Sen. No Shame - Reid exemplifies culture of corruption

Congress may be on the brink of passing unexpectedly sweeping new rules on ethics, but any claim that the culture of corruption is in retreat is ludicrous. Consider that with the forced exits of former Reps.

Randy “Duke” Cunningham, Bob Ney and Tom DeLay, the one lawmaker who most exemplifies this debased culture happens to be the new Senate majority leader – Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who is now arguably the nation's most powerful politician after President Bush.

It's bad enough that for decades Reid has dispensed favors to companies and institutions from his home state that employs some or all of his four lawyer sons. Nevada special interests see hiring a younger Reid as key to getting the help of the older one.

Now even more unsavory evidence of Reid's sleaziness is emerging. In October, The Associated Press broke the story that Reid was given a $1.1 million windfall on the sale of some Las Vegas property three years after he sold it. Steering the money Reid's way: a powerful Nevada lawyer whose name has repeatedly surfaced in federal corruption and organized crime investigations. Reid never disclosed the dealings to Congress, ignoring disclosure rules.

On Sunday, the Los Angeles Times reported that in 2002, a Las Vegas lubricants distributor sold Reid 60 acres of land in Bullhead City, a rapidly developing Arizona town, for less than one-tenth of its assessed value – essentially giving Reid hundreds of thousands of dollars. Reid subsequently introduced legislation that would have protected lubricants dealers from supply disruptions.

Reid insists his $10,000 payment – $166 an acre – for the land was fair and appropriate, yet a similar parcel nearby was sold for $4,260 an acre in 2004.

This sort of unseemliness may be the norm in Nevada, where close and mutually beneficial relationships between politicians and businessmen are ubiquitous. But what happens in Vegas should stay in Vegas. As a U.S. senator, Reid must be held to a higher standard. We'll believe the Senate ethics panel is truly reinvigorated the day it gets around to investigating the Senate majority leader.

The Rats will protect Reid at all costs. Not only is he the head Rat crook, but if he falls, so does the Senate because the Pubbie governor would appoint a good guy to take his place and the Senate will be ours again.

I mean, the RATS refuse to allow Tim "Weekend at Bernies" Johnson to be replaced in South Dakota. Hitlery, the plagairist, the murdering swimmer, the Kleagle and the Vietnam "Vet," won't let a little scandal get in the way of the Senate.

Nothing to see here, move along.

This is really a lot bigger than Dingy just getting a sweetheart real estate deal in return for doing a favor. Instead, it apparently crosses over into being a potentially serious crime because Dingy acquired the property from a pension fund. All IRS qualified pension funds are regulated by the Department of Labor and the IRS. When an employer establishes a "qualified" pension plan, such as the one from which Dingy acquired this realty interest, the money must be paid into a separate trust, exempt from the claims of the employer's creditors. The party that administers the pension fund, usually the employer which established it, is legally required to administer it in the sole interest of the covered employees, who are its beneficiaries. Thus, the employer becomes a fiduciary. If the employer embezzles money from the plan either directly or by selling its assets for far less than their fair market value, he violates that fiduciary duty and is guilty of a serious felony. If plan assets are sold in a sweetheart deal for far less than market value, it's likely that both the selling employer/fiduciary and the purchaser could be successfully prosecuted for conspiring to embezzle the plan's assets, an even more serious felony.

It looks like Dingy conspired with the seller of this property to perpetrate just such a felony so the seller could get Dingy to support favorable legislation. Dingy acquired the land for about $10,000, about $50,000 less than the least it was appraised for, meaning the plan administrator probably violated his fiduciary duties to the plan's participants by giving away their $50,000 realty interest as a likely bribe to Dingy. Thus, we have Dingy and the seller of the land in a probable conspiracy to embezzle $50,000 of the plan's assets and a second probable conspiracy to use those assets as a bribe.

Now I'm taking bets on how far the Bush administration will go to investigate and prosecute this vile business. How many of you, along with me, suspect that this will just go under the rug, along with all the other DemonRat crimes Bush has deliberately refused to prosecute? Worst of all, by consistently refusing to prosecute major, probable crimes like this, he's depriving us of one of the best grounds we have for retaining the White House and regaining Congress in 2008. It's disgusting.

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