HARRY REID ON THE HOT SEAT: The Las Vegas Review-Journal writes:

Senate ethics rules require members to file annual reports that must include information on all investment property transactions. A former official with the Federal Elections Commission told The AP that Sen. Reid had violated his chamber’s ethics guidelines.

By Thursday, Sen. Reid was a bit more contrite while awaiting a ruling from the Senate ethics committee on his actions. “I don’t want to try to be flippant about this,” he said. “If the ethics committee wants me to file a technical correction, then I will be happy to do it.”

On the scandal scale, Sen. Reid’s handling of the land deal hardly rises to Watergate status. But even several left-leaning newspapers — including The Washington Post — criticized the senator. The Philadelphia Inquirer went so far as to urge Democrats to boot Sen. Reid as their leader barring additional evidence in his favor.

All this raises the question: How does a savvy political operative such as Sen. Reid make a bush-league error and find himself ankle deep in the manure pit? For the past few years, Sen. Reid has been railing about a Republican “culture of corruption” — and has eagerly sought to exploit the Foley mess for his party’s political gain. Oops.

Perhaps after Sen. Reid scrapes the dung off his shoes, he’ll tend to the egg on his face.

Our political system doesn’t attract the best people — who, I guess, go into business or whatever. That’s good: A society where all the best people go into politics and government is a society in trouble. But I can’t help feeling that maybe we’ve gone just a bit too far in the other direction.