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Who Owns Harry Reid? (Part 2)
In Politics, the saying goes. "You are What You Eat". That means your voting record will parallel the desires of those that gave you money. Its called "quid pro-quo". There are two groups of people the Republican or Democratic Senator must respond to if they desire to remain the "Party's Choice". One is the Party Leadership, which gives them mucho dinero. The other is those listed as major donors on their campaign finance reports.
Harry Reid is no exception. If he were, he would not have raised 17 million dollars over the past 5 years. He would also not be the current leader of the United States Senate. Self-enrichment is another issue with Reid that has raised eyebrows over the years:
"In 2003 Reid was embarrassed by a Los Angeles Times article on his son and son-in-law lobbying his office. In 2002 Reid introduced a bill, "The Clark County Conservation of Public Land and Natural Resources Act of 2002," which was ostensibly aimed at boundary shifts, land trades and other arcane matters in Nevada. The Times article explains that the bill would provide "a cavalcade of benefits to real estate developers, corporations and local institutions that were paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in lobbying fees to his sons' and son-in-law's firms".
Howard Hughes Corp. paid Reid's son-in-law Scott Barringer's "tiny" law firm $300,000 in lobbying fees and received "a provision allowing the company to acquire 998 acres of federal land ripe for development in the exploding Las Vegas metropolitan area." A Nevada law firm that employs all four of Reid's sons represented a group of real estate developers that received helpful provisions in the Clark County bill.
Reid argued that the bill would help Nevada's economy while protecting the environment. The bill "placed an additional 440,000 acres of federal land under wilderness protection".
Reid's sons, Key and Barringer, have represented almost every industry in Nevada, all of them seek Reid's help on federal matters. Reid initially defended his son's lobbying as perfectly legal and clean, noting that they had to file biannual reports. He later banned family members from lobbying anyone in his office." (source)
On another issue:
"In 2005 Reid earmarked a spending bill to provide for building a bridge between Nevada and Arizona that would make land he owned more valuable. Reid called funding for construction of a bridge over the Colorado River, among other projects, 'incredibly good news for Nevada' in a news release after passage of the 2005 transportation bill. He owned 160 acres (65 ha) of land several miles from the proposed bridge site in Arizona. The bridge could add value to his real estate investment." (Ibid)
Now, back to the "You are What You Eat" discussion:
"A series of investigative reports in the Los Angeles Times suggested that Reid had introduced legislation and imposed pressure on regulatory agencies to advance the business interests of his close friend Harvey Whittemore, a Nevada attorney-lobbyist who contributed heavily to Reid's campaigns and leadership fund and whose personal attorney was Reid's son Leif. With Reid's help, Whittemore was able to proceed with construction of a $30 billion planned golf course development, Coyote Springs, a project heavily criticized by environmental groups for reasons including its projected effects on several endangered species."
Convicted Felon and accused murderer, Jack Abramoff, was also pretty tight with Senator Reid.
"According to a February 9, 2006, Associated Press story by John Solomon, Reid wrote letters and had "routine contacts" with lobbying partners and clients of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Reid's actions aided the interests of Abramoff's Native American clients. Reid has acknowledged receiving $61,000 from clients or colleagues of Abramoff, much of which was given to Reid by Indian tribes after Abramoff was hired. [18] Reid collected donations around the time of each action he took to help Abramoff's clients. Ethics rules require senators to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest in legislative matters regarding campaign donors. While some politicians have returned contributions they received from Abramoff or his clients, Harry Reid has steadfastly refused claiming the Abramoff matter "is a Republican scandal."
Abramoff's other, less publicized venture, was his lobbying efforts for and in behalf of America's forced labor and sex slave camp, the Mariana Islands.
"None of this was a secret back home in the U.S. In 1998, ABC, CNN, the BBC and the New York Times each confirmed reports of forced labor, sex slaves and domestic forced servitude among the Marianas' so-called "guest workers....Human rights groups, long up in arms over the work conditions on the islands, charged that sweatshop operators did not appreciate it when their female employees got pregnant. Numerous allegations of forced abortions surfaced over the years.
As a result of the bad publicity, the Marianas hired Jack Abramoff to thwart any reform efforts in Congress. He apparently lobbied Reid on their behalf. The strategy involved turning the Mariana scandal into a dispute over whether the island should fall under the United States' minimum wage statutes:
Abramoff's lobbying firm has made public billing records and congressional correspondence of more than two dozen contacts, between Abramoff's lobbying team, and Reid's office. Many of the discussions relate to the passage of a Kennedy bill that would slowly raise the minimum wage of the Northern Mariana Islands.[20] [21] Publicly, Reid supported an increase in minimum wage there, though some have claimed that privately he was working against it.
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