Reid Goes Beyond Ethics Requirements

[LiviaOlivia]

Press Release of Senator Reid
http://reid.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=264714&
REID GOES BEYOND ETHICS REQUIREMENTS, DISARMS GOP SMEAR CAMPAIGN
Monday, October 16, 2006

Washington, DC— Senator Harry Reid of Nevada today issued the following statement:

“Last month, Republicans openly boasted that they would engage in a campaign of personal attacks and smears to hold onto power in Washington. In recent days, we witnessed their latest attempt to do just that.

“Republicans may believe in cover-ups. I believe in ensuring all facts come to light.

“Last week, a highly misleading report by the Associated Press implied that I made a profit selling land I no longer owned. That article was wrong. Here are the facts: I bought the land in 1998, I sold it in 2004, and I listed my ownership of the land on official Senate disclosure forms every single year.

“Now I have taken an additional step. Today, I directed my staff to file amended financial disclosure forms noting that in 2001, I transferred title to the land to a Limited Liability Corporation. As the amended forms make clear, this routine legal move in no way altered my actual ownership of the land. On each disclosure form after 2001, I have added a note to clarify that the land already disclosed in detail on those forms was owned by me through the LLC.

“The Ethics Committee has not yet advised me whether I should file these amended forms, but even if I am not required to do so I am happy to go beyond what is needed to provide the fullest disclosure. The amended forms make clear what was true all along – I owned the land through the LLC when I sold it in 2004.

“Also, in the course of preparing the amended disclosure forms, my staff has identified some clerical errors and two minor matters that were inadvertently left off my original disclosure forms. First, in 2004 I sold about one third of an acre in my hometown of Searchlight. Second, a quarter acre of land that I received from my brother in 1985 appreciated in value above the $1,000 reporting threshold at some point in recent years. Both of these items will be listed on my amended disclosure forms.

“Finally, I have acted today to respond to another issue some plan to raise. I have sent a personal check in the amount of $3,300 to my political campaign to fully reimburse the campaign for donations it made over several years to the employee holiday fund in my apartment building. These donations were made to thank the men and women who work in the building for the extra work they do as a result of my political activities, and for helping the security officers assigned to me because of my Senate position. The donations came from my campaign – no taxpayer dollars were ever involved.

“When the campaign first donated to the holiday fund, its experienced lawyer William Oldaker advised us that such donations were permissible. The campaign's current lawyer, Marc Elias, says the same thing. Nonetheless, I am reimbursing the campaign from my own pocket to prevent this issue from being used in the current campaign season to deflect attention from Republican failures.”

[Bitwit1234]

1. Won't Stop Rightwing nuts

As was said all along, Reid filed everything with the Ethics Committee. but I will bet anything that you will not find one disclosure that Hastert made about the purchase of, passing the bill for, and making the up to ten times profit less than a year later of the property used for the ramp for the interstate. I have not read anywhere that Solomon from the AP wrote an article about the Hastert Deal.

[Stand and Fight]

2. Recommended...

Reid makes these guys look like the foolish turds they are at every turn. Only the Republican 30-percenters will hang on to this store now, and they can all go straight to hell.

[aquart]

8. Since I doubt the existence of Hell, I would prefer

if they all went straight to Guantanamo, after being designation 'enemy combatants.'

Or jail after an investigation, indictment and trial, if we're still doing anything so old fashioned.

[Pierre.Suave]

11. They are "enemy combatants"

They are all enemies of the Constitution, of Democracy, and of a free and open society that values life and liberty for all, not just christian fundamentalists, and not only for Americans.

[MessiahRp]

3. Head them off at the pass

Great move by Harry Reid. That's how you address a scandal... with accountability.

Rp

[global1]

4. Rushbo, Hannity And The Other Repug Talking Heads Will Say....

that Reid saying that his staff "identified some clerical errors and two minor matters that were inadvertently left off my original disclosure forms..." that he tried to slip a couple of other things through - but now that we've caught him he is having second thoughts. Somehow - they'll even make Reid look bad - when he is doing the right thing.

