This whole situation is curious to me. I have included below some
Recent DU threads and some comment.
Both abc evening news and now Jim Lehrer News Hour just reported on Harry
--mostly repeating things found in Solomon articles.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2417182Tue Oct-17-06 05:34 PM
Original message
Wow... Both CNN and MSNBC Pimping The "Harry Reid Scandal" !!!
I assume Faux News has been fanning these stubborn embers for some time now.
Maybe they all ought to do some reading first:
Sen. Harry Reid's raw (land) deal
Posted by Frank James at 5:30 pm CDT
<snip>
The tempest that’s been created over Sen. Harry Reid’s Las Vegas real-estate transaction puts me in mind of the famous poet’s famous line “There is no there, there.” In Reid’s case, the line could be adapted to say: There was no sale there.
For those who haven’t been following this tale, it all stems from a recent Associated Press story. The article reported that Reid, the Senate’s top Democrat as minority leader, may have run afoul of Senate ethics rules by failing to disclose on his ethics forms the 2001 “sale” of Las Vegas real estate he owned with a friend.
There’s only one problem. Reid of Nevada didn’t actually sell the real estate in 2001. What he did was transfer it to—get this—himself and the same friend he bought it with in 1998, a former casino lawyer named Jay Brown. (Read the point-by-point description provided by Reid's office. Download the point_by_point.doc))
The men transferred the real estate to a limited liability company, or LLC, they controlled called Patrick Lane LLC. Such transfers are very common and exceedingly legal. Indeed, many lawyers recommend the step to investors and small business people as a way to shield their personal wealth from liability, as in the event someone is injured or killed on the real estate.
<snip>
More:
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/news_theswamp/2006/...Is this the media's lazy-assed version of "Fair and Balanced"??? Might as well sell 'em all to Murdoch for what good they do serving the American public.
....................
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2564759&mesg_id=2564759Reid to Reimburse Campaign for Donations
By JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writer
Monday, October 16, 2006 (added this part reg. Solomon)
Mon Oct-16-06 04:01 PM
Original message
Reid to Reimburse Campaign for Donations
(10-16) 13:37 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) --
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid has been using campaign donations instead of his personal money to pay Christmas bonuses for the support staff at the Ritz-Carlton where he lives in an upscale condominium. Federal election law bars candidates from converting political donations for personal use.
Questioned about the campaign expenditures by The Associated Press, Reid's office said Monday he was personally reimbursing his campaign for $3,300 in donations he had directed to the staff holiday fund at his residence.
---SNIP---
On the Ritz-Carlton holiday donations, Reid gave $600 in 2002, then $1,200 in 2004 and $1,500 in 2005 from his re-election campaign to an entity listed as the REC Employee Holiday Fund. His campaign listed the expenses as campaign "salary" for two of the years and as a "contribution" one year.
Reid's office said the listing as salary was a "clerical error."
Residents and workers at the Ritz said the fund's full name is the Residents Executive Committee Holiday Fund and that it collects money each year from the condominium residents to help provide Christmas gifts, bonuses and a party for the support staff.
---END OF EXCERPT---
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/10/16...Gabi Hayes Mon Oct-16-06 04:07 PM
Response to Original message
4. note who the author is...the same one who just can't seem to get
Edited on Mon Oct-16-06 04:12 PM by Gabi Hayes
much of anything right about dems. what's his deal?
surprise, surprise
A.S., "AP omitted Dorgan's response to alleged Abramoff link," (
http://mediamatters.org/items/200511300016 ) Media Matters for America, November 30, 2005.
"AP continued to mislead on purported Abramoff-Reid link," (
http://mediamatters.org/items/200602130005 ) Media Matters for America, February 13, 2006.
John Aravosis, "Three more AP John Solomon articles faulted for taking pot-shots at Dems, leaving out key facts," (
http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/05/three-more-ap-j... ) AMERICAblog, May 29, 2006.
Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo (
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/008612.php ), May 31, 2006.
Paul Kiel, "AP's John Solomon - One More for the Road," (
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/000798.php#more ) TPM Muckraker, June 1, 2006.
"In follow-up article on Reid, AP's Solomon continued pattern of distortion," (
http://mediamatters.org/items/200606020002 ) Media Matters for America, June 2, 2006.
Retrieved from "http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=John_Solomon "
Tue Oct-17-06 12:44 PM
Response to Reply #16
babylonsister
Tue Oct-17-06 12:44 PM
Response to Reply #16
21. Solomon needs to read more:
From here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...Reid Goes Beyond Ethics Requirements
Press Release of Senator Reid
http://reid.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=264714&REID GOES BEYOND ETHICS REQUIREMENTS, DISARMS GOP SMEAR CAMPAIGN
Monday, October 16, 2006
Washington, DC— Senator Harry Reid of Nevada today issued the following statement:
“Last month, Republicans openly boasted that they would engage in a campaign of personal attacks and smears to hold onto power in Washington. In recent days, we witnessed their latest attempt to do just that.
“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.
“Now I have taken an additional step. Today, I directed my staff to file amended financial disclosure forms noting that in 2001, I transferred title to the land to a Limited Liability Corporation. As the amended forms make clear, this routine legal move in no way altered my actual ownership of the land. On each disclosure form after 2001, I have added a note to clarify that the land already disclosed in detail on those forms was owned by me through the LLC.
