Rumors have it that people searching for the truth about Ralph Reed's involvement in the Louisiana casino games do not have to search very far.

Today, the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs met for about a 3-hour session; most of it was broadcast live on C-SPAN via Cable TV or off the Web. This is available on the Web if you really want to sit through 3 hours of mind-numbing testimony...but, we advise you to not waste one moment listening to it. They could not discuss in 3 hours what needed to be discussed.

The smoking guns are actually contained in the 368-page document dump
of today's hearing which is now available at: Indian.Senate.Gov. It is yet another 26 Megabyte PDF file with all sorts of communications and contracts that we look forward to perusing.

However...we couldn't get past the very first page. Actually, we couldn't even get past the first 2 communiques on the first page of the package. What was revealed was a couple of e-mail communications between Ralph and Jack Abramoff. We will faithfully transcribe that page here (a copy of which is available for you to view on the upper-right of this page):

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From: Ralph Reed
Sent: Wednesday, August 09, 2000 9:36 AM
To: Jack Abramoff
Subject: FW: New Orleans gambling fight

Looks like Harris [Harrah's] Casino in New Orleans is looking for tax relief and [Governor] Foster is likely to favor it. We could stop it. Is this of any interest to any of our friends?

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From: Abramoff, Jack (DC)
Sent: Wednesday, August 09, 2000 3:52 PM
To: Ralph Reed
Subject: Re: New Orleans gambling fight

I'll find out.
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PV Sez: Pray tell, Ralph...who were "our friends?" Couldn't be the Christian Coalition...they didn't hire Jack Abramoff. Couldn't be a group of pastors...they didn't hire Jack Abramoff.

The fact is, the jig is now officially "UP!" "Our friends" were the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana. And, what Ralph was offering to do was help the Coushatta Tribe out by making sure the Harrah's Casino in New Orleans wasn't able to get a tax break and keep operating.

The Harrah's Casino, you see, was a competitor of the casino interests of the Coushatta Tribe, and "our friends" would definitely be interested in seeing Harrah's Casino lose any opportunity to stave-off bankruptcy so that their casinos could continue to thrive in Louisiana.

Ralph Reed knew exactly who he was working for in Louisiana, and, he knew exactly who was paying him. He was getting paid by one casino (The Coshuttas) to use his Christian contacts to fight against any casino that threatened the success of the Coushutta Tribe's casino operations.

In the above exchange between Ralph and Jack, Ralph is actually soliciting new business from the Coushuttas. How about that?

Is this illegal? Maybe not, but, it proves Ralph Reed has done nothing but lie about what he knew about who he was really working for, and why they were paying him. His arguments in the past about "always being against the spread of casino gambling" have just been rendered horse manure.

Because, you see, if one is against "the spread of casino gambling," then one must fight against ALL casino operations, not just the ones you are hired to fight against.

We will cover more on our findings...boy!...we certainly hope we can get through Page 2 without issuing a Special Alert!...