[civildisoBDence]

14. Their ratings, and FoxNews's ratings, are falling...

...as more and more Americans figure out how utterly worthless divisive demagoguery is.

They can discredit Reid to their KoolAid drinkers, but they increasingly alienate reasonable people.

Newsprism

[PinkyisBlue]

16. They have to deflect attention from the Curt Weldon (R) scandal...

as well as all the other Republican scandals going on. They have to play up a scandal involving a Democrat to show that Democrats are corrupt, too. And if there's not a legitimate scandal involving a Democrat, they're just as happy fabricating one.

Also, they can't stand that a Democrat can legitimately make money; only the Republicans, who worship the almighty "Money God", are allowed to make money. Any money-making method is fair game to a Republican (until they get caught). After they're caught doing something illegal or unethical, they blame it on Democrats (Bill Clinton in particular) or alcohol.

[BootinUp]

5. They were just flailing wildly, had nothing. n/t

[Gothmog]

6. Here is another good article

There was no sale in this transaction and therefore there was no duty to disclose. Senator Reid is going beyond what is required ethically under Senate Rules. http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/news_theswamp/2006/10/sen_harry_reid_.html

[sandnsea]

7. MSNBC leads with "Reid Ethics Scandal"

Then reports the story with the most right wing slant possible - even after it's been clarified by Reid.

So whose fault is that??

[janetle]

18. Yes!

And then they put Reid's picture along with Foley and Weldon and said both sides have scandals--what will be the effect in November.

I could not believe my eyes.

[janetle]

19. This was today MSNBC did it--Tues.

[AtomicKitten]

9. The MSM is more than happy to comply with the RW mantra on

a myriad of baseless accusations. I actually heard CNN lead in to a piece with "Who's to blame for the current crisis with Korea - Bush or Clinton?" The ever-compliant MSM has no problem echoing all the toxic BS faxed to them by the GOP and moves on to the next lie before the last was corrected.

[connecticut yankee]

12. If -- God Forbid --

the Repukes were in power in twenty years, they'd still be blaming everything on Clinton.

[whistle]

10. It all sounds up front and open to me

[lupita]

13. already got repug co-worker to say

The Democrats are corrupt too...

[struggle4progress]

15. Drudge misrepresented .. a business transaction by Sen. Reid

Drudge misrepresented as "sweetheart land deal" a business transaction by Sen. Reid
described in an article by AP's Solomon

Summary: A Drudge Report headline, which linked to an Associated Press article by John Solomon and Kathleen Hennessey, misrepresented a business transaction involving Sen. Harry Reid as a "sweetheart land deal." Rush Limbaugh read the AP report on his radio program, praising Solomon as "an AP writer that I have trusted. John Solomon's stuff is good." However, as Media Matters for America has documented, Solomon has a history of misleading reporting on Senate Democrats ...

http://mediamatters.org/items/200610120001

[MCMetal]

17. LOL @ Sludge Report and Rushestoeat Limpballs

Boy , if fat drug addicted , pilonidal(?) cyst boy Limpballs "trusts" someone ; you can be damn sure he/she is a GOP nut hugging twit.
As for Sludge Report ; you can get more accurate info out of Star Magazine and/or The National Enquirer ..........

[Orangepeel]

20. tips to hotel employees because a campaign causes them trouble = a raid

by the FBI. Uh, huh.

[McCamy Taylor]

21. Solomon is at it again. He reports on the Xmas contributions as

if the AP uncovered this story through their investigative journalism. Does not reveal that Reid himself reported this through an ammended filing!!!! Reid is not hiding anything, but Solomon tries to make it look as if he is.

Solomon also tried to cover his ass re: the original atrocious story last week, saying he got the info from a Reid insider, so he must have gotten lots of negative feedback.

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/nation/15778794.htm

Reid spent campaign cash on bonuses
By JOHN SOLOMON
the associated press


WASHINGTON -- Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid has been using campaign donations instead of his personal money to pay Christmas bonuses for the support staff at the Ritz-Carlton where he lives in a condominium.

