Thursday, October 12, 2006
Third Time's No Charm
As soon as I saw the "AP exclusive" that exposed an apparently sleazy land deal by Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, I knew two things:
1. There was both more and less to the story than John Solomon was reporting, and the full facts would show the land deal wasn't sleazy at all.
2. The story would be spread far and wide as proof that the Democrats are even more corrupt than the Republicans.
Kos, Jane Hamsher of firedoglake, and Paul Kiel in TPMmuckraker explain exactly why the deal, and Senator Reid's reporting of it under Senate ethics rules, are neither illegal nor unethical. They also point out that Senator Reid's did not use his office to increase the value of the land (in contrast with, say, Denny Hastert, who pushed for federal funding for a highway to be built through land that he owned).
They also point out that this is the third story in the last six months in which Solomon as portrayed Reid's actions as unethical when they were entirely proper.
"Once is coincidence, twice is happenstance, three times is enemy action."
(A blog search in Google shows that I was right about the second thing, too. Some people never let the facts get in the way of being "fair and balanced".)
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