Best Person You Love to Hate

Baby-faced super-Christian RALPH REED is running for lieutenant governor, and while the campaign is Reed’s first bid for public office, he’s said to have his eyes on the White House. Scary. Reed is a cutthroat behind-the-scenes political street fighter who’s claimed he put enemies in “body bags” and led the Christian Coalition to national prominence. The former plagiarist — he was banned from UGA’s student newspaper for copying lines from an attack on Gandhi — returned to the state as a political consultant following claims that a company with close ties to him over-billed the coalition. Now Reed is up to his neck in allegations that he fought the development of Indian casinos with money provided by their competitors. How presidential.
www.ralphreed.com.

We have to hand it to CHOICEPOINT. The company spent years buying information on virtually every American while assuring privacy advocates that the information was safe. Yet all it took was a Nigerian crook posing as a legit business to compromise information on 145,000 Americans. Did ChoicePoint offer a full accounting of the scandal? Yeah, right! The company waited months before ’fessing up to a security breach. Then, when CEO Derek Smith finally talked, he said, “We didn’t expect organized criminals would attack us with this sophistication.” Derek, they used a fax machine! ChoicePoint shares tumbled, but before the scandal went public, Smith managed to sell thousands of shares, netting $13 million.
www.choicepoint.com.