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The story may have legs, but I doubt it influences the elections much at all. Congressional election cycles are all about "politics is local" and "what have you done for me lately". Reid isn't up for re-election and can't even taint the Senator who IS up for re-election in Nevada, since they are from opposite parties. People in Minnesota or Maryland aren't going to give a rat's petard if Reid was engaged in a shady land deal when it comes down to which candidate they vote for.

As with the Foley thing, the only people up in arms- and willing to exert the energy to get that way- are the people who are already rabid political types. The votes of such people aren't going to change radically anyway. No pro-abortion, anti-war, screaming lesbian is going to change her vote to Republican because Harry Reid made 1.1 million on some land in Nevada.

The only time this will matter is after the elections when the party sits down to decide who should be in the leadership. If the story is still a big deal then it might affect Reid's chances at retaining his leadership.

I personally think this is much, much worse than it looks and we have only seen the tip of the iceberg. He is up to his keister with some of the worst land swindlers and organized crime figures in Nevada, and so are his sons. There is a blog story today that suggests that his son, who is a member of the Clark County Commission, may have engineered the rezoning of this piece of property while knowing his dad was part-owner of it. The son may be even more corrput than the father. Harry Reid took more money from Jack Abramoff than Tom DeLay did and has still not answered for it. Even his protectors in the local media there cannot fend off the national media hounds anymore.

I believe Harry Reid will end up not only stepping down as senate Democratic leader, but resigning his Senate seat. You heard it here first.