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As for Reed, who is campaigning to become Lieutenant Governor of Georgia, he faces the wrath of his former Christian Coalition partners in Alabama. They say they feel tricked into working against the Alabama lottery on behalf of casino owners who saw it merely as competition. Alabama coalition president John Giles says that the organization has begun an investigation and that Reed's lawyers are cooperating. The Choctaws last week supported Reed's claim that none of the money paid to oppose the lottery came from gambling profits. Reed's Republican-primary opponent, state senator Casey Cagle, has made Reed's association with Abramoff a campaign issue. "We were working to shut down a gambling casino, and I make no apologies," Reed told TIME in March.
What of the friendship among the three men? In 2002 Abramoff came to see Reed as competition and cut him off the Choctaw gravy train. "He is a bad version of us! No more money for him," Abramoff wrote Scanlon. Norquist was still standing by Abramoff last week, in a way. "I've known Jack for a long time," he said. "He's never approached me for anything improper. But we have led very different lives over the last 20 years." --With reporting by Greg Fulton and Greg Land/Atlanta and Viveca Novak/ Washington