Hang Right Politics

Posted by COgirl on January 28th, 2007 in Harry Reid, Culture of Corruption

This sniveling little man is so underhanded and the MSM (excluding LA Times) keeps giving him a pass. Check out this story from today’s LA Times, A deal in the desert for Sen. Reid?.

I checked the past stories about Harry Reid to be sure that this wasn’t a repeat of a previous story. It isn’t. This one involves land in Bullhead City, Arizona. It seems that the “lucky” Mr. Reid acquired 160 acres of land for $10,000 in 2002. That’s the total, not the per acre amount and it works out to $166 an acre. It’s worth at least $1000 per acre, possibly more. And just in case you are thinking that this is attributable to appreciation, it’s worth noting that the “honest” Senator from Nevada appealed to the county assessor in 2002 to lower the value because it was higher than the $166 he paid. The assessor says the property is worth $1748 an acre.

Here are some more of the dirty details of the land deal. He acquired the land from a pension fund managed by his good friend of 50 years, Clair Haycock. Haycock was a lubricants distributor who like others had been cut off from supplies by the major oil companies. And here is the “big” surprise.

Six months after the deal closed, Reid introduced legislation to address the plight of lubricants dealers who had their supplies disrupted by the decisions of big oil companies. It was an issue the Haycock family had brought to Reid’s attention in 1994, according to a source familiar with the events.

Let’s understand that Reid has been a strong advocate for mining and gambling interests in Nevada. So the lubricant business is something that’s a bit out of the mainstream for him. Reid (of course) denies any influence from Haycock and her husband. BUT. . .

The Haycocks — who were considered industry leaders — say they do not recall discussing the matter with Reid. But the former trade group employee said the Haycocks convinced Reid to take action.

Reid “did it because John or Clair asked him to do it,” said the former employee.

Reid began bringing up the legislation in the mid-1990s (about the same time as he initially got involved in the property), apparently without success but . . .

Nonetheless, Reid cited the same constituent example almost word-for-word in 2002, soon after the land sale, and again in 2003 when he introduced legislation, cosponsored by Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), to protect lubricants distributors

Where there’s smoke there’s fire. How many more of Dirty Harry’s land deals in exchange for influence will we discover? How long before the MSM starts to report on this? The man is dirty and dishonest and he is the Democratic majority leader of the Senate. Culture of corruption, anyone?