Some thoughts on Harry Reid

I'm starting to understand this story a bit better now.
The liberals are saying he reported everything to the Senate, but it seems he fudged some things, or outright lied about them...

Some editorials:

Philly Inquirer editorial page...
While now insisting he did nothing wrong, Reid is also offering to make a "technical change" to his earlier ethics reports if the ethics committee so desires. Simply giving the Democratic leader a mulligan is hardly the way to handle this case. When the Senate debated ethics reforms earlier this year, Reid was out in front to demand the toughest of standards from lawmakers.
"Americans have been shocked and even disgusted by revelations of corruption in our current system by Republican lobbyists, senior Bush Administration officials, members of Congress, and former congressional staff," Reid said in March. "The scandals have shown that some outsiders and insiders believed they could act with impunity."
That's how this case looks, too. Unless Reid comes up with a better explanation for this lack of disclosure, Democrats should not keep him as their leader in the new Congress in 2007.

Atlanta Journal Constitution editorial page...
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid would be well advised to stop thundering about corruption in the Republican ranks or crying "cover-up" over the GOP's failure to promptly and appropriately deal with former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) and his sexually explicit e-mails to congressional pages. Reid faces too many questions about his own behavior to crusade against the misdeeds of others...
...Two months ago, the Los Angeles Times reported that Reid had smoothed the way for a campaign contributor and friend to develop a huge tract of land northeast of Las Vegas. Reid tried twice — before he was successful — to get a utility right-of-way moved from the proposed development site onto public land.
The first effort stalled because of objections from the Bureau of Land Management and others that the developer wasn't going to pay anything for a deal that would greatly increase the value of his development site. Eventually, it was determined the developer should pay the federal government more than $10 million.
Then there are the free boxing tickets Reid took from the Nevada Athletic Commission. The panel was hoping to block formation of a national boxing commission; Reid favored one.
Only after the Associated Press reported this summer that Reid got the expensive tickets did the senator decide he would no longer accept such gifts.
Unfortunately, Reid's ethics meter only seems to work when it's too late.

Ed Morrissey has been digging into the family connections and infrastructure of Reid's lucrative land deals:
I spent most of the evening last night performing some research into the various machinations of the Harry Reid real-estate transactions that netted him a 175% return on his initial $400,000 investment, and the manner in which he hid his partnership with Jay Brown from the Senate. In this research, I discovered a Los Angeles Times article from June 2003 that outlines a lot of the structure that appears to have allowed Reid to ensure his success in his real-estate ventures. Not surprisingly, it shows Reid and his family at the center of efforts to promote developments that benefitted Reid and his cronies...
...Rory Reid, Harry's son and a lawyer/lobbyist who worked for Nevada's largest legal firm. Lionel Sawyer & Collins represented more than a few clients whose business became Harry Reid's Senate business, but that isn't news. In fact, his other three sons also worked for the same firm and did some lobbying as well. Rory, however, is a special case. Rory got himself elected to the Clark County Board of Commissioners in November 2002, which makes zoning decisions for Las Vegas and its environs.
Why is this important? It was a zoning change that allowed Reid and his partners to sell their parcels in 2004 to developers after being allowed to build a shopping complex on the land. So far, the exact timing of that zoning change has not yet come to light, but the coincidence looks very suspicious.
The more we dig into this story, a picture emerges that paints Reid as a manipulator for his own benefit and that of his family and friends. The Senate Ethics Committee has a great deal of work to do in order to clarify all of the strange coincidences that allowed Reid to pocket $700,000 in profit while hiding his partner from the public.

seen on MM