The noted ethical expert, Jack Abramoff payee, Italian-American hater, and all-around looney leftist known in these parts as Senator Social Moderate..

...gets caught with his boxing gloves in the cookie jar. But everything he does is good because the people who "report the news" share his totalitarian vision of America's future.

Investor's Business Daily has the sordid details.

Corruption: With boxing legislation pending, Democrat Harry Reid, who loves to blast Republicans on ethics, accepted ringside seats from the Nevada Athletic Commission. Will punch-drunk Republicans answer the bell?

Reid accepted thousands of dollars worth of complimentary ringside tickets to three boxing matches from 2003 to 2005 from his home state's boxing regulatory body. At the time, that agency was trying to convince Reid not to support legislation that would establish a federal boxing commission that would diminish its authority and would increase federal oversight of boxing.

The federal commission is another of Senator War Hero's petit fasciste projects.

The Senate minority leader ended up voting against the wishes of the agency, and he claims he took the gifts because attending the fights would help him learn how the legislation would affect an important form of business in his home state. By that rationale, every member of Congress who represents part of the East or West Coast should be accepting free vacations to the south of France so they can learn more about the beach resort industry.

Heehee.

Reid used to be a boxer himself. But his bobbing and weaving abilities seem to be getting rusty. The fact he voted against the athletic commission this time doesn't mean there won't be other opportunities for the highest-ranking Democrat in the Senate to return their favors in extremely valuable ways.

This isn't the first time Reid's been in trouble. He may like to claim the Jack Abramoff scandal renders the GOP unfit to handle ethics reform, but the fact is Reid himself collected nearly $68,000 in contributions from Abramoff's company and associates; his office had nearly two dozen contacts with Abramoff lobbyists; and Reid wrote at least four letters to help Indian tribes who were Abramoff clients.

Katie Couric, call your office.

On top of that, while Reid was leading a moral crusade in the Senate to raise the minimum wage in the United States, he was also working with Abramoff's lobbyists against an increase of the much-lower minimum wage in the Northern Mariana Islands, the islands being an Abramoff client.

Yet Reid has been up to now able to get away with this hypocrisy. Italian-American Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., knows all about the Senate Democratic Leader's low blows. In January, Reid said on PBS that "having Senator Santorum talk about reform is like having John Gotti talk about doing something about organized crime."

Meanwhile, a Web ad from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee called Santorum "the Godfather" of the K Street Project -- an effort to get more Republicans hired by top lobbying firms. But Santorum had nothing to do with the K Street Project.

The Order Sons of Italy in America responded that, "For the Senate minority leader to associate the highest ranking Italian-American in the Senate with a criminal like John Gotti is beyond any political issues that may exist between the two parties."

Senator Social Moderate should be careful. Some ethnic groups don't take slander so well.