NOW THAT the shoe's on the other foot, will congressional Democrats call on U.S. Sen. Harry Reid to resign? Will they accuse him of being a profiteer along the lines of ExxonMobil and other energy firms?
Advertisement
Reid, D-Nev., is accused of failing to account for a business transaction on which he made a $1.1 million windfall. The Associated Press reports that Reid never disclosed that he sold land to a friend's company in 2001 in exchange for an ownership stake in that company.
The deal was orchestrated by a lawyer for casino interests in Reid's home state. It appears to violate Senate ethics rules and definitely puts Reid in an uncomfortable place as we head into the final weeks before the election.
Democrats in Congress wasted no time calling for House Speaker Dennis Hastert to resign in the wake of the Mark Foley scandal. They regularly rail against profits reported by Big Oil. Now that Reid has been caught with a hand in the cookie jar, so to speak, will they issue similar requests for his resignation and blistering criticism for Reid's "obscene" profits?
Don't bet on it.
There are differences, of course. The Foley scandal involves allegations of sexual harassment, not making money the old-fashioned (if unethical) way. And we have no problem with anyone making money on a real estate transaction.
Still, you can bet that if Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., violated ethics rules and made a killing on a land deal, his Democratic colleagues would be howling for his ouster.
Reid defends his ethics regarding the transaction. But when an AP reporter questioned him on specifics of the deal, Reid hung up the phone. So much for coming clean.
Reid's friend, by the way, is a familiar name in Nevada, having turned up in federal investigations involving organized crime, casinos and political bribery since the 1980s.
0
