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http://newsbusters.org/node/8399

Bozell Column: Harry Reid Can't Bleed
Posted by Brent Bozell on October 17, 2006 - 17:14.

Democrats across America are measuring the drapes for the majority in the House and the Senate, preparing to swear in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. One of their major talking points this year has been the Republican majority’s “culture of corruption.”

In January on PBS, Jim Lehrer asked Sen. Reid why lobbying reform was moving so slowly. Reid replied, “Jim, it's taken a while for this culture of corruption the Republicans have developed to come into the fore.”Aspiring “Speaker Pelosi” just gave a speech at Georgetown University pledging to “drain the swamp” of GOP corruption on Capitol Hill. The Democratic National Committee even had a page on their website devoted to the “Republican Culture of Corruption.”

But that “Culture of Corruption” page on the DNC home page has disappeared. Something funny happened on the way to the polls this year. The Democrats have shown they have their own contemporary ethical problems. Luckily for them, it probably won’t matter much on November 7. The national news media have decided to ignore them.

Look no further than Senator Reid himself. Associated Press reporters John Solomon and Kathleen Hennessy reported that Senator Reid scored a windfall of $700,000, turning a $400,000 real-estate investment in Las Vegas in 1998 to a $1.1 million land deal in 2004 – even though he apparently had sold the property to a casino lobbyist buddy in 2001. He did not report the facts on his Senate financial disclosure forms – while he served on the Senate Ethics Committee. When AP called Reid for comment, he hung up on them. You would think that an aggressive, fair and balanced media would have been incensed and activated. But we don’t have a fair and balanced national media.

It should be said that major newspaper editorial pages were not impressed with Reid’s defense. The Washington Post suggested “Mr. Reid's professions of transparency and full disclosure are transparently wrong.”

But the network distaste for saying anything critical of the Democratic leader was obvious. ABC aired nothing. CBS aired nothing. NBC’s Chip Reid offered a few words on “Nightly News” – after the latest full story on “Foley fallout.” There was no “Harry fallout.”

CNN stood out as especially pathetic. On CNN’s “American Morning” the day after the Reid story broke (and nearly two weeks after Foley resigned), they aired 18 minutes of Foley stories, and 35 seconds on Harry Reid. On “The Situation Room,” Wolf Blitzer quarantined the Reid story to little dribs and drabs heavy on Reid protesting his innocence. Meanwhile, CNN was devoting minutes to more substantial stories, like Arnold Schwarzenegger joking on the “Tonight” show that connecting him to Bush was like connecting him to an Oscar. Toxic Bush – now that’s Blitzer-tickling news.

But the networks were not alone in displaying fall-campaign favoritism. The New York Times put its Harry Reid story the next day on page A-19. The headline? “Senator to Amend Financial Forms.” Could the Times have possibly come up with a better “please don’t bother to read this, no real scandal here” headline?

In case you’re wondering if the Times favors Democrats on scandal stories, this was the Page One headline on the very same day: “Foley Case Snags Incumbent In Ohio Race for House Seat.” Reporter Adam Nagourney found Republican House leader Deborah Pryce in deep trouble in Columbus. On that day, the Foley news spilled over into 74 column inches of text and pictures. By contrast, the Reid story was merely 18 column inches. Clearly, the Times doesn’t hide its partisan priorities.

How about the news magazines? Last week their covers taunted and jeered at Republicans. Time’s cover showed the back of an elephant’s behind, signaling a goodbye to Republican corruption. Newsweek had a big picture of Mark Foley with the words “Off Message.” This week, Time has a cover hailing the greatness of liberal Democrat Senator Barack Obama. Neither one even mentioned Harry Reid. U.S. News mentioned Reid, but not his disclosure forms. They merely warned “Republican leaders trying to outrun their own scandals” would attack Reid and Pelosi.

This week, another little story erupted, again featuring Senator Reid. He was paying a few thousand dollars in Christmas bonuses to employees of his condominium at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, out of his campaign funds, not his own wallet. That’s a clear violation of campaign laws. And besides, isn’t this a juicy story by today’s TV standards? The Senate Democratic leader, living at the Ritz-Carlton? And tipping the hired help with someone else’s money at Christmas time?

Predictably, NBC gave it a few seconds. The other networks did nothing. The papers buried it inside. And they wonder why there are bumper stickers saying “Don’t Trust the Liberal Media.”

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2006-10-17-edit_x.htm?csp=34

Shameless money schemes stain Congress' reputation
Posted 10/17/2006 9:46 PM

Congress is supposed to be a body of public servants — people who pass up more lucrative professions for a chance to influence policy and improve constituents' lives.
These days, however, it is getting harder to see the sacrifice in congressional service. An extraordinary number of representatives and senators — well beyond the proverbial few bad apples — are devising schemes to supplement their annual $165,200 benefit-rich pay packages.

The schemes, often entered into with a breathtaking audacity and sense of personal entitlement, are corrosive to democracy, injurious to the reputations of the many honest and diligent lawmakers, and illustrative of the adage that power corrupts.

The tactics are many and varied. They range from setting up close relatives as highly paid lobbyists to cashing in on sweet investment deals. What unites them is a sense of utter shamelessness. A few examples:

•Family ties. An investigation by USA TODAY published Tuesday found rampant nepotism surrounding the House and Senate appropriations committees. In at least 30 cases, a committee member or a key aide was lobbied by a spouse or other family member. Last year alone, spending bills contained about $750 million for projects championed by those lobbyists or their firms.

Though the appropriations panels are known as "favor factories," they are hardly the only ones where such unsavory practices are common. House Armed Services Committee member Curt Weldon, R-Pa., for instance, has caught the attention of the FBI, which wants to know whether he improperly steered lobbying contracts to his daughter's firm. On Monday, agents raided her house.

•Easy money. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., is the subject of a federal probe for collecting more than $300,000 over nine years in rent from a non-profit for which he helped obtain federal funding. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., made a $700,000 profit from a $400,000 land investment he entered into with a prominent Las Vegas casino lawyer. Reid, the Senate minority leader, failed to fully disclose his partnership with the lawyer.

•Direct action. Reps. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., and Charles Taylor, R-N.C., are among the members who have personally benefited from measures they inserted into spending bills. Taylor is a wealthy landowner who has benefited financially from road improvements in his district that he championed. Mollohan has set up a network of non-profits run by business partners to which he has steered tens of millions of dollars. His net worth has soared as the result of his various partnerships.

Some of these schemes are legal, but members of Congress shouldn't be operating under the standard that anything short of an indictable offense is acceptable. And even what's illegal hasn't proved to be a huge deterrent. Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., is under investigation and is said by the FBI to be on videotape accepting $100,000 in cash — $90,000 of which ended up in his freezer. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham,R-Calif., and Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, have pleaded guilty to public corruption."....more....