There’s been nary a peep of protest about a report that Reid’s sons and son-in-law cashed in on Daddy’s connections - a story first reported by the Los Angeles Times.
In the last five years alone, firms with Reid family ties have collected more than $2 million in lobbying fees. “So pervasive are the ties among Reid, members of his family and Nevada’s leading industries and institutions that it’s difficult to find a significant field in which such a relationship does not exist,” the paper said.
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 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.”
The Howard Hughes Corporation paid $300,000 to Reid’s 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.
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, even millions of dollars - not a lot of cash?
This is one more example of the enormous double standard practiced by the Democrats. One wonders how journalists would have reacted had Tom DeLay said that?
Would you care to amplify the corruption of the Reid family?
Perhaps Harry Reid's corrupt practices needs its own thread.
Perhaps Harry Reid's corrupt practices needs its own thread.
FastCoyote is an expert on Reid's corruption and this will be the second ping to him. He doesn't seem to be online, but I'm sure he will reply.