Well I don't suppose there's much to be gained by us locking horns over something about which we pretty much agree.
These corrupt congress critters have every manner of legal beagle at their disposal and these sorts of bribes are buried way deep so that it's an ordeal for investigators to sift through and even if investigators bother, the public's eyes start going back in its collective head from the confusion.
They bank on this, the corrupt ones.
I do think that the bit about an "informal" agreement with that LLC is very damning and this is the part the public will understand. Perhaps such informal partnerships are legal, I don't know. But it's not the way the American public perceives such big business deals are made and THIS factoid will resonate.
As for the property tax angle, by me the fact that Reid paid some of the property tax is further proof that he was involved with that LLC, although, hey, it was an "informal partnership" and I suppose that will be the defense.
That Reid didn't report this properly per Senate rules, well that will probably resonate only slightly on the American public. And then only if the pubbies keep beating the band wagon on it. The Dems have it all over the pubbies when it comes to manipulating sound and sight bytes.
What it looks to me like the pubbies are doing now is throwing down a gauntlet. The Dems arranged that Foley attack and for a moment forget how the emails and IM's got to be public knowledge, the bottom line is that the pubs lost a seat in congress most likely. That was damn costly.
Now we got Shays mentioning Chappaquidick and the silly notion that congress should investigate Sandy Burgler's papers from three years ago. Hey, the pubs got it right for the time being. They need to do what the Dems and drive-by media do. Throw the damning sound bytes out there and get the hype going.
That's all the pubs are doing and right now, I think it's just a challenge. In the end the good ole boys club of congress needs to keep their dirty laundry private. Throwing around sound bytes tends to make the American public tune it all out, at best, hate the whole lot of them at worst.
BTW, to read a good Foley analysis, I say ever so modestly, check out my post on those x-rated IM's. Warning, my Blog post itself it X-rated but I'd argue I'm right on the money on how this all came down.
I think this should be pushed as hard as possible. Certainly, if it was a Republican, it would be front page stuff, and the headline would be about questionable deals and failing to report, etc. Initial reports about the deal will show that Reid made $1.1 million on a property that he bought for $400k in partnership with a guy who has questionable ties, and that he failed to report it properly. It will not be enough to get him to resign, but it will silence the Foley stuff, and be a welcome sign that Republicans are willing to fight back. However, if it is not enough to get a prosecution going, it will be a short-lived story.
That his interest in the partnership was not in writing is somewhat suspicious. A development agreement is never oral, and an agreement involving real property is required to be in writing to be enforceable. I don't care how close a friend you are to your partner, you put it in writing. There may have been a reason why he didn't put this partnership in writing that is shady, but I don't know what it would have been. Such an intent is belied by his paying with personal checks for the property taxes, and continuing to report the property as owned by him personally. If he had done it the right way, he would have simply reported the transfer of the property and that he had an interest in the partnership. Functionally, no difference. If he had been trying to hide his involvement, he would not have used personal checks, he would have given money to a third party and had them pay the expenses. Instead, the partners seem to have paid the expenses and agreed to settle up later. This is common.
So, at this point, I am intrigued and perfectly willing to beat Reid up for a while, but not very optimistic that this is the killer scandal that will rid us of that pest.