Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Harry Reid

9 Comments

The grandfather:

We all know the motives of liberal Democrats are pure, their hearts true, their lives guiltless of the favoritism and nepotism and self-interest and ideological blindness of Republicans and conservatives. Harry Reid is willing to go the extra step. He did nothing wrong in handing $31,000 of his donors’ money to his granddaughter, he told reporters, but he plans to reimburse his campaign anyway. What a saint.

“I must study politics and war,” John Adams said, “that my sons may have the liberty to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, and naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.” In Harry Reid’s America a man must win political office so that his sons may have the liberty to practice law and register as lobbyists, engage in rent-seeking and government relations and crisis management and communications, in order to give their children a right to live in Brooklyn, to enroll in the New School, to visit the Vermont Studio Center, to have cronies finance their off-off-off-Broadway shows, to enjoy their allowance from grandpa. This is the arrangement put before the voters this coming Election Day; this is the “system” rigged to benefit the family Reid; this is the configuration of power that Charles and David Koch want to disrupt. How awful of them. How “un-American.”

Indeed.

9 thoughts on “Harry Reid”

  1. I can’t tell if Harry Reid actully *believes* the outrageous stupid things he says…..

    …or if he knows it’s total Dreck but thinks he can get away with it and that the Lo-Fo’s will take any sound byte as gospel.

    Either way it’s heineously, egregiously rancidly awful for him to say the stuff he says.

  2. The link to the Bullhead City land deal is very much worth a read. However, it barely mentions a huge glaring fact set of facts, so let me fill in a few details (I’m very familier with this particular Arizona land deal) ; in the 90’s, Reid owned a half interest in that land. The other half was owned by Clair Haycock, who, like Reid, had been on the NEvada gaming commission in the 70’s, and then founded Haycock Petroleum, which does basically fleet fuel and lubricants (oil changes).

    Now, for the Bullhead property. After a sale of the land for 1.34 million ($8,400 an acre) fell through in the 90’s, Haycock transferred his interest, reportedly at full appraised value, to a retirement fund he managed. Reid claimed the property was “worthless” and paid the retirement fund $10,000 for its half share. So, Reid effectively bought 90 acres for $111 per acre. Even at that time, you’d have been very hard pressed to buy even the remotest land that cheap in AZ. The best I saw in that era was $350 an acre about 80 miles east of Kingman, and that land had, amongst other things, no water (and no possibility of a well; no aquifer).

    As for Reid’s Bullhead land (Bullhead is on the Colorado river, opposite of Laughlin, Nevada) the linked article quotes the county assessor as saying that there is a large wash that’s unbuildable (true, and as the assessment shows, this means about 40% of the property can’t be developed) and also that there’s no road access, which is untrue; what’s true is that there’s currently no *paved* road, but, it’s on an unpaved roads and very close (a few hundred yards) to two paved state routes; N Oatman Road and Bullhead Parkway. Paving such a stretch of road would be a minor affair, if it’s even needed (dirt roads are commonplace in this state). Don’t believe me? Look for yourself;
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/capitol-assets/mapping-the-earmarks/?m=harry-reid

    So look at what happened here; Reid gained, at the expense of the retirement fund, half ownership of 160 acres, for $10,000, when he’d paid, 10 years before, $120,000 for the other half.
    In the intervening decade, land prices in the area had more than tripled (as reflected by the sale for 1.34 million). He’s not earmarked money for a second bridge from Bullhead to Laughlin, which would further increase the value of that land.

    But let’s look at that land deal again; why would the pension fund be willing to sell its share for an absurdly low $10,000? There is no rational reason. Unless, if course, it has something to do with Haycock Petroleum (Haycock was the former owner AND pension fund manager) wanting an easing of regulations regarding the disposal of waste oil. And who sponsored such a bill just a few months later? Harry Reid.

      1. DN-Guy, you might want to think before comparing Reid and Romney… correct that, you might want to attempt to think.

        Reid is demonstrably corrupt. How does saying others are as well have any bearing other than being a cheap trick of those without character?

        1. “DN-Guy, you might want to think before comparing Reid and Romney… correct that, you might want to attempt to think.”

          I think he tried that once, but it was too hard.

      2. Actually it’s tricky financial games involving the possible use of his office. In the real world that’s called corruption.

      3. “Tricky financial games to enrich your 401K?

        Who does Reid think he is, Mitt Romney?”

        No, Jon Hunstsman . . . (ba-doom boom!) (This political joke is probably over this person’s head.)

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