The Obama camp is releasing an ad in Georgia slamming John McCain for accepting campaign fundraising from Jack Abramoff's crony, Ralph Reed. As the voiceover says, McCain headed up a major Senate inquiry into the Abramoff. The Senator used the so-called "Gimme Five" hearings to cast himself as a bipartisan maverick tough on public corruption. In fact, McCain concealed as much as he revealed, and thereby put many rich and powerful people in his debt. 

I spent several months reporting on the Abramoff scandal for Raw Story. I can say without hesitation that this ad presents the unvarnished truth: McCain did go easy on Reed and a lot of other well-connected Republicans, and now he's cashing in. McCain never even called Reed to testify before the Senate.

Reed was at the very center of the plot to defraud American Indian tribes of tens of millions of dollars. He wasn't just an Abramoff crony, he was a co-conspirator. Reed took gambling money from Abramoff's tribal gaming clients to defeat a lottery referendum in Alabama in order to prevent competition for their casinos. Reed played a key role in laundering the money Abramoff bilked from the tribes.

Ironically, the public still doesn't know the full extent of Reed's culpability because McCain refuses to release something like 70% of all the documents he amassed in his inquiry. Henry Waxman says that McCain won't even release some of these documents to the House Oversight Committee.

McCain knows exactly how dirty Reed is, though. He has no business taking money from Reed and calling himself a maverick. Moreover, McCain agreed to attend Ralph Reed's fund raising event. When the big day came, even Reed was too ashamed to show his face--but John McCain will probably keep the $1.75 million raised at the event.

When you've been outclassed by Ralph Reed, it's time to take stock.