Reid Pushes for Online Poker
Politico reports:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is trying to use the tax cut package President Barack Obama brokered with Republicans to legalize online poker, POLITICO has learned — a move that could further complicate the deal Obama announced Monday.
Already, the online poker proposal has exposed the Nevada Democrat to charges of flip-flopping on a controversial issue, as well as using his Senate leadership position to repay big casino interests that helped him win reelection in a hard-fought campaign against Republican Sharron Angle last month.
Reid, who has previously opposed online gambling, declined to comment Monday through a spokesman.
But Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), as well as several senior congressional sources and gambling lobbyists, confirmed that Reid and his staff have reached out to other Senate offices to try to build support for adding the online poker legislation — a draft of whichstrong>POLITICO has obtained< — to a measure extending the Bush-era tax cuts.
"They're trying," said Hatch, who next year will become ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over parts of the gambling measure. "Sen. Reid would like to do that."
Republican leadership aides said the poker measure, which was drafted over the weekend at Reid’s request, wasn't part of the deal the GOP reached with the White House. But a senior congressional official with knowledge of the ongoing talks said Reid has privately discussed the measure with the two Republican senators representing their caucus in the negotiations — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona.
