And you thought money didn’t talk… Actually, you probably never thought that one, and the loudest proof this week is the alliance between the exiting Senate majority leader, Democrat Harry Reid, from Nevada, and sworn anti-Democrat Sheldon Adelson, who owns a nice chunk of Nevada, namely the Las Vegas Sands.
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Sen. Reid said last Friday that next year Congress will attempt to outlaw online gambling, and he intends to support the ban—but promised to try for an exemption for online poker.
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“I think there will be efforts made to look at the Wire Act in a Republican-initiated Congress, yes I do, ” Reid said. “I think there will be efforts made to get rid of the Wire Act.”
We may want to stop and count at some point, how many freedoms have we given up since Sept. 11, 2001. Then we should ask ourselves if it was worth it.
Now, billionaire casino owner Sheldon Adelson, who has been fighting to shut down all forms of online gambling—so that folks would have to come to his casinos to do it—has been lobbying like crazy to sneak a prohibition on online gambling into the spending bill being prepared for the president’s signature as we speak—and his effort failed.
So, Harry Reid, who couldn’t deliver the goods when he owned the place, is planning to do it when he’ll be the loyal opposition? Food for thought. In any event, it’s nice to see Reid and Adelson collaborating so nicely, considering what a staunch enemy of the Democratic party the latter has been…
Politico has noted this strange friendship back in May, when it pointed out Reid, who had been calling the Koch brothers “public enemy No.1, ” said about Adelson: “I know Sheldon Adelson. He’s not in this for money.”
Mind you, the Vegas casino billionaire spent $150 million supporting Republicans in 2012—about the same as the “evil” K brothers.
“Is Reid angling for a CSIG chairmanship when he retires?” asks PokerUpdate.com, and, in case you were wondering, CSIG stands for The Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling. It’s a lobbying group promoting Adelson’s anti-Internet gambling interests, employing a stable of political has-beens, such as former NY governor George Pataki and former Senator Blanche Lincoln.
With Harry Reid at the helm, CSIG could become Adelson’s dream weapon, able to unite Republicans and Democrats in the pursuit of campaign donations and the demise of online betting.
As our freedoms are being removed from us, think who has been hurting us more since 9/11 — was it really the other side?
And now, this bit of comic relief:
