No wonder Reid doesn’t want to return Abramoff campaign money

Turns out the Senate Minority Leader is just a little more in bed with Smilin’ Jack than he has wanted to admit.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid wrote at least four letters helpful to Indian tribes represented by Jack Abramoff. … The activities … are far more extensive than previously disclosed. They occurred over three years.

Abramoff's firm also hired one of Reid's top legislative aides as a lobbyist. The aide later helped throw a fundraiser for Reid at Abramoff's firm that raised donations from several of his lobbying partners.
And Reid's longtime chief of staff accepted a free trip to Malaysia arranged by a consulting firm connected to Abramoff that recently has gained attention in the influence-peddling investigation that has gripped the Capitol.

"All the actions that Senator Reid took were consistent with his long-held beliefs, such as not letting tribal casinos expand beyond reservations, and were taken to defend the interests of Nevada constituents," spokesman Jim Manley said.

Bullshit. Reid has never been a down-the-line opponent of California Indian casinos, for example. In fact, in California, as the story shows, there’s instead an issue of Abramoff clients vs. non-client tribes competing for gaming space. And, that would likely have been the scenario elsewhere, as the story also hints. You would have had one Louisiana Indian casino competing with another, or one Michigan casino with another, rather than with Vegas.

People who want all the glitter of Vegas will still go there. But, middle-of-the-middle middle-class gambling dollars aren’t so fungible. If they have an at-home option, they’ll certainly go there instead. If they have two, it’s going to be a choice between those two, and Vegas won’t be in the mix.

Throw in the fact that some of Reid’s efforts were related to Northern Mariana Island minimum wage exemption and you don’t have a great-looking picture.

Now, to modify somewhat my previous stance on how the whole Abramoff problem is not fully bipartisan, but has bipartisan elements, I do admit that Abramoff’s ultimate goal may have been to launder funds for the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, tiny outfit, originally founded by Interior Secretary Gale Norton, and part of a long-standing tradition of mountain state Republican anti-environmentalism. I’m not downplaying that connection, and as a committed environmentalist, I’m not downplaying the seriousness of that connection.

But that’s beside the point of what’s at hand. Read the whole story and see why Reid appears to have more invested in Abramoff than any other Democrat, which certainly doesn’t help on making this a political issue, either Abramoff’s base-level corruption, or the money laundering.