Last night, the Mouth of the Potomac, the blogs of the Washington Bureau of the NY Daily News, published yet another piece on the growing controversy over Ralph Reed's fundraiser for John McCain.  Something about this event doesn't add up without a big dose of hypocrisy thrown in:

John McCain, a champion of lobbying reform, is drawing fire today for allowing ex-Christian Coalition executive director Ralph Reed help organize a campaign fundraiser for him in Atlanta next Monday.

Democrats and watchdog groups are calling on McCain to pull the plug on the event because Reed is a lobbyist closely tied to convicted felon Jack Abramoff.

Abramoff and Reed both worked on behalf of the gambling lobby, a clientele that eventually led to Abramoff’s demise and conviction. Abramoff paid Reed millions of dollars to press Christian conservatives to oppose casinos that would compete with casinos owned by Abramoff’s gaming industry clients.

But here is the rub: McCain led a Senate investigation that helped bring down Abramoff and helped expose Reed’s role in the shady lobbying deals. Reed, who also worked closely with ex-Bush political boss Karl Rove, was angry over McCain’s proceedings and the two were all but enemies. McCain has even boasted that he helped take down Abramoff.

“Sen. McCain should not go to that fundraiser. McCain was a reformer who went after Abramoff. He says “I am an anti-lobbyist reformer,” but then he agrees to let Reed throw him a fundraiser. That is just so hypocritical,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the left-leaning legal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.