The early presidential debates will be all about playing to the party base. So perhaps the most telling factor is who is chosen to play host.

Via Think Progress:

...Century Strategies is again making headlines. This time, through a Christian front group Reed created called the “Faith and Freedom Alliance.” According to tax disclosures, Faith and Freedom is chaired by Reed and hosted at his lobbying office in Georgia.

Faith and Freedom scored a coup last night when it hosted the very first GOP primary debate for candidates running for president in 2012. In the announcement for the debate, the group does not disclose that it is run by a lobbying firm. But the contact information uses the same P.O. Box for Reed’s lobbying firm Century Strategies.

While a Republican lobbying group may make the perfect host for a GOP debate -- after all, they will likely end up doing a great deal of work on behalf of whomever is chosen as the nominee, this firm has a rather checkered past. According to Think Progress, Century Strategies is connected to nearly every party scandal, from Jack Abramoff's sweatshops to Enron.

Century Strategies also plays a roll in the current Wisconsin union busting scheme, with ties to the Koch brothers. But then again, the company is well-known for using the Faith And Freedom name to use Christian values to polish dirty politics.

During the 2000 GOP primary battle between then Governor George Bush and Senator John McCain, a false campaign was conducted in South Carolina against John McCain. Leaflets, telephone calls and emails were sent to South Carolina voters, stating that McCain’s adopted daughter from Bangladesh was actually an illegitimate child fathered by the Senator with a black woman. The disgusting ploy worked and the McCain campaign never recovered.

While many observers of that event state as fact that the campaign was the handiwork of Century Strategies and its principals, Tim Phillips and Ralph Reed, their involvement has never been proven. However, one would be hard pressed to find anyone ‘in the know’ who is not certain that it was them.

What is proven, however, is the 2000 campaign conduced by Tim Phillips against none other than candidate Eric Cantor of Virginia. When hired by Cantor’s opponent in the primary, Phillips set up the Faith and Family Alliance which proceeded to engage in an anti-Semitic smear campaign against the future House majority leader. Once again, the M.O. involved using pamphlets and robo-calls to tell voters that Eric Cantor did not represent “Virginia values” and that his opponent was the “only Christian in the race.” In other words, Cantor was a Jew so don’t vote for him.

And it gets better.

It turns out that convicted lobbyist, Jack Abramoff, was using the Faith and Family Alliance, the organization founded by Tim Phillips, to launder gambling money in an effort to finance a campaign to stop Congress from banning internet gambling.

That sounds like just the right kind of group to host the first presidential debate, doesn't it?

http://www.care2.com/causes/politics/blog/gop-lobbying-firm-is-first-presidential-debate-host/