Limbaugh: Harry Reid Family Cashing In
When it comes to cashing in on family connections, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's relatives can't hold a candle to the clan of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, who's sponsored legislation that netted his son hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees.
So says top radio talker Rush Limbaugh, who first unearthed the dirty details on Reid's nepotism last week - a story that has the mainstream press feigning ignorance as they pull out all the stops to nail DeLay.
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In recent days, the top House Republican has been accused of having his family work on his campaigns - a charge that has Democrats clamoring for his scalp.
But there's been nary a peep of protest about a report that Reid's sons and daughter cashed in on Daddy's connections - a story first reported by the Los Angeles Times two years ago that was unearthed by Limbaugh last week.
For instance, the Nevada Democrat once sponsored an environmental bill that he touted as a bipartisan measure to protect the ecosystem and help the economy in America's fastest-growing state.
But as the LA Times reported:
"What Reid did not explain was that the bill promised a cavalcade of benefits to real estate developers, corporations and local institutions that were paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in lobbying fees to his sons' and son-in-law's firms, federal lobbyist reports show."
Turns out that the Reid family gravy train relied on some of America's biggest corporate names.
The Howard Hughes Corp. alone paid $300,000 to attorney and son-in-law Steven Barringer to push a provision allowing the company to acquire 998 acres of federal land near booming Las Vegas.
According to the Times, other provisions of Reid's legislation were intended to benefit a real estate development headed by a senior partner in the Nevada law firm that employs all four of the Senate minority leader's sons.
Seldom have so many close relatives directly profited off their familial connection to a powerful politician.
But as the Times noted, there's more:
"The governments of three of Nevada's biggest cities — Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson — also gained from the legislation, which freed up tens of thousands of acres of federal land for development and annexation. All three were represented by Reid's family members who contacted his staff on their clients' behalf."
Reid's response to the obvious conflicts of interest?
"Lots of people have children, wives and stuff that work back here," he insisted. "It is not as if a lot of cash is changing hands."
Hundreds of thousands of dollars - not a lot of cash?
One wonders how journalists would have reacted had Tom DeLay said that.