Federal election law bars candidates from converting political donations for personal use.

Questioned about the campaign expenditures by The Associated Press, Reid's office said Monday that his lawyers had approved them but he nonetheless is personally reimbursing his campaign for the $3,300 he had directed to the staff holiday fund at his home.

[McCamy Taylor]

22. Oops. Here is link to my thread on Solomon's 1st piece and my email to AP.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2882261&mesg_id=2882261

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/nation/15739589.htm

Here is the email I sent to the Associated Press. Be sure to click on the link included in the email. It documents two other occassions when Solomon has twisted the facts to make it appear that Reid has committed fraud where none has occured.

"Dear Associated Press Ombudsman;

"All I can is “wow”. I am no lawyer. I don’t know much about limited liability company(LLC), so I can not say who owns the land that is included in one. If a guy has paid $400,000 for land and then gets nothing in return when he tucks his property into an LLC and keeps reporting to Congress year after year that he owns the land, I would be inclined to say that the land is HIS, and when the LLC sells it for $1.1 million, he has a right to the profit of $700,000 that he just made (I was able to do that math in my head, but if Mr. Solomon is too cash strapped to buy a calculator to figure out sums like this, I would be happy to send him one, I have a few spares lying around the house).

"OK, pleasantries aside, let’s dissect this piece of sensationalism masquerading as sloppy journalism. One million is more eye catching than 700,000, that is why Solomon fudged the math. And where does he come up with the notion that Reid does not own the land? Reid obviously never gave away his half a million dollars worth of land. Only a fool would do something like that. If he says he still owned it, there is no reason not to take him at his word. Maybe he got confused about what a LLC is.. Big deal. He reported the land. He reported the money he made from its sale. There is no indication that he ever intended to hide anything.

"Talk about disconnect. By the time I finished reading the piece, I had gone from a headline that proclaimed that Reid had made over a million from the sale of land that he did not own to the inescapable conclusion that he had made $700,000 from the sale of land that was his all along. That was because I read the whole thing. Someone skimming the headlines and first few (what, where, when paragraphs) would have been left with a very different (deliberate ?) impression.

"Now, let’s put this story in context. Journalism is not just an art. It is a product which fills a need. Why is there a need for a story about a prominent Democratic senator who “made a million off land he did not own” for people who read the newspaper quickly and do not bother to analyze each story carefully? It has a lot to do with the fact that a certain Republican Senator “forgot” to report stock options—and then tried to argue that companies should not have to report stock options that they give out on the grounds that it would help National Security (Sen. Allen R. Virginia). Then there is the Republican trailing Ford by 5 points in the race for Tennessee Senator who put his stuff in “blind trusts” while he was the mayor of a large city in Tennessee then got a big city road built through a nature preserve only to turn around and see his “blind trusts” sell his land(which happened to be on that big city road)to Wal-Mart for $4.6 million the next day.


"Solomon’s story was so poorly written, that when I read it in this morning’s Fort Worth Star Telegram I decided to go online and do a little research. That is something, when the news becomes the news. Here is what I found.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001782.php#more

“It’s not the first time that Solomon has published a misleading story about Reid. This is the third such story by Solomon over the past six months. Each time, Solomon has hit Reid for taking actions which might create the appearance of ethical impropriety. But because Solomon writes for the most powerful news organization in the land, these very gray-shaded stories pack a wallop. It doesn’t help that on numerous occasions, he has missed or distorted key details – missteps that help blow up his stories.”

"Please log on. There is a lot more in the article.

"This is not the first time I have read something written by AP that has set off bells and whistles, but I must say, this is worst. I will probably be skeptical of most things that have Associated Press attached to them for a while."



Some people think that Solomon was just being sloppy, but I am a fiction writer, and I can tell the difference between real sloppy and faux sloppy. Solomon deserves his own special media whore award for his attempt to make the Abramoff finacial scandals bipartisan in time for the elections.