Scarborough: "Ralph Reed, as always, is right"

On the June 15 edition of MSNBC's Scarborough Country, guest Ralph Reed, chairman of the Southeast Region for the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign, made statements such as, "[T]he president [George W. Bush] will prevail" in the November presidential election. The show's host, former U.S. Representative Joe Scarborough (R-FL) concluded his segment with Reed as follows: "And Ralph Reed, as always, is right."

In addition to his role in the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign, Reed founded and currently serves as president of Century Strategies, a political consulting firm. As chairman of the Georgia Republican Party in 2002, he helped Saxby Chambliss defeat incumbent senator Max Cleland (D-GA), a Vietnam veteran who lost three limbs during the war. Chambliss aired advertisements against Cleland that featured footage of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden and attacked Cleland's record on national security. (Reed defended the controversial ads. According to an article in the June 13 issue of the Orlando Sentinel, "Reed denies the ads equated Cleland with bin Laden and Saddam. Their photos were not morphed into Cleland's face, Reed noted." But, as the Sentinel reported, "Republican Sens. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and John McCain of Arizona -- both Vietnam veterans -- were so irate that they complained to their party about the ads until the Saddam and bin Laden photos were removed.")

Reed also served as the executive director of the Christian Coalition from 1989 to 1997.

—N.C.