“The Ethics Committee has not yet advised me whether I should file these amended forms, but even if I am not required to do so I am happy to go beyond what is needed to provide the fullest disclosure. The amended forms make clear what was true all along – I owned the land through the LLC when I sold it in 2004.
“Also, in the course of preparing the amended disclosure forms, my staff has identified some clerical errors and two minor matters that were inadvertently left off my original disclosure forms. First, in 2004 I sold about one third of an acre in my hometown of Searchlight. Second, a quarter acre of land that I received from my brother in 1985 appreciated in value above the $1,000 reporting threshold at some point in recent years. Both of these items will be listed on my amended disclosure forms.
“Finally, I have acted today to respond to another issue some plan to raise. I have sent a personal check in the amount of $3,300 to my political campaign to fully reimburse the campaign for donations it made over several years to the employee holiday fund in my apartment building. These donations were made to thank the men and women who work in the building for the extra work they do as a result of my political activities, and for helping the security officers assigned to me because of my Senate position. The donations came from my campaign – no taxpayer dollars were ever involved.
“When the campaign first donated to the holiday fund, its experienced lawyer William Oldaker advised us that such donations were permissible. The campaign's current lawyer, Marc Elias, says the same thing. Nonetheless, I am reimbursing the campaign from my own pocket to prevent this issue from being used in the current campaign season to deflect attention from Republican failures.”
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2889024&mesg_id=28890241. Josh Marshall (TPM) has an intesting take on this:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/010403.php<snip>
Here's what one former colleague of Solomon's said last week: "I worked years in the same office as Solomon, sometimes with him. The consensus: he's lazy, and takes hit jobs handed him on a platter by opps research teams (and anyone will do.) And doesn't do much to clean it up. I also know one of his fave and frequent sources is Barbara Comstock, former DOJ spxwoman and GOP attack dog."
I've heard the same from numerous oppo researchers and journalists. (Here are some thoughts on legitimate and illegitimate ways journalists use material from oppo researchers.)
</snip>
13. Josh Marshall dug up some stuff too....
In regards to the boxing ticket article:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/008592.php "> ...Back in February, Solomon produced a lengthy expose on Team Abramoff's alleged efforts to sway Reid to support their Mariana's sweatshop clients, without ever mentioning that Reid consistently voted against the Mariana's sweatshop owners.
there it is --- Barbara Comstock is his source
And she's the scummiest of the scum. A product of the Scaife charm school that produced Coulter, Ingraham, and the other bimbos who hunted the Clintons. Then she became the chief opposition researcher for the RNC. THEN she became the spokesperson for Ashcroft during his reign of terror.
Now she's working to corrupt journos, it appears.
If only we had the money to hire a private eye. I wonder if Solomon is living above his income.
Tue Oct-17-06 01:35 PM
Response to Original message
15. Has he been blackmailed by the Bush administration? See this article:
AP demands explanation for subpoena of reporter's records
WASHINGTON — The Associated Press has asked Attorney General John Ashcroft for a public accounting of the subpoena of an AP reporter's home telephone records.
Louis D. Boccardi, AP president and chief executive, called the subpoena "an extraordinary strike against the press." Boccardi told Ashcroft that federal investigators did not inform the AP of the subpoena in advance and failed to demonstrate that all alternate means of getting the information had been exhausted.
In a letter to Ashcroft, Boccardi also asked the Justice Department to destroy all copies of AP reporter John Solomon's records and not to use them.
"I recognize that this would be little more than symbolic, since you held these records in secret for three months before giving Mr. Solomon the required notice," Boccardi wrote. "But symbolism is important in the delicate intersection of press and government in our nation and this is one of the reasons why so many of us find the tone, spirit and fact of the department's actions so reprehensible."
The department said it was reviewing the letter.
MORE AT LINK
Is it possible that he found out something he should not have and now he does their bidding?
9. More Juicy Information on Solomon:
http://www.correntewire.com/tags/john_solomon~snip~
Go read this piece from 2003 from the Center for Public Integrity and decide for yourself:
WASHINGTON, September 17, 2003 — A month before the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 and all of the increased government secrecy that has ensued, the Justice Department secretly seized the home telephone records of respected investigative reporter and deputy bureau chief of the Associated Press in Washington, John Solomon. And earlier this year, the FBI opened and confiscated his mail. Center for Public Integrity executive director Charles Lewis recently interviewed Solomon about it.
~snip~
Very, very interesting...
e Oct-17-06 01:00 PM
Original message
John Solomon Has It in for Senator Harry Reid of Nevada - Why?
Over the last couple of months, and especially the last couple of days, I have noticed a certain trend in regards to reporter John Solomon and Senator Reid. It seems that Solomon keeps digging up "dirt" -- for lack of a better term -- on Reid, and I am beginning to wonder what Solomon's agenda is and if he is on the White House payroll...
Here are some of the articles that Solomon has written that seem to go after Reid:
• Reid Accepted Free Boxing Tickets While a Related Bill Was Pending
• Reid used campaign aid as bonuses for hotel staff
• Reid got $1.1M for land he no longer owned
• AP Exclusive: Reid Got $1M in Land Sale
• Reid Aided Ambramoff Clients, Records Show
• Senate leader took free boxing tickets
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