If I hear one more liberal blog pointing to the Harry Read scandal and claiming it is a conservative effort to throw the spot light off of the Foley scandal, I am going to scream. We conservatives are a bit less skilled at the blame shift game, I will admit, but this is nothing of the sort. For those dense liberals who are missing the facts, let me reiterate them for you.

1. In 1998 Read Purchases a plot of land in Las Vegas for ~$400K
2. From 1998 onward Reid pushed hard, in his role as senator, on various issues to spur growth and increase land values and development in the vicinity of this land. Issues including the pushes to strip away federal land and turn it over to developers – developers which, coincidently, used lobbying firms who employed Reid’s sons.
3. In 2001 Reid transferred the land to a limited partnership in which he maintained a personal stake. This transfer broke three Senate ethics rules: First his failure to disclose the sale to a company owned by a fried, secondly his ownership interest in the company, and thirdly his continued reporting for the last three as if he personally owned the land.
4. In 2004 the limited partnership sold the land, and Reid received a windfall of $1.1M – or 175% of the original purchase price.
5. The land deal was arranged though a dubious attorney, Jay Brown, who has reputed connections with organized crime.
   Reid then misrepresented the transaction on his Tax statements to the IRS, prompting the need to amend those filings.
6. Reid then used campaign donations, instead of his own money, to pay Christmas bonuses (tips) to the staff at his upscale Ritz Carlton condominium – a violation of federal election laws.

   So, in a rapid succession of questionable activity which started in 1998, broke Senate ethics rules, federal election laws, and IRS tax laws – how is it that the Republicans set this man up?

   Culture of Corruption, a famous Read quote, now takes on a new light.