Reid Accepts Free Boxing Tickets – Denies Wrongdoing

Posted on May 30, 2006

Senate Minority Leader Harry “The Human Sleeping Pill” Reid is a huge boxing fan. A former boxer and boxing judge himself, it is natural that he would want to attend events held in his home state of Nevada. But should the tickets for the events be gifted to him? Well, technically there may not be any ethics violation but the Democrats are waging a campaign to take control of Congress by trying to portray Republicans as corrupt. Those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones as they say.

Between 2003 & 2005, while Reid was promoting legislation which would give the federal government more oversight of the boxing industry, he accepted ringside tickets to 3 events in Las Vegas courtesy of the Nevada Athletic Commission. And although the Senate ethics rules permit such gifts from federal, state, or local governments, they warn against accepting such repeated gifts when “they might be connected to efforts to influence official actions.”

Reid, who has been connected to convicted former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, should especially be careful of any activity which could be construed as being unethical. And although he claims that the gifts of these tickets would never influence his decisions concerning the legislation that he was pushing, the appearance of in propriety does exist.

In a year when the Democrats are trying to convince the American people that it is their opponents who are corrupt, it is awful self destructive for the party to be seen as having even more corrupt candidates than the GOP. So far this year we’ve had ethics revelations against Reid in connection with Abramoff, Alan Mollohan and his shady real estate deals, Cynthia McKinney striking a Police Officer, Patrick Kennedy taking a moonlight drive under the influence of drugs and possibly alcohol, and the grand daddy of them all, William Jefferson.

Jefferson is likely to be the weakest link in the chain. Reid, well maybe he hasn’t done anything wrong, it just has the appearance of being so. Mollohan, could be telling the truth and is extremely lucky in real estate, McKinney, still hasn’t been charged, Kennedy, does have a recognizable disease, but Jefferson has been caught on video and audio tape in the act of taking bribes. Money paid to Jefferson was found in his home, concealed in a freezer when the FBI served a warrant on his home. The best thing that he could do for his party, is to resign from the House. The best thing that he could do for us is to hang on to his seat and actually attempt to get re-elected.

Reid on the other hand, may be perfectly innocent of any wrongdoing. But the opportunity for criminal activity on the level of Jefferson is there. The appearance that his influence can be bought is there. The worst thing that Reid can do is to keep running his mouth and fueling the speculation. If he was smart, and I’m not claiming that he is after-all he is a Democrat, he would ask the Majority Leader to consider an official Ethics Committee investigation into the allegations. This way he dispenses with the matter in short order and comes across as someone who has nothing to hide.

McKinney is beyond saving. She’s insane to begin with. There is a report out that she actually is advocating violence by inner city gangs against the police, the military, and veterans. She was seen by multiple witnesses assaulting that Capital Police Officer. And she has admitted to misusing federal funding to pay for transportation for a celebrity to visit district to solicit support and money to fund her campaign.

Kennedy might as well have resigned. He can’t be representing his district in Connecticut very well from a hospital in Minnesota can he? And like father like son, Patrick has an addictive personality which means these dependency problems are not going to go away.

But Jefferson, he takes the doughnut. No one has done this much damage to a political campaign than William Jefferson. Along with Cynthia McKinney, Jefferson has done more to destroy the assertion by the Democrats that Republicans are corrupt.

Perhaps “The Wicked Witch of the West” Nancy Pelosi should have looked at her own house before she started chucking those rocks.