Hypocrisy's Poster Child

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, a man who is on the record (here on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer) accusing Republicans of a "culture of corruption" has accepted free tickets to boxing matches in Nevada from a government agency seeking Reid's support on legislation in the Senate. The tickets are valued at $1400. The story is reported in today's Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Reid, D-Nev., took the free seats for Las Vegas fights between 2003 and 2005 as he was pressing legislation to increase government oversight of the sport, including creation of a federal boxing commission that Nevada's agency feared might usurp its authority.

Reid defended the gifts, saying they would never influence his position on the bill and was simply trying to learn how his legislation might affect an important home state industry.

Senate ethics rules generally allow lawmakers to accept gifts from federal, state or local governments. But they specifically warn against taking such gifts -- particularly on multiple occasions -- when they might be connected to efforts to influence official actions.

But Reid isn't the only senator to attend Las Vegas boxing matches.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., insisted on paying $1,400 for the tickets he shared with Reid for a 2004 championship fight. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., accepted free tickets to another fight with Reid but already had recused himself from Reid's federal boxing legislation because his father was an executive for a Las Vegas hotel that hosts fights.

McCain and Ensign (both Republicans) gave Reid acceptable examples of how to handle gifts from groups with an interest in legislation, but Reid insists that he did nothing wrong.

Laura Ingraham's opening statement in her book, Shut Up and Sing, about the various elites in America, is: "They think you're stupid." By this definition, Harry Reid proves himself to be an elite. He thinks we're stupid enough to believe that by attending a championship fight, he is "simply trying to learn how his legislation might affect an important home state industry."

In an interview Thursday in his Capitol office, Reid broadly defended his decisions to accept the tickets and to take several actions benefiting disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff's clients and partners as they donated to him.

"I'm not Goodie two shoes. I just feel these events are nothing I did wrong," Reid said.

Reid had separate meetings in June 2003 in his Senate offices with two Abramoff tribal clients and Edward Ayoob, a former staffer who went to work lobbying with Abramoff.

One of the tribes, the Saginaw Chippewa of Michigan, donated $9,000 to Reid at the fundraiser and the next morning met briefly with Reid and Ayoob at Reid's office to discuss federal programs. Reid and the tribal chairman posed for a picture.

A few months after the fundraiser, Reid did sponsor a spending bill that targeted $100,000 to another Abramoff tribe, the Chitimacha of Louisiana, to pay for a soil erosion study Ayoob was lobbying for. Reid said he sponsored the provision because Louisiana lawmakers sent him a letter requesting it.

Abramoff, a Republican lobbyist, has pleaded guilty in a widespread corruption investigation of members of Congress. Reid used that conviction earlier this year to accuse Republicans of fostering a culture of corruption inside Congress.

The Associated Press recently reported that Reid also wrote at least four letters favorable to Abramoff's tribal clients around the time Reid collected donations from those clients and Abramoff's partners. Reid has refused to return the donations, unlike other lawmakers, saying his letters were consistent with his beliefs.

Senate ethics rules require senators to avoid even the appearance that any official meetings or actions they took were in any way connected with political donations.

Reid has a whole lot of nerve accepting gifts from tribal clients of Jack Abramoff and accepting gifts from agencies concerned about legislation, all at the same time he was accusing Republicans of having ties to Abramoff and declaring that Republicans are the ones with a culture of corruption.

I looked up "hypocrite" in the dictionary, and it shows a picture of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid.

Update:

This is one of the benefits of drinking tea. While I was stirring my afternoon cup of tea, I realized that I had conferred majority status upon Senator Reid. Silly me! My error has been corrected.