Republicans once close to Mr. Reed aren't satisfied with his explanation of his role in Mr. Abramoff's work. Maurice Atkinson, a Christian Coalition activist, quit the Reed campaign after the scandal became public and signed up with Mr. Cagle. "Nobody likes to be a hypocrite and nobody likes to follow a hypocrite," he says.

Erosion of support from religious activists could signal trouble for Mr. Reed as he heads into the primary's home stretch.

That is, of course, a devastating understatement. And the story of how he laundered funds to conceal the fact that they came from gambling interests is being told once again, not by "leftists" as his campaign likes to claim, but by the leading business newspaper in the U.S. Here is a sample:

Mr. Reed first worked alongside Mr. Abramoff in 1981 when they were active in the College Republicans National Committee. Mr. Reed went on to make his political mark in the 1990s by orchestrating the rise of the Christian Coalition political action group, as executive director to founder and evangelist Pat Robertson. In 1997, he returned home to Georgia to open a lobbying firm, Century Strategies, and emails show he turned to his old friend to juice up earnings. "I need to start humping in some corporate accounts!" he wrote in 1998 to Mr. Abramoff.

Between 2001 and 2003, Mr. Reed collected more than $4 million in fees from Abramoff clients with gambling interests, including Indian tribes. Mr. Reed's specialty was ginning up opposition from religious leaders to tribes trying to elbow into Abramoff clients' turf. Payments to Mr. Reed's firm were funneled through organizations such as tax-exempt or charitable groups aligned with Mr. Abramoff, which obscured their source.

After Mr. Reed complained about a tardy payment in 2001, Mr. Abramoff emailed this explanation: "The originating entity had to transfer to a separate account before they transferred it to the entity which is going to transfer it to you."

If Reed is defeated in the GOP primary it will be a significant blow to the Christian Right political movement he helped to create. The leaders of the Christian Right have maintained a stony silence about Reed's role in the Abramoff scandal: as he took money from gaming interests while pretending not to; and now claiming he didn't know and wouldn't have taken the money if he had.  Uh huh.  National Christian Right leaders are apparently too embarrassed to defend him and too frightened to denounce his apparent corruption. But some, are standing by their man.

Sadie Fields, head of the Christian Coalition chapter in Georgia, considers Mr. Reed a friend and champion of the religious conservative cause in politics. "He's apologized," she says, and the chapter is closed for her.