John Solomon, ace Associated Press reporter (the guy who makes lots of mistakes and then gets $500 from AP rather than a correction), has come out with another hit piece against Harry Reid, conveniently right before the congressional elections.
But this time, it's a different kind of piece. In addition to being factually wrong - we're kind of used to that at this point from AP - this article simply makes no sense.
I have a law degree. And I'm a professional journalist, I've written for the Economist and other serious publications, and am no dummy. And try as I might, I couldn't make heads or tales of the AP story - it's just thick as hell, indecipherable, and doesn't really say anything.
In a nutshell, here's what I was able to translate from the original Latin.
Harry Reid bought some land in the late 90s, and over a several year period tripled his investment. Okay. Most everyone I know, other than me, did the same over that period. Still, AP calls this a "windfall." Apparently, the AP has been asleep the past ten years while land prices have soared. Anyway, Harry Reid transferred his land to an LLC, in which he was still a party, and when time came to sell the LLC, they gave Reid his portion of the return on the land and also gave him back the value of his initial investment (i.e., the value of the land itself when he gave it to the LLC).
You still with me?
Now, you'd think perhaps the AP caught Harry Reid not reporting his holdings to the Senate Ethics Committee? No, he did it. How about not reporting the land sale and his profits to the Ethics Committee? No, he did that too. So what did Harry Reid do wrong? He didn't tell the Ethics Committee he transferred the land to an LLC whi he was still a party in - though he did report to the committee that he still owned the land, which was true. Why does that detail matter? Got me. You'll have to read a four page AP story to try to figure that one out.
The other "I gotcha" from the AP? They didn't like the way Reid paid his property taxes.
Wow, so you would assume AP got a great juicy quote from George Bush's IRS about how bad a thing Reid really did with his taxes? Not quite. Here's how the IRS characterized the payments:
Brand said the IRS might view the handling of the land taxes as undisclosed income to Reid but it was unlikely to prompt an investigation. "If someone is paying a liability you owe, there may be some income imputed. But at that level, it's pretty small dollars," he said.
This is the same IRS that harasses liberal churches for sport. But they don't think they've got enough to go after the minority leader of the opposition political party.
John Solomon is obsessed with Harry Reid. It's kind of creepy.
