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October 11, 2006
Culture of Corruption
Harry Reid involved in shady land deal?
WASHINGTON - Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid collected a $1.1 million windfall on a Las Vegas land sale even though he hadn't personally owned the property for three years, property deeds show.Well, isn't that interesting? Not the best part of the story, though. This is the best part of the story.In the process, Reid did not disclose to Congress an earlier sale in which he transferred his land to a company created by a friend and took a financial stake in that company, according to records and interviews.
The Nevada Democrat's deal was engineered by Jay Brown, a longtime friend and former casino lawyer whose name surfaced in a major political bribery trial this summer and in other prior organized crime investigations. He's never been charged with wrongdoing — except for a 1981 federal securities complaint that was settled out of court.
Reid hung up the phone when questioned about the deal during an AP interview last week.Never, ever hang up on a reporter. Because then lines like that show up in news stories and it looks bad. Plus, it annoys reporters and that is also bad, since annoyed reporters tend to be persistent reporters.
So even if the Dems do take the senate next month (which I still think is likely), Reid might not be a shoo-in for majority leader. Let the intra-party bloodbath begin.
UPDATE - Jack M, blogging at Ace's, has an interesting perspective.
And Captain Ed has more on the story. If this stuff is true, then Reid probably should have been a bit less adamant in his anti-Republican rhetoric.
Posted by slublog at October 11, 2006 04:37 PM
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