From U.S. News and World Report, a great concept with a really bad leader:

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.”

“There’s a whole rising generation of young leaders in the faith community, and rather than nab the publicity I did at Christian Coalition, I want to cultivate and train that rising generation,” Reed said. “One question is, who is our future Barack Obama, doing local organizing just like he was in the 1990s?”

The Faith and Freedom Coalition has been quietly active for a few weeks but has attracted no news media notice so far. Reed said that was intentional: “We’re less focused on the pyrotechnics than on being a strong grass-roots presence all the way down to the precinct level, which has always been my emphasis.”

The idea for the new group, which is still hashing out an organizational blueprint, was born just after Election Day 2008, when exit polls showed that Obama made gains among traditionally Republican religious constituencies, including evangelicals, conservative Catholics, and frequent churchgoers. “Since I left the Christian Coalition, we haven’t had an engine designed to turn out this large part of the vote,” Reed said. “After the election, people said that I ought to consider doing something about it.”

Reed’s idea is right on. Getting minority voters who hold traditonal social views to care about and be active on those issues is huge. Unfortunately,  Reed’s got some character problems, with his ties to the Jack Abramoff scandal, allegedly getting paid by Abramoff to lobby against Indian gambling, so that Abramoff would get paid by the tribes to lobby for Indian gambling.

From the moment, I laid eyes on Reed, I knew not to trust him. Everywhere goes, he uses the hard work and sweat of grassroots activists to build his own profile and influence within power circles, and I get nervous at the idea of this guy “influencing” young leaders. Thanks, but no thanks, Ralph.