Raging Bore

Boxing tickets?

THAT’s supposedly the subject of some big, brewing, Democratic scandal?

You’ve got to be kidding me (but alas, it’s true).

In the ever-more-desperate attempts by our corporate media brethren acting at the behest of the Repugs, Democratic Senator Harry Reid of Nevada is being questioned over tickets given to him to watch fights in Las Vegas from 2003 to 2005, with someone named Bernadette Sargeant saying, "From what you (the CNN reporter, presumably) are describing, it is such a huge risk that a reasonable person with all the relevant facts would say this creates the appearance of impropriety."

I see very little impropriety, certainly nothing that I actually care about. Besides, the net effect of Reid’s activity was more governmental oversight of boxing, which could not possibly be beneficial to that industry.

Ms. Sargeant was “a former House ethics lawyer.” Seeing as how the U.S. House of Representatives is currently one of the most ethically-compromised organizations I have ever seen in my life, I think it’s safe to say that she was either terrible at her job or she was hopelessly overmatched by the enormity of the task of cleaning up that cesspool.

And of course, the CNN story describing what Reid did brings up this time-worn chestnut:

In an interview Thursday in his Capitol office, Reid broadly defended his decisions to accept the tickets and to take several actions benefiting disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff's clients and partners as they donated to him.

Anything to get Abramoff’s name in the same sentence with a Democrat...

One more time, people: Abramoff’s CLIENTS are not facing time in Federal prison if convicted. That fate awaits ABRAMOFF ONLY! Abramoff’s CLIENTS are INNOCENT!!

This comes on the heels of the controversy surrounding Louisiana Democratic Representative William Jefferson and the FBI seizure of records from his office. I withheld comment on that for a time because I wanted to learn a bit more before I said anything. And though it’s hard for me to defend Jefferson because it doesn’t look good at the moment, is there anyone out there who seriously believes that this would have happened (the seizure and Dubya’s sealing of the records) if he had been a Repug?

That being said, though, this column from Marie Cocco provides some cautionary words that the Democrats should heed (and especially Jefferson and the Congressional Black Caucus).

Oh, and just to refresh our memories, this describes what Abramoff did, which is infinitely worse than taking some gratuities to watch two pugs beat the snot out of each other.

Update 6/1: So, in addition to being ultimately a story of almost no consequence, it was badly reported also?

Update (again) 6/1: I have a feeling AP reporter John Solomon's next job, based on his sorry performance on the Reid boxing non-story, will be producing video news releases for Bushco.