Investigation into GOP Lobbyists Snares Christianist Leaders

Montgomery Independent:

Sen. John McCain’s inquiry into the looting of nearly $100 million in American Indian gambling revenues by lobbyists Jack Abramoff, Grover Norquist, Michael Scanlon and Ralph Reed [has allegedly revealed] that millions of dollars from tribes with gambling facilities found their way into the hands of the Christian Coalition, the Coalition Against Gambling Expansion and others who were using the Indian funding, particularly money from the Mississippi Choctaws, to fight a lottery and video gaming in Alabama.

Beyond the question of illegalities, this presents an ethical problem for the Christian Coalition of Alabama because it’s president, John Giles, has been asked repeatedly – and under oath – over the years to disclose whether his organization took donations from gaming groups. Giles reportedly always answered that no gambling money, either directly or indirectly, had ever flowed to the Christian Coalition of Alabama in its six-year fight against the twin sins of a state lottery and video poker.

“I’d have to resign tomorrow,” Giles told one lawmaker in 2003, because while it might not be illegal to take gaming money, it would be unethical.

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