Give Up Blog

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Reid Ethics Story is Bogus

Sorry for the lax blogging. Science has been a bit overwhelming in the last few days.

However, the AP and CNN stories trying to implicate minority leader Harry Reid in an ethics debacle because he accepted "tickets" for boxing matches that could be reimbursed have been thoroughly debunked. Turns out, the tickets were actually a free-pass given to VIPs like politicians and other public servants that are non-reimburseable. When McCain supposedly reimbursed one of these passes the agency providing the pass ended up giving the money to charity because it is illegal for them to accept money for these free passes.

Bob Arum, the boxing promoter who gave the credentials to Reid and Sen. John McCain, made that claim to The Las Vegas Review Journal. But I wanted to check up on that, so I called Keith Kizer, the Executive Director of the Nevada Athletic Commission. Kizer should know - he is a lawyer and former Chief Deputy Attorney General for the state of Nevada.

"It would be illegal," Kizer said, explaining that it fell under a state law prohibiting agencies or individuals for charging access to government property. The credentials provide access to the commission's area near the ring. "It would be like charging someone for access to a senator's office," Kizer added with no apparent sense of irony.

He went on to explain that credentials are given out to governmental officials and others in order to observe the commission's activity. Sometimes the credentials are provided in addition to tickets - sometimes officials sit in the commission's area.

Hooray for the TPMmuckraker. Now, let's get back to focusing on the people accepting tens of thousands in bribes and with $90k in the freezer.

2 Comments:

Jim2 said...

Fascinating.

The gaming commission claims that it would be illegal for them not to bribe senators?

I love it!

10:50 PM, May 31, 2006

Rev. Dr. said...

Ok, Jim, you're being purposefully obtuse. That's not what they claimed at all, they claimed it would have been illegal for them to have accepted "reimbursement" for a free item, namely the passes they have set aside for those who oversee the Nevada athletic comission like McCain and Reid and other legislators and public servants.

It was a state agency, the passes are free, McCain took one too, and when he tried to pay for it, they gave the cash to charity since the passes are free. When Reid was given tickets with a face value, he reimbursed it. There is no bribery here. Next you're going to say Reid took a bribe at his local 7-11 when he took a penny from the take-a-penny, leave-a-penny jar.

Finally if it's bribery, it doesn't work since Reid voted against their interests in the end.

Reid is also a mormon who made his political career taking on the mob, not exactly the first guy you think of as being easily bought. This is the weakest example of supposed ethical misconduct ever. Drop it, it just makes you look stupid. 90k in the freezer, that's bribery, accepting a free pass to a boxing match in your state, not bribery.

Finally, why are you still here? We're really not that interested in arguing with conservatives. As your comments prove, you guys are not rational at this point. There is no cure for your problem but experience. Somehow even knowing this I feel like I have to constantly correct the record in response to these damn comments of yours. In short, you're keeping me from giving up and it's pissing me off.

11:58 PM, May 31, 2006