While we have no use (other than mild amusement in the sideshow clown sense) for the Massachusetts Kennedys, they evidently believe (correctly) that Barnes' defeat was directly caused by the flag issue. On their website, they write: "While the flag controversy was not the only issue in the race, it was likely a decisive one and contributed to Barnes’s defeat in 2002."

They brought Barnes up to Boston to give him a "Profiles in Courage" plaque for the "courage" he showed in defying the will of the Georgia people. When you KNOW that you're right and that everyone else is wrong---like certain yankees are prone to be----then you show "courage" when you just thumb your nose at them and "do what's best for them."

From the name of President Kennedy's book, "Profiles in Courage" they call their trophies by the same name and give them to people who share their political agenda. It gives Teddie a good excuse for a party. In any event, Profiles in Arrogance would be a more accurate prize in the case of Barnes.

Barnes himself said on several occasions that it was the flag issue that led to his defeat.

So, we've established that Reed is a liar prone to making statements with no credibility whatsoever. Let's get back to the beginning and look at what Reed has done for himself...at the expense of others.

Enron paid Reed more than $300,000 to garner support for energy deregulation. Would it be a stretch to suggest Reed was instrumental in the higher prices you pay for natural gas in your home? For gasoline at the fuel pump? You be the judge.

In the 2000 GOP primary, Reed justified his big Enron fee by helping to smear John McCain during the South Carolina primary and was paid almost $3.7 million for helping with Bush's election campaign.

Federal investigations of long time friend Abramoff shows he paid Reed more than $4 million to help organize Christian opposition to Indian casinos in Texas and Louisiana, using money from other Indians with rival casinos. A subpoena has been issued for Reed from the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

Blogger Jesse Berney had this to say about Reed's exploitations to enrich himself:

Reed has amassed a political and financial fortune selling himself as a spokesman for the religious right. After retiring as president of the Christian Coalition, he opened up a political and communications consulting firm, offering his services to clients like Enron. He worked closely with superlobbyist Jack Abramoff, a close friend whose business currently under investigation by the Senate and who has close ties to several of the scandals currently embroiling Tom DeLay.

Reed's financial leverage of his religious bona fides have surprised even some of his allies on the right.

"Most of us in the movement are where we are because we believe in what we are doing," said the Rev. Don Wildmon, founder of the American Family Association. "I don't know any of us trying to get rich."

But Reed kept his religious credentials burnished lobbying for a campaign to close down Indian casinos in Texas and Louisiana, a job he was hired by Abramoff to do. Reed didn't reveal, however, that the money came from rival Indian tribes who wanted to shut down the casinos to improve their own business.

Reed exemplifies the Republican Party's approach to religion. While appealing to Americans with empty religious rhetoric, their own actions prove that values are meaningless to them — nothing more than political capital to be exploited.