Harry Reid is whining that all this attention to his illicit finances is politically-motivated---poor, poor, pitiful me.

The fact that there is an election doesn't give crooks and predatory homosexuals a pass. Reid should be investigated and if found guilty of crimes, sentenced appropriately---how bad could it be? Only Republicans go to jail.

Greg posted last week that this was all asshattery, and that Reid was pure as the driven snow, presumeably because he's a Democrat AND a Mormon. I've known plenty of shady Mormons and shady Democrats are a cliche. Let's look at the facts.

The contention made by liberal apologists that Reid simply converted his private ownership to an LLC is not credible. How do we know this? Because Reid got paid for the land at the time the title was transferred to Patrick Lane LLC. Conversion of business entity doesn't involve compensation, but a sale does. Patrick Lane LLC paid Reid the $400,000 he originally paid for the land. Have you ever "bought" an interest in a company or investment vehicle without actually investing anything? Me neither.

It gets worse.

Dell Webb, and Arizona developer, and Perma-bilt Homes wanted to develop some land in the Las Vegas area that was owned by the U.S. government. According to comments by Harry Reid, Dell Webb had been working for 10 years to convince the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to consider a land swap deal. Dell Webb enlisted the assistance of Harry Reid and Clinton administration Interior Department secretary Bruce Babbitt to help (Babbitt had represented Dell Webb previous to his government service)

According to the Las Vegas Journal-Review, January 17, 1998 edition, Reid summoned Gary Ryan, the BLM's district manager to a 1994 meeting where a Dell-Webb lobbyist was waiting for him. According to Ryan, Reid and lobbyist Don Moon gave Ryan the hard sell.

Reid had earlier written a letter to Interior Department officials on behalf of Dell Webb in the same year. The next year, Reid received $18,000.00 in political contributions from the Dell Webb PAC and several Dell Webb employees.

Reid excused his action in the matter as being in the interests of Nevada, but he consistently interceded on behalf on individual developers with the BLM. In 1999, Reid worked to rescue a land swap deal that was shelved because it overwhelmingly favored developed Dennis Rider (AP, November 29, 1999). I haven't yet been able to determine if Reid received any campaign contributions from Dennis Rider soon after. Think I will?

Reid seems to specialize in these land swap deals, because his name seems to be attached to every major proposal in Nevada. In 2000, Reid again was behind a land swap deal that was rejected because it favored a single Mesquite, NV developer.

In 2002, Reid supported a land swap deal involving the Howard Huges Corporation which not surprisingly, traded land to allow development. (Las Vegas Journal-Review, October 2, 2002)

In the same year, Reid objected to a land swap, apparently because he was cut out of the deal by the BLM which was dealing directly with a developer.

The process was criticized Monday by U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. The Senate majority whip said he'd support legislation to end landowners' direct involvement in the government's handling of their own deals.

"I'm not saying it's illegal," Reid said. "I just don't like the way it looks."

Reid added he's writing BLM Director Kathleen Clarke to express his concerns about the pending trade of a square mile of private land in northern Nevada for a square mile of BLM land in southern Nevada.

"This is cheating," he added. "What has happened is all this downsizing of government. It's the responsibility of taxpayers to fund this agency. The BLM shouldn't have to hire someone from the outside to come in." (AP, June 17, 2002)

History shows that Nevada land-swap deals should go through the Senator's office.

None of this is particularly offensive--an effective politician is supposed to cut through bureaucratic red tape in the interest of his constituents and the state--its just that Harry Reid's constituents always seem to be powerful developers. So what makes it influence-peddling? Here's a definition.

Influence peddling is the practice of using one's influence in government or connections with persons in authority to obtain favors or preferential treatment for another, usually in return for payment

Was it coincidence that Reid just happened to buy land from Perma-bilt, one of the parties slated to benefit from the landswap, and that the land just happened to be adjacent government land-soon-to-be Dell Webb land slated for development?

