http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/10/12/reid.landwindfall.ap/index.html
This article is long as hell, I don't know why. I just grabbed some of it. Read all of it yourself if you care to.

Quote :

"Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid is awaiting word from the Senate ethics committee on whether he failed to properly account for a business deal that allowed him to collect a $1.1 million windfall on land he hadn't personally owned for three years. Reid sought the opinion after The Associated Press reported Wednesday that the senator didn't disclose to Congress that he first sold the land to a friend's company back in 2001 and took an ownership stake in the company. He didn't collect the seven-figure payout until the company sold the land again in 2004 to others. Reid reported the 2004 transaction as a personal sale, never disclosing his earlier sale or the stake in the company. "

Quote :

" "Everything I did was transparent," Reid told a Las Vegas news conference Wednesday after the AP story was published. "I paid all the taxes. Everything is fully disclosed to the ethics committee and everyone else. As I said, if there is some technical change that the ethics committee wants, I'll be happy to do that.""

Quote :

" In 2001, Reid sold the land for the same price to a limited liability corporation created by Brown. The senator didn't disclose the sale on his annual public ethics report or tell Congress he had any stake in Brown's company. He continued to report to Congress that he personally owned the land. After getting local officials to rezone the property for a shopping center, Brown's company sold the land in 2004 to other developers and Reid took $1.1 million of the proceeds, nearly tripling the senator's investment. Reid reported it to Congress as a personal land sale. The complex dealings allowed Reid to transfer ownership, legal liability and some tax consequences to Brown's company without public knowledge, but still collect the payoff nearly three years later. Reid hung up the phone when questioned about the deal during an AP interview last week."

Quote :

" They also said they have no documents proving Reid's stake in the company because it was an informal understanding between friends."

Quote :

" Kent Cooper, a former Federal Election Commission official who oversaw government disclosure reports for federal candidates for two decades, said Reid's failure to report the 2001 sale and his ties to Brown's company violated Senate rules. "This is very, very clear," Cooper said. "Whether you make a profit or a loss you've got to put that transaction down so the public, voters, can see exactly what kind of money is moving to or from a member of Congress." Stanley Brand, former Democratic chief counsel of the House, said Reid should have disclosed the 2001 sale and that his omission fits a larger culture in Congress where lawmakers aren't following or enforcing their own rules."

I'm sure this kind of thing happens all the time, but what do you think of it? We need more transparency in business dealings?

Will this affect Reid at all?

[Edited on October 12, 2006 at 12:24 PM. Reason : .]

10/12/2006 12:23:15 PM

i think it will affect him minimally. He'll come out, explain what happened, and then it will b e swept under the congressional rug

10/12/2006 12:29:11 PM

Most likely, you are right

10/12/2006 1:00:15 PM

ya know..here is the thing though...

Here is Harry Reid...under basically zero pressure from the media for making very shady land deals in which he profited greatly...There is no massive media investigation into this...no one is goinh through his emails...no one is looking at IM's....Brian Ross is not reporting on this every day...its not on the headline of any new websites anywhere

the question is why not??

Now look at Denny Hastert?? There are calls for his resignation!! ...from all over the place!!....the media will not leave him alone!! Why the double standard??

10/12/2006 11:00:42 PM

this suspected "failed to properly account for a business deal" cancels the REPUBLICAN PEDOPHILE

10/12/2006 11:03:18 PM

thats not what i said....josh putting words in someones mouth...imagine that

what would have happened if a republican "crook and liar" would have done this?

10/12/2006 11:07:38 PM

who was that REPUBLICAN PEDOPHILE again?

10/12/2006 11:14:41 PM

your so pathetic

10/12/2006 11:19:48 PM

Quote :

"your "

unable to spell simple words

[Edited on October 12, 2006 at 11:22 PM. Reason : REPUBLICAN PEDOPHILE]

10/12/2006 11:21:55 PM

^case in point

10/12/2006 11:22:21 PM

why did all the republicans cover for the REPUBLICAN PEDOPHILE?

10/12/2006 11:23:56 PM

^case in point

Why no media attention on Harry Reid?? Why no investigation??

10/12/2006 11:26:40 PM

least my party doesnt have man-boy page lust

10/12/2006 11:35:42 PM

[Edited on October 12, 2006 at 11:40 PM. Reason : .]

