Max Cleland was U.S. senator from Georgia from 1997 to
2003, and Georgia's secretary of state from 1983 to 1996.
Posted on 10/17/2006 6:42:11 AM PDT by rface
In an Oct. 13 editorial, the AJC called on Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to "look in the mirror first" on congressional ethics.
Reid has been a friend and mentor to me for almost a decade. He is one of the most ethical men I know.
This story is simple. In 1998, Reid bought land. In 2004, he sold it. For the six years in between, he told everyone — including Congress — that he owned the land.
The only serious question is whether he made a technical error in how he described his ownership of the land. So now Reid has done the right thing and asked the Senate Ethics Committee to clarify the matter. If the ethics committee finds Reid needs to issue a correction, it will probably be as simple as adding an asterisk to the existing report. This story is much ado about an asterisk.
Compare that effort to clear up any mistake to a Republican leadership in Congress that knew about a sexual predator in their ranks for perhaps as many as five years and chose to cover it up rather than ensure that the teenage children sent to the Capitol each year were fully protected.
This latest tempest in a teapot is nothing more than a smear campaign by Republicans desperate to hold on to a Congressional majority they've done nothing to deserve.
Republicans in Washington have no ideas for the future and no solutions to clean up their mistakes. All they have left is baseless charges.
I am disgusted by these latest attacks — it's a dirty trick I know all too well. Republicans distribute misleading propaganda in the hope that malicious lies will distort honest truths. They used the same tactics against me four years ago, and I will not let them succeed this time.
The Republican Congress has failed in Iraq, failed on health care, raised taxes on the middle class and made America less safe. It's time for change in this country. GOP leaders think smearing a good man is a substitute for effective leadership, but I'm proud to say Democratic leaders such as Reid are fighting to take America in a new direction.
These aren't the droids you're looking for.
Good trick for Max.
" ... and Harry Greed paid me good money under the table to come out and say this."
Did he comment about Dingy Harry's misuse of campaign funds which he's now returning?
http://www.nypost.com/seven/10162006/postopinion/opedcolumnists/reids_smelly_windfall_opedcolumnists_ed_morrissey.htm
Then, the next year, Reid introduced and pushed into law the Clark County Conservation of Public Land and Natural Resources Act of 2002. The senator heralded this as vital in protecting the environment near Las Vegas. In fact, however, the law forced the Department of the Interior to sell off 18,000 acres of land around Las Vegas, spurring development and boosting the value of real-estate investments in the region. (Not what anyone normally associates with "protecting the environment.")
Normally, the government would have to sell this land at auction, as land swaps had lost the federal government millions in southern Nevada. But Reid insisted on suspending that rule in his Clark County act. The developers that hired his sons as lobbyists prospered with the lower-cost acquisitions of prime real estate through the uneven swaps. Also in the money were those - like Harry Reid himself - who'd already invested money in Clark County real estate.
The L.A. Times revealed the Reid family's extensive connections with Clark County developers in June 2003, as well as Reid's extensive legislative interest in the land, but the Brown-Reid investment had not yet come to light - thanks to Reid's failure to disclose.
Had the investment been known, voters could have made the connection. The Senate Ethics Committee might have taken an interest as well - except that Harry Reid himself sat as the top Democrat on that panel.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1720147/posts
Yeah, ignore all those other details, such as the stench of the legislation Reid pushed through Congress that directly benefited developers at a cost to US taxpayers, and indirectly benefited his sons, since the law firm that hires all of them got to dish the goodies to the developers in return for lobbying fees.
Doesn't sound too much different from what Weldon is being investigated for. What's good for the goose is good for the donkey as well.
So if it was all so simple why didn't he tell the truth from the start .. now Reid's saying there's two more transactions as yet unreported. Hmm.
Unfortunately, everything that a$$, Foley, did was legal, too. Doesn't mean it was ethical.
Cleland is still bending over for the Democrat Party.
I'd bet he'd give his right arm to be back in the Senate.
If you hang around with democrats, he probably is one of the most ethical men you know.
I'd call that a textbook case of damning with faint praise
LOL - from the unbiased source of a bitter ex-Dem senator whose personal morals and ethics are also questionable, if I remember correctly.
Isn't Weldon being investigated for something similar?
Too late, this story has legs.
...Rush Limbaugh doesn't call that rag the "Atlanta Urinal-Constipation" for nothing....anything that comes from Max Cleland I would take with a grain of salt anyway.....
Maybe Cleland is telling the truth ... and indicting himself.
As always the dems use the extra special billclinton dictionary of the meaning of is.
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