Ralph Reed spoke Saturday at the Christian Coalition of Georgia's annual political forum at Mount Vernon Baptist Church in Atlanta. Ralph, a lieutenant governor candidate for Georgia, had led the national Christian Coalition to prominence, and subsequently made a career as a political strategist out of being able to move Christian conservatives to action. However, at least half the crowd of 350 were visibly supporting his opponent, state Sen. Casey Cagle.

The first question tossed to Ralph in his forum with Cagle was about what the moderator called "his biggest regret" — Ralph's gambling related work with disgraced Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Ralph has worked on anti-gambling campaigns in several Southern states on behalf of Abramoff clients, Indian tribes out to protect their casino interests from potential rivals. Ralph also helped Abramoff defeat a proposed congressional ban on Internet gambling — work funded by a firm interested in selling state lottery tickets online.

Ralph replied, "If I knew then what I know now, I obviously wouldn't have done that work. To the extent that it caused any difficulty for the pro-family movement, I regret that. I have taken full responsibility.” He went on to say, "What I don't appreciate and what I think the voters of Georgia will reject is any unfair attempt by the liberal media and others to engage in guilt by association and to associate me with the misdeeds of others."

Classic political “spin.” By implying that it is only the “liberal media,” and not the U.S. Department of Justice, that is interested in his wrong doings, Ralph made it sound like the investigation was just a political ploy by his opponents.

The “guilt by association” remark implied that his only crime was no more than his 20-year friendship with Abramoff, not the fact that he was a close business and lobbying partner with the confessed criminal. “Guilt by association?” How about “guilt by collusion?” How about “accessory?”

Finally, by referring to his constituents as the “pro-family movement,” Ralph was trying to deflect the attention away from corruption and gambling and on to “pro-family” issues, such as abortion, gay rights and permissiveness. However, most of the discussion that evening revolved around the current Republican concerns over illegal immigrants, taxes and eminent domain.

What else were the Christian Coalition concerned about? The streets heading into Mount Vernon Baptist Church were lined with "Boot Perdue" signs put up by "flaggers" angry that Gov. Sonny Perdue didn't give them a chance to vote to restore the old Georgia flag containing the Confederate battle emblem. The flaggers stood outside the church, greeting people as they arrived.

Meanwhile, both this week’s Time Magazine and The Washingtonian are reporting the existence of unpublished photos of Bush and Abramoff grinning and gripping along with one of the admitted felon’s Indian tribe clients, despite White House denials that the President doesn't know Abramoff.

When ABC News first approached the White House about the alleged photo on Friday, the White House said the meeting happened but according to spokesperson Erin Healy, "Available records show that Mr. Abramoff was not in attendance." When asked to check more records about whether Abramoff was there, Scott McClellan told ABC News, "We have checked our records, and Erin's account is accurate — the records indicate he was not at the meeting."

As Mark Halperin wondered, “Strangely legalistic response from the Administration that vowed a change from Clinton era parsing. Makes us wonder, is it possible that ‘Everything they said was accurate but none of it was true?’"