"This land investment was completely unrelated to federal land swaps that took place in the mid-1990's," Manley said.

Lessman said he never talked to Reid or asked for his help before the 1998 land sale, and only met the senator years later at a public event. "Any suggestion that the land sale between Senator Reid and myself is somehow tied in with the Perma-Bilt exchange is completely absurd," Lessman said.

Completely absurd? It doesn't seem so absurd to me.

Clark County intended for the property Reid owned to be used solely for new housing, records show. Just days before Reid sold the parcels to Brown's company, Brown sought permission in May 2001 to rezone the properties so a shopping center could be built.

Career zoning officials objected, saying the request was "inconsistent" with Clark County's master development plan. The town board in Spring Valley, where Reid's property was located, also voted 4-1 to reject the rezoning.

Brown persisted. The Clark County zoning board followed by the Clark County Commission voted to overrule the recommendation and approve commercial zoning. Such votes were common at the time.

Before the approval in September 2001, Brown's consultant told commissioners that Reid was involved. "Mr. Brown's partner is Harry Reid, so I think we have people in this community who you can trust to go forward and put a quality project before you," the consultant testified.

With the rezoning granted, Patrick Lane pursued the shopping center deal. On Jan. 20, 2004, the company sold the property to developers for $1.6 million. The next day, Reid was given $1.1 million of the sale proceeds.

Today, a multimillion dollar retail complex sits on the land.

Reid’s two lots were never owned by the government, but the piece of land joining Reid’s property to the street corner _ a key to the shopping center deal _ came from the government in 1994. [AJStrata: making the property Reid bought valuable IF the land were to be developed, and basically useless otherwise]

Polipundit picked this up.

Reid isn’t listed anywhere on Patrick Lane’s corporate filings with Nevada, even though the land he sold accounted for three-quarters of the company’s assets.

Senator Reid released this statement today:

“Republicans may believe in cover-ups. I believe in ensuring all facts come to light.

“Last week, a highly misleading report by the Associated Press implied that I made a profit selling land I no longer owned. That article was wrong. Here are the facts: I bought the land in 1998, I sold it in 2004, and I listed my ownership of the land on official Senate disclosure forms every single year.

I suppose if you are in thrall to Harry Reid like some people, you'd take this at face value--the facts suggest something else entirely.

After ten years of hard slogging, a grateful developer finds a surreptious way to reward his political manuensis. Reed is sold strategically-located land and in turn sells it to an LLC for what he paid for it. Three lots--two of which are owned by the LLC and the third that was part of the land-swap deal, are packaged for a lucrative commercial development. After initial the initial rezoning request is denied, Reid's "partner" persists and eventually obtains rezoning in 2001.

All three Clark County commissioners at the time were Democrats (Betty Sue Morris, Judie Stanton, Craig Pridemore), which begs the question of how much they wanted to piss off a senior member of the Nevada congressional delegation and a king-maker in their party?

UPDATE: From the Boston Globe

Reid portrayed the 2004 sale as a personal sale of land, making no mention of the company's ownership or its role in the sale.

Reid said his amended ethics reports will list the 2001 sale and the company, called Patrick Lane LLC.

``I directed my staff to file amended financial disclosure forms noting that in 2001, I transferred title to the land to a Limited Liability Corp.," Reid said in a statement issued by his office.

Reid said he believed the 2001 sale did not alter his ownership of the land but that he agreed to file the amended reports because ``I believe in ensuring all facts come to light."

Reid blamed the AP story as the ``latest attempt" by Republicans to affect the election. AP reported last week that it learned of the land deal from a former adviser to Reid who had concerns about the way the deal was reported to Congress.

I guess this pretty much blows the apologists argument out of the water--Reid unequivocally calls the transaction with Patrick Lane LLC a "sale" rather than a transfer. I don't see how he could avoid it--you don't get paid for a transfer--you do get paid for a sale.

There are plenty of unanswered questions--maybe a trip down to Vegas is in order...