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Posted At : March 23, 2009 04:42 PM | Posted By : D McKee
Related Categories:
MGM Mirage,Phil Ruffin,Politics,Current
In a Sunday update on the CityCenter money crunch, the Las Vegas Review-Journal managed to bury the lead: "One gaming analyst said [MGM Mirage majority shareholder Kirk] Kerkorian and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a close friend, have been calling financial institutions to try and raise the remaining $1.2 billion needed to complete the $9.1 billion CityCenter development."
Whoa, Nellie! A U.S. Senator -- and the most powerful one, at that -- personally interceding on behalf of an MGM mega-project (one with the capacity to not only make or break the company but the Vegas economy)? Doesn't this bear investigation?
Blogger Steve Friess thought the charge "potentially devastating" and was all over it in a jiffy, eliciting confirmation from Sen. Reid's office. To cite two (of many) salient point's in Friess' analysis: A) a banker getting a request from the Senate Majority Leader that he take a closer look at MGM's loan application is unlikely not to feel pressured, B) if Reid's primary concern is "that sound banking analysis is driving credit decisions, not irrational temerity over what is sometimes portrayed as a controversial industry," why isn't he exerting similar elbow grease on behalf of Phil Ruffin's stymied $175 million, say? If he even should, that is?
The sleepy R-J weighed in on the fast-moving story late this afternoon. It had nothing new to show for its efforts other than the disclosure by MGM spokesman Alan Feldman that Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) was in on it, too. And that lone morsel of fresh news was stashed at the bottom of the story.
Whatever opprobrium Reid and Ensign risk on the national stage, it will be a different story at home (save for the crotchety anti-Reid obssessives who produce and read the R-J). Considering the number of jobs that are hanging in the balance -- to say nothing of the campaign checks that will be written by grateful businessmen -- Reid and Ensign aren't just bringing home the bacon but a whole damn pig farm, too.
In the event that MGM is crushed between debts and the fire it's taking from Dubai (see the letter to the Assembly that Ralston has posted on his blog, which takes swipes at MGM's ability to do the only thing it does that are so vicious the Boyd/Station letters will seem downright folksy) this could actually take a pretty large bolt out of Reid's election apparatus. And not just because a major contributor has left the stage
Methinks this stinks so much that it wouldn't even be covered by the "pig odor" earmark in the budget. :)
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