NYT: "[Reid] Took Free Boxing Tickets"

I bring this up not to sabatoge our guy, but so that we can get a jump on it.  This is exactly the sort of opportunity that the RWCM loves to seize, distort, exaggerate, and conflate.

NYT:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, who has criticized Republican ethics, accepted free ringside tickets to three professional boxing matches from Nevada officials who were trying to influence his federal legislation regulating the sport.

More below the fold.

Reid, D-Nev., took the free seats for Las Vegas fights between 2003 and 2005 from the Nevada Athletic Commission as he pressed legislation to increase federal oversight of boxing, including the creation of a government commission.

Reid defended the gifts, saying they would never influence his position on the boxing bill and that he was simply trying to learn how his legislation might affect an important home state industry. ''Anyone from Nevada would say I'm glad he is there taking care of the state's No. 1 businesses,'' he told The Associated Press.

There's a really important point here: unlike many Republicans who are presently accused of ethics violations, Reid's vote was in no way influenced by this gift (note that the bill in question passed "unanimously," while the interests of the boxing groups would have ostensibly been for no regulation).  We can argue over the technicality of whether or not Reid should have paid for the tickets, but at the end of the day, there was no 'tit for tat' whatsoever.

Go ahead and read the rest of the article.