GQ's Sean Flynn paints a less-than-flattering portrait [1] of Ralph Reed's career in politics, and bid for Georgia's Lieutenant Governor spot.  Flynn fleshes out the details of Reed's symbiotic relationship with Jack Abramoff, including this ploy  [2]noted at TPMMuckraker, all of which go to support the thesis Abramoff himself advanced: that Reed is "an idealogue as far as cash goes."

The hypocrisy on display - particularly as summed up on page two of the article - combined with Reed's "playing dumb" approach to avoiding blame for his involvment in Abramoff's schemes is encapsulated by Matt Towery, the Georgia pollster who has been quoted extensively on the Reed-Cagle matchup: “The problem now [...] is that he’s got to prove to everyone that he wasn’t quite bright enough to know [the Abramoff stuff] was wrong but that he’s bright enough to govern their state as lieutenant governor.”