Wow, really grasping at straws now.

Just ignore the Republicans and few select democrats that accepted millions in bribes, gifts and trips...

and concentrate on one that accepted 3 $30 boxing ring tickets.

While it is probably ethically wrong, it pales in comparision to the tangled web of Republican corruption in washington.

Voters see abramoff showering republicans with gifts and bribes and not a couple free boxing tickets.

When the good ship GOP is sinking as it is right now, right down to davy jones locker, you will try and grab anyones leg you can to pull them down with you.

Ha! ha! Reid got KO'd!

Mark, will you publish details of the FBI investigation into Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert when it comes out with equal zeal that you apply to pointing out democratic corruption?

Great...just keep your eye on issues like this while the Good Ship Freedom and Truth explodes in flames.

I can't get rid of the image...from an old Roadrunner cartoon. The one where Coyote steps off the cliff and, suspended, looks down...*GULP*..and Roadrunner appears and hands him a rope! You remember...the Coyote, the 'smart' one, frantically climbs up the rope! Uh-Oh! Tricked. Not only is he going to crash, but he looks like a clown as well...haw haw, LOL LOL

2010? You're joking, right? You may want to expend more of your considerable talent working your own Party candidates, who need emergency aid NOW, instead of getting a stiffy by howling about Democrat hypocracy.

A glance at the news reveals dozens, maybe hundreds of Republican lawmakers under investigation for corruption. The list grows daily and even a low IQ person will notice that there is a HELL of a lot more Republicans being targeted than Democrats.

Don't give me this crap about what has been 'proven' yet or not. The voting public could not care less. Anybody, Republican or Democrat, that is on that Abramoff list, proven or not, deserves to go. Sounds to me like a rout in Congress come November.

Each ticket was valued at $1,400. In one picture you can see McCain sitting with Reid ringside. McCain insisted on paying the $1,400 while Reid did not.

We all knew that democrats would rue the day they made corruption an issue. This from a party that's built on corruption, from the unbelievably nefarious unions to local areas like Chicago where it's common for the dead to outnumber the living in voting.

$1400? Is that a scalpers one day special, only 5 times the regular price cost?

Actually CJ, no. Most democratic voters are in favor of getting all the corrupt bastards out, both Republican and Democrats.

A lot of Democratic incumbents are going to be replaced with fresh Democratic faces come November. I believe this round, there are 70+ fighting Democrats running, all who are war vets.

One thing that the AP left out is the fact that Reid actually voted against the bill that he supposedly took the tickets for endorsing. Yeah, for appearances sake it would have been better if he hadn't, but it wasn't illegal and accepting them certainly didn't affect his vote.

Nice try though.

Where do you get 70+? More like 4 or 5 anti war vets are running. Amazing that you can get that many when 56% of vet consider themselves Republican and a paltry 13% consider themselves democrats.

Listen to Ed Shultz and you'll hear how Democrats feel about Democratic corruption i.e William Jefferson. He, and all of us are saying "resign. NOW!" Ethics trump loyalty. If that loses elections, then so be it. We've all seen how well loyalty trumping ethics has worked out for the last six years.

Thirty dollar boxing tickets axis? Are you serious? Is this the 1920's? Is jack dempsey boxing still? With 30$ ringside seats, vegas must be in trouble. Anyone have superbowl tickets for sale, I have a nice crispt twenty dollar bill in my pocket?

What did the Black Caucus say about Jefferson Congresive?

What a culture of corruption among the Demorats.

How do I really feel?

Reid, YOU IDIOT! Who the hell do you think you are?!? What, we don't pay you enough to buy your own freaking ticket to a boxing match?!? Taking a "free" ticket so you could check up on Mevada's gambling industry won't sway your opinion, says you?

ARE YOU STUPID?

OR JUST ARROGANT?

PAY YOUR OWN WAY YOU MORON!

of course it would be germane to point out that reid voted for increased federal boxing regulations and thus AGAINST the very people who gave him the tickets.

** Accepting gifts from state authorities, boards or departments is legal.

** Reid voted for the legislation (the state boxing commission was against the legislation).

So what is the problem?

