This isn’t another tongue-in-cheek post about Sen. Harry Reid’s baseless allegation against Mitt Romney. It’s a serious question: Just how did Sen. Reid get so rich?
As a senator and the majority leader in the Senate, Reid pulls down a salary of $193,400 per year. According to the latest data from Opensecrets.org, which is from 2010, Reid has assets totalling $10,360,000.
How does this happen? And seriously, why hasn’t he released his tax returns?
Did Harry Reid take advantage of the insider trading knowledge that was only available to members of Congress, but not legally available to the rest of us? Is that what he did? He certainly has a number of large index funds among his assets, while 80% of his money is in real estate investments.
Related:
I think Dingy Harry made his money pimping little boys to other pedarests.
A number of people have told me that. That’s absolutely true.
A little bird confirmed this to me today.
I heard it from a Bain investor too. I can’t say who he is, but I did hear it. So there.
Surely you can’t be serious
Excellent question Bryan. And if we had a media in this country that was worth a damn – rather than being the propaganda arm of the Democratic Party – we just might find out.
MSM Delenda Est.
Seems a certain, James(Jim)E. Rogers is an ‘ol school chum of Harry Reid’s. He is the owner of a great portion of the NV Mainstream Media and across the country. He campaigned like the dickens for his bff last campaign and a simple search of his name seems to keep popping up with regards to Harry’s words for Romney this week. The man drives harry’s car in the media and in funds…
i would look into the old school mormon elders on the nevada gaming boards
I believe it was primarily through insider trading on real estate. Best of both worlds. Back 30-odd years ago real estate in the Vegas area was dirt cheap (pun intended). Harry had knowledge of government and private expansion plans.
He made a BUNDLE.
Harry Reid aka Dick Smothers in the movie Casino made his money shaking down casinos. I was told that over the phone by some mafia guy.
I don’t know if you are just trying a little political sarcasm but you are very close to the truth. Casino is based on the life of Lefty Rosenthal, bookie to the Chicago mafia stars. The first versions of script used the Lefty’s real name and he threatened to sue. They rewrote the script and fictionalized the names. You want to know the name of the nam eof the chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission who refused to certify Lefty? One Harry Reid.
You really have to ask how the former head of the Nevada Gaming Commission who invested heavily in Las Vegas real estate and whose son Rory is the chairman of the County Commission and whose other son Leif is the personal attorney for the biggest developer in Las Vegas managed to get well off?
Gee, I don’t know. It’s a mystery.
Don’t forget his other son, Josh, who recently scored the Henderson City Attorney position…
Note also that Reid is eligible for a Federal retirement program, and that the benefits that are available under this represent additional wealth that is not included in the $10.3 million number.
As a general matter, government employees and tenured professors who rage against private sector millionaire never seem to consider the dollar value of their own pension and healthcare plans and employment security.
Now I’m not saying that Sen. Reid is ‘MOBed Up’, but………
I heard Reid, years ago, say that he had a successful career as a lawyer before he got to DC; something like 2 years in entry level.
Anywhoo, looking forward to Mark Steyn’s exploding cigar post on this very subject. These things are just getting too easy.
Which reminds me…Had a thought the other morning. A good deal of the left seems wildly hostile toward reality, pitching fits over noting; calling everyone racists; a million other things. Assuming this is [escalating] irrational behavior, can they really continue to function in their day-to-day life? If they had their way, and got rid of all of us, what would become of them?
My understanding is that it was insider trading on ‘vegas real estate. probably some insider trading on stocks too, since that was available to him.
This is the primary reason people will spend tens of millions of dollars to get elected to a job that pays less than $200k. Must be more to it than a good cafeteria and fee health care.
Maybe he wrote two almost-fake memoirs that sold really well?
Wait, that’s the *other* guy that’s really rich and never had a real job.
Haven’t you guys seen The Godfather and Casino ? Remember, Casino is a true story.
I think Harry needs to wake up in a whorehouse with a pounding headache, no memory, a dead girl and Robert Duvall.
What makes you think he didn’t?
Though in Harry’s case he reminds me more of the crooked Alderman in ‘The Untouchables’ than anyone else. Smarmy, slimey ,unctuous, offering bribes with a wink and a nod and a ‘Why not take it, everybody else does.’
Fully is right. It’s a mystery how someone on the NV Gaming Commision got hot tips on land deals on Vegas.
Harry steers government contracts for wind and waster water installation/upgrade to Mortenson Contracting via Synagro, GE, and GM. Follow the money to figure out how he profits.
Reid is currently trying to force Nevada’s biggest power utility to back “green power” from a Chinese company represented by one of his sons, a move that would both offshore US jobs AND raise electric rates for Nevadans.
http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/costs-conflicts-arise-in-reid-push-for-green-power-164858086.html
How did he get so rich? Still a complete mystery, isn’t it?
You know, this whole thing about Harry Reid’s investigation into Mitt Romney, from secret unimpeachable sources, maybe has some merit:
http://theradconservative.com/zodiac.html
This pre-dates Harry’s
accusationsconclusions by several months. How did he miss this?Few years back I worked with a native Nevada Mormon whose father has known Reid quite well for decades (through the church.) Neither man has any respect or trust for Reid. They claim that his wealth was obtained mostly through insider land deals. (The type where you get straw buyers to purchase land that will increase in value due to government activity, such as at and near Yucca Mountain.)
An LA Times expose on Dirty Harry appeared some time this millennium, but nobody seemed to care.
The other point of interest about Harry Reid I would like to point out is how “Red” Nevada was last election cycle except where Harry Reid was involved. The numbers of people crossing over to vote for Senator Reid did not make sense. I think that should be looked into as well.
http://www.nvsos.gov/soselectionpages/results/2010STatewideGeneral/ElectionSummary.aspx
The Govenor and two Congressmen elected were both Republicans, there was one Democrat Congresswomen elected out of Clark country. But she received over 150,000 less votes then Reid did in Clark county. I am having a hard time believing that these same people would jump ship to vote for Harry Reid.
Loved reading all the comments. Amazing how many times Democrats shoot themselves in the foot!!!