10/12/2006 11:39:52 PM

no im wrong.

sex w/ boys cancels with

Quote :

"failed to properly account for a business deal"

10/12/2006 11:40:56 PM

i thought that moral relativism was a conservative value

10/12/2006 11:48:47 PM

nobody cares about moral relativism

10/13/2006 12:04:51 AM

whats the time limit?

i mean, i understand that i can do anything that i want right now, as long as it isn't worse than sending dirty emails, but how long can i act like that before i can be held responsible?

10/13/2006 12:10:25 AM

10/13/2006 12:18:17 AM

is it the entire month of october?

i really feel the need to crap in my hand and throw it at the elderly, i just want make sure that i can shout "mark foley!" whenever anyone tries to tells me that i fucked up

10/13/2006 12:21:37 AM

Quote :

"Why no media attention on Harry Reid?? Why no investigation?? "

He is getting media attention, and a whole thread on TWW.

I'm kind of startled though that you would feel it's "unfair" that Hastert gets as much media attention, but this guy gets comparatively little.

Hastert was negligent in allowing a pedophile to be around children, where as this Reid guy did some shady business deals. The 2 crimes are drastically different in their severity.

From what I understand, people shouldn't be punished for making their money work for them.

Also, what exactly did Reid do wrong? I see where he didn't report the dealings to the Senate that he had sold the land, but politically, this only could have helped him by reporting it. Are they alleging that he dodged out on taxes or something, or just failing to report it?

10/13/2006 12:26:47 AM

No, what he did was fail to report that he sold the land to a private corporation that he had owenership interest in.

That way, when they greased some palms and changed the zoning laws, he could sell it through this company for a huge, unreported profit.

It doesn't matter though, I could care less that he's making money. But he has to report his dealings in the proper way. I assure you, he just didn't forget to do it, he intentionally left that off the books.

10/13/2006 7:13:41 AM

Quote :

"Did somebody say, republican?"

10/13/2006 10:43:05 AM

I remember when josh had things to say and didnt just troll constantly....like he is about to

10/13/2006 10:49:27 AM

Quote :

"No, what he did was fail to report that he sold the land to a private corporation that he had owenership interest in. That way, when they greased some palms and changed the zoning laws, he could sell it through this company for a huge, unreported profit. "

Yeah, be it was still on record that it was his land. So any dealings with zonings etc. seems like it would look worse for him by not reporting it, than if he did. So if he DID report it, it seems he could claim it wasn't his land, so when the zoning laws came through, it would look like it didn't affect him.

I bet either way he would have sold it and made huge profits, which is a little dirty, worse than lobbyist kick-backs, but more common I would imagine.

[Edited on October 13, 2006 at 1:12 PM. Reason : ]

10/13/2006 1:10:16 PM

He didn't "sell it", he transferred ownership into an LLC. People create Limited Liability Corporations all the time for business purposes.

10/13/2006 2:19:51 PM

windfall profits

10/13/2006 2:25:17 PM

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/10/16/D8KPS1G00.html

hahaha...interesting

10/16/2006 3:42:13 PM

Quote :

"He didn't "sell it", he transferred ownership into an LLC. People create Limited Liability Corporations all the time for business purposes. "

Quite right py, but guess what else you get to do if you're in Congress! Report it.

10/16/2006 4:17:59 PM

like i said...

he is a dem so the response is...."oh he just forgot to report it!! he didnt do anything wrong!!!"

if he was a republican he would be a crook and a liar and a theif and should go to jail and bush should be impeached...haha...


hypocrites

10/16/2006 4:22:46 PM

yup.....libs??....some outrage maybe?? .....at these shady, crooked activities??

10/16/2006 5:06:42 PM

trikk this isnt an "omg the liberal media is convering this up" situation.

the news doesnt cover everything 100% of the time, and the fact that CNN is running this article in a way makes your point mute.

remember whitewater, that wasnt a big deal at all!!

ps.

oh and this guy is most like a sleezy mother fucker but land transations dont really intrest me or the general public even a little bit.

[Edited on October 16, 2006 at 5:20 PM. Reason : but guys trying to make it with little boys and wars do]

10/16/2006 5:19:23 PM

Quote :

"makes your point mute moot."

http://wsu.edu/~brians/errors/mute.html

10/16/2006 5:24:30 PM

well no shit

10/16/2006 5:25:29 PM

Dental, I don't think its any kind of coverup either. It simply is that this is a boring piece of information. But informed voters SHOULD take notice of this kind of thing.

I can't stand how partisan every discussion gets around election time. You'll notice in my posts I made no snide remarks about one side of the aisle being crooked.

I do wish we could socially experiment and release this same information about a republican senator and see if the response would have been different for all these uber-partisan party-liners.

