Salon.com’s Joe Conason tallies the number of religious figures and moralizing laymen involved in the Jack Abramoff scandals (such as Ralph Reed and Tom DeLay), saving his best bile for Rabbi Daniel Lapin, an apologist for Christian conservatives whose fake Abramoff religious charity, “Toward Tradition,” funneled thousands of gambling dollars to the wife of a Tom DeLay staffer. Lapin also got himself involved in the fake credentials business, supplying Abramoff with rolls of resume padding in the form of fake awards for scholarship in “Biblical and American History.” Conason wonders what sort of post-prison redemption is left for hypocrites such as these, but we wonder whether the constituency that’s been played for fools with this biblical “bag of tricks” will finally get the insult — the supposition of their ignorance that politicians think a few holy-rolling words will blind them to actions? And if they do get it, what they intend to do about it.
Men of God and Abramoff
06 January 2006