A Tale of Two Stories

One Republican who came to prominence in the '90s grows up a little:

South Carolina Rep. Bob Inglis made a name for himself in the late 1990s as one of Bill Clinton's most zealous pursuers, an impeachment "manager" who attacked the moral failings of the president with a gusto that earned him a devoted following in the staunchly conservative "Upstate" of conservative South Carolina. But with his governor now felled by similar temptations, Inglis sees an opening for the Republican Party, a chance to "lose the stinking rot of self-righteousness and "to understand we are all in need of some grace."

This is not "Bob Inglis 1.0," the one that was a "self-righteous" expletive, he said in an interview with Washington Wire today. It is a Bob Inglis that is, if anything, more Christian, more attuned to the Gospels, he said.

…Unfortunately for him, the attitudes of "Bob Inglis 2.0" are not all that popular among many of the voters who once adored him. He now has five primary candidates fighting his re-election, and another conservative independent, should he clear the primaries. "They want me to walk around saying I am the paragon of virtue," Inglis said. "But that is unrecognizable to the Gospels."

And another Republican who came to prominence in the '90s is still the same old buttfor:

Ralph Reed, the Republican operative who built the Christian Coalition into a potent political force in the 1990s by mobilizing evangelicals and other religious conservatives and who did similar work to help George W. Bush win two presidential elections, is quietly launching a group aimed at using the Web to mobilize a new generation of values voters. In addition to targeting the GOP's traditional faith-based allies—white evangelicals and observant Catholics—the group, called the Faith and Freedom Coalition, will reach out to Democratic-leaning constituencies, including Hispanics, blacks, young people, and women.

"This is not your daddy's Christian Coalition," Reed said in an interview Monday. "It's got to be more brown, more black, more female, and younger. It's critical that we open the door wide and let them know if they share our values and believe in the principles of faith and marriage and family, they're welcome."

Welcome to line his pockets—because he sure isn't in it for the actual ideology, as his deep involvement with the Abramoff scandal made plain.

But there are conservatives who will fund Reed from here to Kingdom Come and back again just because he says the right stuff—Faith, Freedom—and claims to be a paragon of virtue despite mountainous evidence to the contrary. Meanwhile, a conservative who can now say publicly at long last that he's not perfect and maybe a little tolerance is in order is being challenged for his seat by five other candidates.

GOP: Your problems, nutshelled.