I'm sure Josh would have linked it to pedophilia and posted some pictures supposedly making up for the lack of sense in the rhetoric.

10/16/2006 5:27:34 PM

i agree

trikk and josh are pretty much worthless

10/16/2006 5:57:12 PM

dental...your such a worthless piece of crap..


when did i ever say the liberal media was covering this up...obviuosly thats not the case...stop beinga typical liberal moron and putting words in my mouth

all im saying is this is some real shady stuff...people make BIG bucks flipping land and setting up these types of entities and stuff...big bucks....i would expect a little bit out outrage from people like you...

but no...your a hypocrital liberal...suprise suprise

10/16/2006 6:01:05 PM

here's a tip: learn grammar and spelling.

10/16/2006 6:09:29 PM

heres a tip....dont make arguments based on spelling and grammar...and until you learn to make an argument NOT based on that...and based on something relevant....shut up

also....stop being a hypocritcal liberal....

are you outraged by this crook harry reid???

10/16/2006 6:14:48 PM

i didn't make any argument at all. it just pains me to see someone who has presumably gotten into a college at some point who can't distinguish between your and you're.

10/16/2006 6:21:03 PM

i can only imagine the pain you feel

now

are you outraged that Harry Ried would do this?? and then report it only after he got caught??

10/16/2006 6:34:11 PM

I wouldn't say "outraged."

Probably more like "dissapointed."

I don't see how a corrupt fund-raising deal is outrageous.

10/16/2006 6:45:58 PM

im not a liberal.

stop putting words in my mouth ya big liberal!

10/16/2006 8:24:31 PM

I'm pissed that this guy used his power for personal gain, but this is extremely common among politicians, otherwise the whole issue with lobbyists wouldn't be such a big deal. It's hard to get too mad at something I assume goes on all the time, an no one's ever done anything about.

By comparison, it's easy to get mad at a pedophile, and the people that shield him. I don't see the hypocrisy there.

10/16/2006 8:45:33 PM

maybe this stuff wouldnt happen if we took all the rich people's money away

10/16/2006 8:48:18 PM

Quote :

"libs libs libs libs"

10/16/2006 10:06:06 PM

Quote :

" “Last week, a highly misleading report by the Associated Press implied that I made a profit selling land I no longer owned. That article was wrong. Here are the facts: I bought the land in 1998, I sold it in 2004, and I listed my ownership of the land on official Senate disclosure forms every single year. “Now I have taken an additional step. Today, I directed my staff to file amended financial disclosure forms noting that in 2001, I transferred title to the land to a Limited Liability Corporation. As the amended forms make clear, this routine legal move in no way altered my actual ownership of the land. On each disclosure form after 2001, I have added a note to clarify that the land already disclosed in detail on those forms was owned by me through the LLC. “The Ethics Committee has not yet advised me whether I should file these amended forms, but even if I am not required to do so I am happy to go beyond what is needed to provide the fullest disclosure. The amended forms make clear what was true all along – I owned the land through the LLC when I sold it in 2004. “Also, in the course of preparing the amended disclosure forms, my staff has identified some clerical errors and two minor matters that were inadvertently left off my original disclosure forms. First, in 2004 I sold about one third of an acre in my hometown of Searchlight. Second, a quarter acre of land that I received from my brother in 1985 appreciated in value above the $1,000 reporting threshold at some point in recent years. Both of these items will be listed on my amended disclosure forms. “Finally, I have acted today to respond to another issue some plan to raise. I have sent a personal check in the amount of $3,300 to my political campaign to fully reimburse the campaign for donations it made over several years to the employee holiday fund in my apartment building. These donations were made to thank the men and women who work in the building for the extra work they do as a result of my political activities, and for helping the security officers assigned to me because of my Senate position. The donations came from my campaign – no taxpayer dollars were ever involved. “When the campaign first donated to the holiday fund, its experienced lawyer William Oldaker advised us that such donations were permissible. The campaign's current lawyer, Marc Elias, says the same thing. Nonetheless, I am reimbursing the campaign from my own pocket to prevent this issue from being used in the current campaign season to deflect attention from Republican failures.” "

http://reid.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=264714&

10/16/2006 11:24:14 PM

I guess we can probably just ignore the likely fact that he finagled with the zoning board to make his property more valuable... You know, cause he's a liberal...

10/16/2006 11:34:27 PM

ahah

This article I wrote...

This proves I'm innocent.

Beyond a shadow of a doubt.

gg pryderi

10/16/2006 11:41:33 PM

that too

10/16/2006 11:42:11 PM