Harry Reid: Of “Pets” and “Hottest Members”

A special edition by Jarrod Agen, Communications Director, Sharron Angle campaign:

Not a good start to the work week for the Senator Reid. News broke yesterday that Harry is creating special earmarks for his high dollar donors. As the LVRJ reports, thousands of dollars from the owner of Arcata Associates to Harry's campaign resulted in Reid earmarking millions back to company.

The most shocking part:

“The most recent earmark came after the Army said it was no long seeking money for the defense project.” (Las Vegas Review Journal, Steve Tetreault “Reid criticized for earmark for LV firm” 9/20/10)

Back at home, on top of 14th straight month of record unemployment, news was equally bad for the housing market.

“Home sales and median prices showed no signs of improvement in August, Las Vegas-based Home Builders Research reported Monday. There were 401 new-home sales during the month, compared with 426 in the same month a year ago. Resale transactions fell to 3,313 from 3,833 a year ago.” (Las Vegas Review Journal, Hubble Smith “Housing market not showing signs of improving” 9/20/10)

Surely, things would be better for Harry while he was hanging out on the Upper East Side of Manhattan yesterday. Let’s take a look at how that went:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had an unusual form of praise for New York's junior senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, this morning at the fundraiser Mayor Bloomberg hosted for him at his townhouse - referring to her as "the hottest member" as she sat just a few feet away, according to three sources.

The comment prompted Gillibrand to turn red, according to the sources, and created a bit of stir among the small crowd there.

"It was pretty shocking when he said it," said one source familiar with the remark and the reaction. (Politico, Maggie Haberman “Reid calls Gillibrand the 'hottest' member at fundraiser” 9/20/10 )

Okay! Well, I guess that didn’t go so well either. But Senator Gillibrand, at least Harry didn’t call you his “pet”.