coalition hopes to rope in a broader constituency. His ‘sweet spot,’ he says, is the millions of people who were fired up by the fiscal concerns of the Tea Party and share the cultural values of evangelicals.”
Former Secret Service Agent Runs for Senate
Daniel Bongino, a former agent of the Secret Service whose assignment once included the protective detail for President Obama, has launched a campaign as a Republican challenger to Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) after leaving the agency in early May, according to National Journal.
“At an agency that stresses the silence and political neutrality of its agents, Bongino’s announcement is raising eyebrows. It’s not unusual for federal law-enforcement agents to run for office after they retire, but the Secret Service frowns upon former agents who make sudden turns to politics. The agency has fought to give presidential protective division agents legal standing to keep them from testifying about high-level conversations they overhear, lest they lose the trust of the commander in chief.”
Quote of the Day
“I think one of the reasons it’s probably time for me to leave is that sometimes too much experience can get in the way, and you can get too cautious. It may… be making me more cautious that I ought to be.”
— Defense Secretary Robert Gates, quoted by Politico, saying that his experience running two wars and serving eight presidents had become a burden.
