Land deal, schmand deal.

Did he get a b.j. from an intern?

____________________________

Forget patriotism. Instapundit.com is the last refuge of scoundrels.

Some more details about this non-story:

A single member LLC (i.e. an LLC owned 100% by a single person) is treated by the IRS as non-existent for tax purposes. The LLC owner continues to treat himself as the direct owner of the property for tax purposes as if the property were never transferred to the LLC. That could explain why someone might continue to consider himself the owner of property which he has transferred to a single member LLC.

A multiple member LLC is treated as a partnership for tax purposes. Again, if an existing partnership transfers property to an LLC owned by the same partners in the same percentages, the LLC will usually be treated as the same entity as the orignal partnership, and again an individual might reasonably believe that no transfer has taken place.

And this:

He disclosed his ownership of the land -- down to the exact plots -- which would allow for watchdogs to monitor any potential conflicts of interest. That is better than disclosing ownership in a shadowy private LLC, with no public access to its assets. (Which is, btw, essentially what Hastert did.)

And finally:

But watch the wingers and GOP try to gain traction off this story to divert from their coddling of a sexual predator.

Sorry, Les. Close, but no Wee-Oh.

--Socialist With A Gold Card

This is absurdity at the worst. Reid was the owner of a single member LLC, which held title to the land. He capitalized the LLC by transferring title to the land to the LLC. During the entire time, Reid listed the land as an asset on his Senate disclosure forms, because, as the sole member of an LLC, he did own the land. And of course he took the profits, because he was the owner of the LLC that owned the land.

If the AP reporter was not bright enough to figure that out, he deserved to be hung up on. And anybody who is not bright enough to see what is going on here should not be allowed to operate heavy machinery, much less cast a ballot or run a blog.

So last week a post a link from my blog and this one about Republican Hastert's hinky deal (see above), based on a report in TNR via Kevin Drum. Comments? Zero.

Tonight a post a link from by blog and this one about Democrat Harry Reid's hinky land deal, based on a report from the AP. Comments? Five in a couple of hours:

Les is misleading us

(Quoting dailykos) But watch the wingers and GOP try to gain traction off this story to divert from their coddling of a sexual predator.

Sorry, Les. Close, but no Wee-Oh.

The media desperately need to say "but it's not just the Republicans doing bad stuff." Except it pretty much is. Hence, Reid's land deal. 

BTW, who says the impropriety was in the LLC and reporting?  From the AP story: "One of the sellers was a developer who was benefiting from a government land swap that Reid supported." Are we sure Reid didn't get a sweetheart deal - "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours?" Is that inconceivable because he has a D after his name? Harry Reid was also one of the guys mixed up with Jack Abramoff and his tribal money, according to the Washington Post.

Here's a better question. Are you against crooked politicians or are you just against Republicans?

Hey, Les, why don't we just call each other assholes and get it over with. - Somebody on the old Southknoxbubba.net (if that was you, claim your quote and win net.fame!)

Even if Reid is not hiding ownership, profiting from government land swaps is exactly the sort of thing government officials should not be doing. Corruption should be weeded out wherever it grows.

(link...)

Be a blessing to someone today.

Someone made money on Vegas real estate? Lody me!

But seriously, we should all applaud diligent oversight of politicians conflicts of interest, regardless of party. The Sunlight Foundation, which broke the Hastert story in June has been doing a bang-up job, and it'll be interesting to see what they say about Reid.

That said, a few observations are in order:

• John Solomon is a twerp. His stories are riddled with factual errors. He doesn't get 6 words into this one without making a whopper.
• It may because it was filtered through Soloman's pea-sized brain, but the backscratching scheme chain of custody reads like Dark Helmet's speech to Lone Starr in SpaceBalls: "I am your father's brother's nephew's cousin's former room-mate!"
• Trying to balance Reid's indiscretions with Hastert's is like equating speeding with manslaughter. Or Howard Dean's ill-tempered, ill-considered outbursts with Ken Mehlman giving multiple reach-arounds to Jack Abramoff (knocking Dean for not rasing as much money as GOP K-Street prostitutes is a nice touch, though).