Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid would be well advised to stop thundering about corruption in the Republican ranks or crying "cover-up" over the GOP's failure to promptly and appropriately deal with former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) and his sexually explicit e-mails to congressional pages. Reid faces too many questions about his own behavior to crusade against the misdeeds of others.
Currently, he's trying to explain a land deal in Nevada on which he made a pile of money and which may not have been properly disclosed. When the property was sold in 2004, it belonged to a company formed with a long-time friend and included a parcel that once had been owed by Reid. Despite having transferred his parcel to the company, the Nevada Democrat continued to report in Senate documents that he still owned it personally. That's a breach of Senate disclosure rules, according to the Associated Press, which first reported the transaction details.
Reid is now considering whether he should amend his disclosure statement. . . . Unfortunately, Reid's ethics meter only seems to work when it's too late.

Let's assume for the moment that the land deal is exactly what Harry Reid says it is: a simple, straightforward, perfectly legal transaction that is being misreported or blown out of proportion. Why on earth wouldn't Reid simply state as much for the record? He could have said "we've been over all this before," or he could have said "you are way off base." Heck, he could have said just about anything. Instead, Reid hung up.
If you believe actions speak louder than words, what are we to make of the fact that the most powerful elected Democratic official in the country feels like he can just hang up in the middle of a tape recorded interview with the largest news syndicate in America?

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ORIGINAL: LotusSong

Did more than 3000 people die?

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ORIGINAL: LotusSong

Just once, Rich.. I'd like to see you address the issue instead of doing the 'ol repugnican finger pointing to deflect things away from the current bastard in office.  I think you need to apologize to us for helping put this jerk in office.

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October 13, 2006

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ORIGINAL: Sternhand4

Where was CBS and the MSM on this?
Ethics probe Mrs. Pelosi..?
October 13, 2006
THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION has joined the Harry Reid pile-on:

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid would be well advised to stop thundering about corruption in the Republican ranks or crying "cover-up" over the GOP's failure to promptly and appropriately deal with former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) and his sexually explicit e-mails to congressional pages. Reid faces too many questions about his own behavior to crusade against the misdeeds of others.
Currently, he's trying to explain a land deal in Nevada on which he made a pile of money and which may not have been properly disclosed. When the property was sold in 2004, it belonged to a company formed with a long-time friend and included a parcel that once had been owed by Reid. Despite having transferred his parcel to the company, the Nevada Democrat continued to report in Senate documents that he still owned it personally. That's a breach of Senate disclosure rules, according to the Associated Press, which first reported the transaction details.
Reid is now considering whether he should amend his disclosure statement. . . . Unfortunately, Reid's ethics meter only seems to work when it's too late.

I'm not sure how bad the Reid scandal really is, but it's clearly enough that he's got no business going on about corruption. The truth, as I've said repeatedly, is that both parties are pretty corrupt, and that we need more transparency and accountability.
And I'm beginning to think that term limits might not be a bad idea, either.
Joe Gandelman, meanwhile, has a roundup and also observes: "This is the final stretch in a vital election so what's unfolding now is what makes many independent voters stay independent voters. Some members of Reid's party are responding in a way different to how they would respond if he was R-Nev and not D-Nev. And some Republicans and talking heads now suggest that this somehow negates, defuses, or lessens the gravity of the parade of Republican financial (and now flesh) scandals that have taken place since the Republican controlled Congress morphed into the very kind of Congress Republicans (and many voters) thought they had replaced under the politically-late Newt Gingrich. Answer to that: not one iota."
Meanwhile, Paul Kiel at TPM Muckraker says that the AP story doesn't add up.
UPDATE: Tom Bevan is puzzled by Harry's hangup:

Let's assume for the moment that the land deal is exactly what Harry Reid says it is: a simple, straightforward, perfectly legal transaction that is being misreported or blown out of proportion. Why on earth wouldn't Reid simply state as much for the record? He could have said "we've been over all this before," or he could have said "you are way off base." Heck, he could have said just about anything. Instead, Reid hung up.
If you believe actions speak louder than words, what are we to make of the fact that the most powerful elected Democratic official in the country feels like he can just hang up in the middle of a tape recorded interview with the largest news syndicate in America?

At the very least, an outraged sense of entitlement?