Concerning Solomon's personal crusade to make the case that Abramoff's tentacles reached far and wide into both parties, I'll leave it to Josh marshall who says it best from his TPM blog here:

AP's Solomon: Sen. Reid (D-NV) voted against state boxing commission after accepting the commission's boxing tickets which Senate rules say he was allowed to accept. All joshing aside, if I didn't know better I might think that Solomon was developing something of an Ahab complex with that Great White Whale of the Senate, Harry Reid. Back in February, Solomon produced a lengthy expose on Team Abramoff's alleged efforts to sway Reid to support their Marianas sweatshop clients, without ever mentioning that Reid consistently voted against the Marianas sweatshop owners. That's a rather salient fact. And once you knew it, the whole piece pretty much collapsed, leaving Solomon with a quid in search of a quo. And perhaps not even a quid. The whole thing was a genuine embarassment.

Reid should resign or at the very least give up his minority leaders role in the Senate. Corruption is corruption whether you take $1 dollar or 1 million dollars. Peace

Hey Axis....how's Harper doing up there in Canada!!

LOL. Go Stephen!

no where in the clip you posted does it say how Reid voted. Do we know if he has voted yet? did he vote in favor or against?

without a "quo" to go with your "quid pro", you have nothing. that is the real difference in this and the republican corruption. The "quo" is there for anyone willing to see it.

how about a link to Reid's voting record on this matter?

figures

$30 tickets? Why did John McCain pay $1400 for the ticket next to Reid's?

By the way, how is the Reid - Abrahomoff probe going? The Senator that is MOST TIED to Jack is Henry.

And crooked Harry is the only person not to return the bribe money from Abramoff

“And crooked Harry is the only person not to return the bribe money from Abramoff”
Posted by: Capitalist Infidel

Reid never received any money from Abramoff, and did notice the story about Ney’s chief of staff spilling his guts about passing bribe money from Abramoff to Ney (NYT)?

“Mr. Ney’s former chief of staff, Neil G. Volz, who has pleaded guilty to conspiring with Mr. Abramoff to give illegal gifts to Mr. Ney, has been called to testify this week at the trial of David H. Safavian, the White House aide. Mr. Volz is expected to describe how Mr. Abramoff organized a $130,000 golf trip to Scotland by private jet in August 2002 for a group that included Mr. Ney and three House aides.”

dav - what are you talking about? regarding the clip i posted, you ask the following:

no where in the clip you posted does it say how Reid voted. Do we know if he has voted yet? did he vote in favor or against?

and it is clearly stated 10 lines down from the topof the quote, relevant lines reproduced here:

Solomon produced a lengthy expose on Team Abramoff's alleged efforts to sway Reid to support their Marianas sweatshop clients, without ever mentioning that Reid consistently voted against the Marianas sweatshop owners. That's a rather salient fact.

not sure how much more clear one could get..

Hey Axis....how's Harper doing up there in Canada!!

LOL. Go Stephen!

-- The liberals, NDP and the Bloc are keeping him firmly in check, thank you. There wont be any chance of him becoming a George Bush Jr, he would be turfed out long before that happens. Thats the advantage of the parliamentry system, you get a wacked out leader, you can throw the bum to the street.

But, hes doing ok so far, got some things done and off the plate that were long time problems. The ruling liberals were too soft on crime and the gun registry was a joke. His sfotwood lumber "fix", not a great one for Canada, but better than what we had.

As long as he keeps his radical right wing christian fundamentalism out of canadian politics, he will do ok. If not, he will have his stay signifigantly shortened.

I hope he calls for elections soon and increases the conservatives in the gov't. Strike now while the iron is hot. And his treatment of the media.

PRICELESS. Watching them go through their temper tantrums because they can't spin it through their liberal filter. Go get 'em Harper!!

warrior, he can't call for any elections, he must be overthrown by the other parties.

The liberals will retool and be ready for another go around. If harper slips just once and shows his radical right wing cards he is done.

Just last week, he haad to send a memo to all conservatives telling them to shut up and not to say anything stupid in regards to media coverage of 2 gay RCMP officers marrying in Nova Scotia. This came on the heels of a poll showing that 60% of canada was ok with the idea of gay marriage as long as it did not affect traditional marriages.

So I see him as a pot on the stove with the heat on high, if he looks away, he could boil over and people will rise up and turn off the gas.

