Abramoff Scandal Noose Tightening Around Harry GReid?

This shouldn't surprise anyone. The lamestream media waits until AFTER election day to do stories linking Democrats like Senator Harry Reid, elected yesterday as Senate Democrat Leader, to the Abramoff corruption scandal:

Abramoff Reports to Prison; Officials Focus on Reid, Others
By Brian Ross and Rhonda Schwartz
ABC News
November 15, 2006

As convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff reported to federal prison today, a source close to the investigation surrounding his activities told ABC News that Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was one of the members of Congress Abramoff had allegedly implicated in his cooperation with federal prosecutors.

A spokesperson for Reid, elected yesterday as the Senate Majority Leader, said the senator had done nothing illegal or unethical.

"We have no idea what Abramoff is telling prosecutors to save his skin, but I do know that these kind of old allegations are completely ridiculous and untrue," Sen. Reid's spokesman Jim Manley told ABC News.

Abramoff has reportedly claimed the Nevada senator agreed to help him on matters related to Indian gambling.

The Associated Press reported earlier this year that Reid wrote at least four letters helpful to the tribes that had contributed money to his campaign. [Mike's America insert: See full story here.]

Reid has denied there was any connection between the letters and the contributions and has said he is a longtime opponent of certain kinds of Indian reservation gambling.

The AP reported that Reid acknowledged "routine contacts" with Abramoff's lobbying partners and intervening to block rival tribal casinos.

The AP also reported that Abramoff's billing records showed extensive contact with Reid's office over a three-year period in which Reid collected more than $68,000 from Abramoff's firm, partners and clients.

Most voters can't be blamed for not knowing about GReid and the Democrat corruption problem. After all, if the media didn't print it, voters couldn't read it. That never seems to be a handicap when it comes to tarring Republicans with the scandal brush. There are 724,000 Google hits for the search term ""Tom Delay" Abramoff scandal" and only 297,000 for ""Harry Reid" Abramoff scandal."

Of course most Mike's America readers were well aware of the ethical problems of Senator GReid. And there's more to Reid's greed than Abramoff funny dealings. In case you missed it, click on the chart below to learn how every male member of his family has become rich lobbying Dad: