The latest "Dirty" Harry Reid scandal

The AP says:

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid collected a $1.1 million windfall on a Las Vegas land sale even though he hadn't personally owned the property for three years, property deeds show.

In the process, Reid did not disclose to Congress an earlier sale in which he transferred his land to a company created by a friend and took a financial stake in that company, according to records and interviews.

The Nevada Democrat's deal was engineered by Jay Brown, a longtime friend and former casino lawyer whose name surfaced in a major political bribery trial (reviewjournal .com/lvrj_home/2006/Apr-02-Sun-2006/news/6651876.html) this summer and in other prior organized crime investigations. He's never been charged with wrongdoing - except for a 1981 federal securities complaint that was settled out of court...

Those with an interest in accountancy can read the rest. Those with an interest in seeing DailyKos trying to chalk this up to just not filling out a form and offering Reid's side of things can click here. Note that Kos only answers the disclosure part, and doesn't discuss the backstory and whether there was a quid pro quo that resulted in this windfall.

And, indeed, the windfall appears to have come about because of legislative actions that Reid took regarding the Coyote Springs development project. Reid put a lot of effort into a allowing a developer (Harvey Whittemore) to build a housing project on a large parcel an hour outside Las Vegas. And, he and his sons received tens of thousands in donations from that developer. And, it appears that this windfall involves that developer. More on that here. And, here are several more links about "dirty" Harry Reid.

UPDATE: The AP has a video report here, including audio of "dirty" Harry hanging up the phone on them when asked about the deal.

Politics · Wed, 10/11/2006 - 18:44 · Importance: 4