There really aren’t too many things ticking me off these days. You likely could have guessed that with the shortage of Vines I’ve been issuing over the past few months. I am extremely busy with REAL work and don’t care to spend too much time on trivial, non-paying activities like engaging in slam-politics. At least, certainly not as much as I used to.

However, not to spend TOO much time on this particular matter, I do feel the need to discuss with you a group calling themselves Americans For Prosperity (“AFP”).

A month ago, I issued a Vine that included a promotion for an event held by AFP. At the time of my personal review of their Website and the reading of the announcement thought…”this looks interesting…and, it covers topics that have long been of interest to me….so, I’ll send out a notice.”

I attended the event a couple of Saturdays ago. Approximately 70 people were there…the majority of whom were (I kid you not) all die-hard supporters of Ralph Reed’s former quest for the Lt. Governorship of Georgia. Note I am not saying that they are “former die-hard supporters” but “die-hard supporters of his former campaign.”

I thought their presence was rather strange because THESE people (really, I could list them here, but I don’t feel like it) had spent the last decade+ in Georgia politics playing the Christian Coalition brand of character assassination politics of ANY candidate who didn’t bow down before them.

So, I’m sitting in the room, listening to the speeches of people who were NOT former members of Ralph’s Army of God (Speaker Glenn Richardson, Stephen Moore, etc.) when I take notice of the little paper brochure about AFP and I start thumbing through it.

And then I came upon a picture of a guy making a speech outdoors with an array of congressmen behind him….and I thought to myself “that guy looks familiar…why does he look familiar?…” and then I read the caption that identified him: It was none other than Tim Phillips, Ralph Reed’s former business partner/hatchet man at Century Strategies.

Folks, I don’t know how to explain this to you (you Ralph Reed folks will never understand how well I can smell a rat, but I can), but, this is what I know: WHEREVER Tim Phillips is, Ralph Reed is there, somewhere, as well. He may be far in the background of AFP, but he is there. Hell, his pepes were all there in that meeting.

Just to refresh your memories, it was Ralph Reed who was the front “salesman” for Century Strategies, and Tim Phillips was the actual guy who put together the mechanics of designing the mail and getting it out the door. So, when Ralph was e-mailing Jack Abramoff about the casino scams they were running in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, it was Tim Phillips who developed the mail programs that got all of the Christian groups fired-up to fight the casinos that Ralph was being paid by competing casinos to stop.

People like Tim Phillips and Ralph Reed will lie to your face without batting an eye or ever feeling a sense of shame. Their followers (i.e., the folks I recognized in the room I was in) are also of the same mindset. It is the only way they know how to operate.

AFP, as an FYI, claims itself to be some sort of right-wing, pro-business, pro-American group. Knowing that Tim Philips is President of AFP tells me that that is a front for some other agenda/agendas.

You know, as much disdain as we on the right have for groups like MoveOn.org, the simple fact of the matter is that we KNOW who is financing MoveOn.org (George Soros). We have NO idea who is financing Americans for Prosperity. And, we never will, either. Because they are not required to disclose.

And, I can assure you that as long as Tim Phillips and the folks who are all former members of the Ralph Reed “do anything it takes to earn a buck or win a race” support group are involved in AFP, the subversive nature of AFP will never be known. Con-artists never reveal their true intentions; they just collect their largesse of dollars and start scoping out some new victims.

Technorati Tags: Americans For Prosperity, Ralph Reed, Tim Phillips, Century Strategies, AFP

This entry was posted by Bill Simon, on Tuesday, August 7th, 2007 at 11:29 pm and is filed under Rumors and You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.