I think we’re about through with our coverage of the AP/Solomon bamboozlement — unless Solomon comes out with yet more of the same. But I wanted to address this issue of, ‘Even if the AP wrote deceptive pieces, shouldn’t Reid still not have taken the tickets?’
I’ve knocked this around with a few readers. And I exchanged a couple emails about it this morning with TPM Reader GE. Had I written this originally for publication, I would have made it more polished and comprehensive. But I think it actually gives a candid and unrehearsed sense of where I am on this. So I’ll reprint the last round of our exchange in toto, as originally written …
TPM Reader GE …
Hey, I appreciate your taking the time to respond. I guess I’d have to say, though, that the issue is a tad more than just “Sen. Reid got to sit ringside to watch a big prizefight because he’s a U.S. Senator.” That, I think you’d have to admit, doesn’t quite capture the fact that he was a U.S Senator pushing major legislation affecting the prizefighting industry and the agency that gave him those seats.
I really don’t think that the issue is just that Senators get perks that you and I don’t get, as you state in that link. It will be ever thus. But I do expect a Senator to avoid getting special perks from the industry he’s seeking to directly affect, or, at least, I think that’s the highest ethical road to take.
But, look, maybe you don’t agree, or maybe you still feel you’ve got it covered already. That’s fine, I’m not accusing you of any kind of malfeasance, really. It’s your blog, and like I said, I appreciate
that you even took time to respond. I always enjoy reading the TPM family and I suspect I always will. Take care.
And I respond …
I think in this case I’m ambivalent about whether there’s even an appearance issue. He went to events run by an agency he was involved in legislating on. But there’s little evidence he was influenced by it and in fact he stuck with a position they opposed. It’s not quite like Verizon giving someone seats to a Knicks game, in as much as he is seeing the sport at issue, how it’s run, etc. That said, it’s still a freebie. So I don’t disagree. I guess this instance seems close to de minimis to me. A very small matter. And in the context of the AP publishing really deceptive articles trying to inflate it into something it’s just not, I feel comfortable with the tone of our reporting.
That pretty much covers it for me.
Paul will be running down the stuff AP made up in response to our reporting a bit later today.
Late Update: TPM Reader LM adds his thoughts “I think one point missed is that it is not like Reid never took tickets/seats before this recent event. It seems he was a pretty avid fan prior to this and had accepted tickets, which he paid for, for a number of events when nothing was apparently pending. To him, and to the commission, this might have been just a continuation of that relationship with neither thinking twice about it (although Reid probaby should have thought of it and turned the seats down due to the then currently pending legislation). I would think worse of Reid had he never accepted and paid for any tickets from them prior to this, as then it would really stink of some sort of attempt at “influence peddling” which the Senator should have identified immediately. But what we have here appears to be nothing that nefarious.”