I might add that he is only in power because people were tired of the liberals, not because they wanted a conservative in. He was the only viable alternative, so hes on a slippery slope.

Bloviator- Interestingly enough, I was just reading that Ralph REED, the REPUBLICAN candidate for Lt Governor of Georgia and former head of the Christian Coalition, was in trouble with his campaign. Seems he sent out a letter urging Alabama's Sen Bob Riley to vote against federally mandated minimum wage in the Mariannas Islands.
Reed had accepted money from Abramoff in exchange for his help with the Mariannas vote, later found out thatfemale workers brought to the Mariannas Islands were forced to have abortions, child workers were sexually abused, and many worked as slaves. It has been a huge embarassment for Reed.

FINALLY, someone gets it----a donation is not, in and of itself, a problem. I could donate to any politician in hopes that he would vote my way, but if he didn't, of if he could prove he had other reasons for his vote other than my donation, the donation would not be a sign of corruption, or proof of bribery. Good for you, dav!

Plenty of innocent politicians who got money from Abramoff did so without being informed that accepting the money would obligate them to respond with certain votes or concessions, or agreeing to any such thing. The money was simply donated to their funds. And most of them, when the scandal broke, scoured their records and returned money when it did come from Abramoff.

If simply having a donation from a suspected bad guy was enough to hang a politician, was proof of corruption, anyone could frame any politician by merely making donations to the politician in the bad guy's name. That is why there has to be a provable connection between the donation and the acts of the politician.

Cunningham was proved to be corrupt, and the Republicans kicked him out. Jefferson has been proven to be corrupt, and with any luck the Dems will stand together, as the Republicans did, and kick him out.

On the other hand, Reid DID get extensive donations from Indian tribes who were Abramoff clients, just not from Abramaoff directly. And he never returned the money.

The Dems have been counting on an unlimited supply of dupes, along the lines of axis and Tom and blarney, to be their footsoldiers and carry whatever message they are given, no matter how baseless, but the majority of Dems can see that the knife cuts both ways, and that it is dangerous to make wild accusations of "corruption" when the accusers are guilty of the same thing.

....oh, axis---you silly statement about a conservative only being elected because the people were tired of a liberal, but it not meaning anything, is a new level of delusion, even for you. That's what winning IS, you moron! It is when the people "get tired" of the other side and elect someeon who represents something different! If you were an American Democrat, we'd have to start calling you the Pretzel Party. As it is, my many strongly conservative friends in Alberta have absolutely no use for you toffee-nosed pansies, as you are called so unaffectionately out West. Just as the libs whined that the "real" Americans didn't elect Bush, it was just a few million ignorant rubes, you can whine that the "real" Canadians didn't look to conservatives to fix the screwups of the liberals in your country. Yeah, right....

BTW, when axis was talking about the boxing tickets being worth $30, he was talking about what they would have been worth in Canadian dollars. Another advantage of that liberal government, eh?

Have you noticed the recent rise in the Canadian dollar? That's what happens when you get a conservative leader, eh?

Have you noticed the recent rise in the Canadian dollar? That's what happens when you get a conservative leader, eh?

-- Actually the dollar began to rise when Chetien left and Martin came in. Cretien had a low dollar policy, Martin did not.

Conservatives have only been in parliament for a month and a half, they had nothing to do with it. Typical that you would try to take credit for it though.

I see your conservative buddy bush though, lowering the greenbuck to 30 year lows against other world currencies. What do you have to say about this smartass.

As it is, my many strongly conservative friends in Alberta have absolutely no use for you toffee-nosed pansies, as you are called so unaffectionately out West.

-- Well, I will say at the moment, Kleins Alberta government is the only one I have seen in a long time that actually worked and brought prosperity to ordinary people. All others want to bring prosperity to the rich on the backs of the poor and middle class.

I will also say though, that the prosperity is 90% funded by their petrol reserves. Should that collapse, they will be back to being in a whole world of hurt like they were before.

On the other hand, Reid DID get extensive donations from Indian tribes who were Abramoff clients, just not from Abramaoff directly. And he never returned the money.

-- If this is true and since Abramoff is singing to the feds like a canary, why has Reid not been indicted? Lots of republicans getting the steel bracelets these days, because of abramoff, not a lot of democrats though, which is funny since the democrats would logically be the first that he would rat out if it were true ...