Dobson denies Abramoff link

10 Mar 2006 // Focus on the Family founder James Dobson says he was slandered by ads attempting to link him to embattled casino lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Dobson lashed out on Wednesday against a newspaper and television ad campaign by the group Campaign for Defense of the Constitution, or "DefCom."

The ads accuse Dobson, a longtime gambling opponent, of hypocrisy because of his role in fighting a Louisiana casino project in 2002 - at the same time Abramoff was trying to stop the project to help clients with a competing casino.

On the FoxNews show The O'Reilly Factor on Wednesday, Dobson called the ads "slander" from the "radical left." He said he has never met Abramoff, and his group has never taken any of Abramoff's money.

"We fight gambling because it's . . . a cancer on the family," Dobson said.

"It has nothing to do with Abramoff, and I probably couldn't pick him out of a lineup."

The ads attempt to link Dobson because one of his longtime allies, former Christian Coalition executive director Ralph Reed, did take money from Abramoff to fight the same casino project.

E-mails released during a U.S. Senate investigation suggested that Reed and Abramoff were trying to enlist Dobson's help.

One of the researchers behind the ad, author Max Blumenthal, told reporters Wednesday that he believed Dobson was "manipulated" by Reed.

"As I said, there is no proof - and I doubt there will ever be any proof - that Dobson consciously colluded with Abramoff," Blumenthal said.