Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Does Harry Reid Have To Choke a Bitch?

Ezra Klein relays a story from Harry Reid's past explaining his hardball approach to any last-minute shenanigans from Rod Blagojevich:
In July of 1978, a man named Jack Gordon, who was later married to LaToya Jackson, offered Reid twelve thousand dollars to approve two new, carnival-like gaming devices for casino use. Reid reported the attempted bribe to the F.B.I. and arranged a meeting with Gordon in his office. By agreement, F.B.I. agents burst in to arrest Gordon at the point where Reid asked, “Is this the money?” Although he was taking part in a sting, Reid was unable to control his temper; the videotape shows him getting up from his chair and saying, “You son of a bitch, you tried to bribe me!” and attempting to choke Gordon, before startled agents pulled him off. “I was so angry with him for thinking he could bribe me,” Reid said, explaining his theatrical outburst. Gordon was convicted in federal court in 1979 and sentenced to six months in prison.

Yikes. Watch out, Blago.

3 comments:

Pablo Kenney said...

really? wow!

PG said...

[Wince at post title.]

Stuff like that usually doesn't bother me that much. Probably too much time spent today on trying to comprehend how much of the outrage re: Favreau and the Clinton cardboard cutout is real.

(And yes, I got it, and I thought the sketch was hilarious. I have caught something from the PUMAs.)

David Schraub said...

The sad part is that I saw a poster (via facebook) with "Does Molly Weasley have to choke a bitch?" in the wake of HP7 well before I ever even heard of the actual sketch.