One thing I haven't seen mentioned in all the chatter over Todd Purdum's profile of John McCain in Vanity Fair was this tidbit on Harry Reid:

On another flight, later that day, McCain reacts to the news that Harry Reid, the Senate Democratic leader, has used campaign money to contribute to the employees' Christmas bonuses at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, where Reid and his wife, Landra, own a condominium. In legal terms Reid's move was dodgy at best. "Who knew he lived at the Ritz?," McCain says. "Not bad for a boy from Searchlight, Nevada." Then McCain--a former amateur boxer and inveterate gambler, whose wife is the wealthy heir to a beer-distributing franchise in Phoenix--goes on to recount how the McCains and the Reids once ran into one another in Las Vegas and went to a boxing match. It turned out that the Reids took free tickets, while the McCains paid.

"I wouldn't say this publicly," McCain tells the crowd at the private Thune fund-raiser, speaking of Reid, "but I came to the House with him in 1982 and he's always been ... " Here McCain pauses--as if suddenly realizing that what he's saying he is indeed saying publicly--and then goes on to finish the thought anyway: " ... a little on the edge."

Sounds to me like McCain is being quite collegial in his description of Senator Reid. In addition to the two ethical hiccups McCain mentions, there was also the Abramoff connection and the lucrative land deal. And this was just in 2006.

No wonder Reid was voted the 2nd most "ethically challenged" member of the Senate by those who work on the Hill - finishing right behind the now former Senator from Montana, Conrad Burns.

By the way, did I mention that Majority Leader Reid is leading the Senate in taking up "ethics reform" today?