Corrupted Donkey

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, who has criticized Republican ethics, accepted free ringside tickets to three professional boxing matches from Nevada officials who were trying to influence his federal legislation regulating the sport. - CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/05/30/reid.ethics.ap/index.html)

Briana Dawson

Well, there goes the only platform the Dems had left. People in glass houses and all that.

-Kiamat Dusk

More confirmation that we need a third party. The Democrats are just as corrupt as the Republicans.

Would a corrupted donkey be another name for a bad ass?

Maybe as a libertarian, I have a hard time telling the difference between a demopublican and a republicrat.

Arg. You beat me to it.

P2

In honor of this thread, I have to tell a donkey tale

The Donkey and The Raffle


A city boy, Kenny, moved to the country and bought a donkey from an old farmer for $100.00. The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day. The next day the farmer drove up and said, "Sorry son, but I have some bad news, the donkey died." Kenny replied, "Well then, just give me my money back." The farmer said, "Can't do that. I went and spent it already." Kenny said, "OK then, just unload the donkey." The farmer asked, "What ya gonna do with him?" Kenny, "I'm going to raffle him off." Farmer, "You can't raffle off a dead donkey!" Kenny, "Sure I can. Watch me. I just won't tell anybody he is dead." A month later the farmer met up with Kenny and asked, "What happened with that dead donkey?" Kenny, "I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at two dollars a piece and made a profit of $898.00." Farmer, "Didn't anyone complain?" Kenny, " Just the guy who won. So I gave him his two dollars back."

Kenny grew up and eventually became the chairman of Enron...

.

dear god no! Not boxing tickets!!!

Might be worth mentioning that Reid voted *against* that piece of legislation. So much for influence.

But I guess according to you it's okay for Scalia to go duck hunting with the defendant in a pending court case, but it's not okay for a US Senator to get comp tickets to a sporting event?

It's not like he went to Scotland on an all expenses paid golfing trip.

And cue the pointless argument!

Since he got caught, you could have called him a stupid ass!

Uh, he accepted the tickets, and then voted AGAINST the interests of the donors.

We could use more of that kind of corruption.

It helps, people, if you read the entire John Solomon article. And if you ask "who's that?" you lose the forums today.

Oh yes, we want our leaders to take bribes and then not deliver on them, kind of like when they promise one thing to get us to vote for them, and do another thing after getting elected.

Wow, you sure told him!

Yeah --Boxing tickets --why he's a regular Boss Tweed.

How much were the tickets?

The last match I saw cost over $100 per ticket, and it wasn't a televised event. I can imagine tickets for his party were over $1000 and the other costs made it considerably more.

I see no reason to excuse him from willfully ignoring the law. Do you?

from
http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/05/democratic-senator-from-nevada.html
...

What kind of world do we live in when the Senator from Nevada is the guest of the state of Nevada at a Nevada event with his Nevada constituents?...

Now, one could argue, as AP does, that this case is different - you see, the state had an interest in legislation Reid was working on. Well newsflash, the state has an interest in EVERY piece of legislation a Senator works on. If that's the criteria for a Senator never being the guest of the state government, then he could accept NO gifts from the state government ever - and under the Senate ethics rules, Senators are specifically permitted to take gifts from state and local governments. So AP's argument just doesn't hold water. ...

Now, let's compare this story to the tale of Republican Randy "Duke" Cunningham - since the AP is in the market to paint Reid as just as corrupt as all the Republicans.

Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.) resigned from Congress... after tearfully confessing to evading taxes and conspiring to pocket $2.4 million in bribes, including a Rolls-Royce, a yacht and a 19th-century Louis-Philippe commode....

Prosecutors said Cunningham, an eight-term House member, "demanded, sought and received" illicit payments in the form of cash, home payments, furnishings, cars and vacations from four co-conspirators, including two defense contractors, over the past five years.

Yes, one man accepted tickets to a boxing match from his own state government when boxing is one of the top state industries. The other man "demanded" $2.4 million in bribes. Oh yeah, awfully similar stories.

And finally, there's this little fact that I didn't even realize until someone pointed it out in the comments:

Take Harry Reid, for example. The leader of the Senate Democrats is so tough he took on the Mob -- drove the Mafia out of the Las Vegas casinos. They planted a bomb in his car, and he never flinched, never backed down.

Oh yeah, definitely sounds like the kind of guy you buy with a couple of boxing tickets.

Sounds to me like the Associated Press is trying to protect the Republicans by "proving" that the cultural of corruption in Washington isn't predominantly a Republican problem - even though it is.

It's not illegal.

At the very least it was unethical. It broke the rules senators must follow.

"Senate ethics rules generally allow lawmakers to accept gifts from federal, state or local governments, but specifically warn against taking such gifts -- particularly on multiple occasions -- when they might be connected to efforts to influence official actions.

"Senators and Senate staff should be wary of accepting any gift where it appears that the gift is motivated by a desire to reward, influence or elicit favorable official action," the Senate ethics manual states. It cites the 1990s example of an Oregon lawmaker who took gifts for personal use from a South Carolina state university and its president while that school was trying to influence his official actions.

"Repeatedly taking gifts which the Gifts Rule otherwise permits to be accepted may, nonetheless, reflect discredit upon the institution, and should be avoided," the manual says.

Several ethics experts said Reid should have paid for the tickets, which were close to the ring and worth between several hundred and several thousand dollars each, to avoid the appearance he was being influenced by gifts."

and your evidence that it might be connected to influence is?



Have you ever been to Las Vegas? Comped tickets fall out of everyone's ass all day every day.




Not sure this qualifies as repeatedly.




I am very dubious when people say "several experts" or "many people say" or "some feel". It's meaningless unless you provide me with links and names.

No it didn't. This entire thing is reaching beyond the bounds of normal belief.

A Senator can attend a state event. There is nothing to see here except Republicans grasping for straws.

Since when was a boxing match in Las Vegas considered a 'state event'?

It cost thousands of dollars to get ring side seats at title boxing matches. You are paying to sit with the stars.

There is a modicum of prestige involved as well.

Briana Dawson

pssssssssssst -- Senators are generally real important people that even "stars" would pay through the nose to sit near. Very few people are as important as Senator Harry Reid, especially in his home state. Harry doesn't strike me as being particularly "star-struck".

psssssssst.... I said MODICUM, not STAR-STRUCK.

The only reasons "stars" pay through the nose to sit with them is so they can donate to the campaign, not because the Senator is some sort of legislative star.

Briana Dawson

You know, American conservatives just don't have the touch. There's an art to smearing mud, particularly on a Teflon politician like Harry Reid - a politically-liberal, Democratic, socially-conservative Mormon (as in former bishop) who looks like everyone's innocuous and slightly-batty grandfather. Conservatives just don't know the art - and they almost always end up with more mud on themselves than on the target.

This thread is proof.

Give me Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Daniel Webster, John Quincy Adams, Teddy Roosevelt, Barbara Jordan, or even - wait for it - JFK. Those people could sling mud, have it turn into shit in mid-air, and leave even their targets grinning, befuddled, and stinking to high-heaven.