Sen. Reid taken to hospital after Vegas car crash
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has been cleared for release from the hospital after an apparent Friday afternoon rear-end crash on a Las Vegas freeway, his office said.
Reid suffered rib and hip contusions in the crash that happened about 1:10 p.m. Friday on Interstate 15, staffers said. He was taken to the hospital by his security detail as a precaution.
Reid was wearing a seatbelt at the time of impact, and walked into the hospital on his own.
Reid officials say other members of the senator's security detail and a staffer had minor injuries and were taken to the hospital for evaluation.
Six vehicles were involved in the apparent chain-reaction crash, including two Las Vegas police vehicles and two Capitol Police vehicles that were escorting Reid. Images from the scene showed broken glass, bumper damage and deflated tires on some of the vehicles.
Two lanes were closed and four tow trucks were summoned to the freeway that runs parallel to the Las Vegas Strip, Nevada Highway Patrol Office spokesman Jeremie Elliott said.
Officials in Reid's office said it wasn't immediately clear where Reid was headed at the time of crash.
Earlier, Reid took part in a ceremony honoring the National Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas as the newest "national" museum. The museum's exhibits focus on the history of the development and testing of a nuclear bomb.
He was also due to speak to the editorial board of Spanish-language newspaper El Tiempo at 2:30 p.m., according to editor Hernando Amaya.
Reid's wife was speaking at a Las Vegas event featuring first lady Michelle Obama at roughly the time the crash happened, but she made no mention of the incident during her remarks.
In March 2010, Reid's wife, Landra, and daughter, Lana, were injured when a tractor-trailer slammed into their minivan while they were returning from a shopping trip in Virginia. Landra was left with a broken back, neck and nose and daughter Lana suffered minor injuries.
Reid, who has served as state legislator, lieutenant governor, congressman and five-term senator, has been majority leader since 2007.
As the top Democrat in the Senate, he helped steer President Barack Obama's health care overhaul to passage in 2010 and secured his own re-election later that year, a surprise win in a Republican wave. Reid defeated tea party-backed candidate Sharron Angle despite early prognostications that the Democrat was one of the most vulnerable in the congressional elections.
The past two years, with Republicans controlling the House, Reid has thwarted the House GOP, protecting Obama's agenda and angering Senate Republicans.
Reid suffered rib and hip contusions in the crash that happened about 1:10 p.m. Friday on Interstate 15, staffers said. He was taken to the hospital by his security detail as a precaution.
Reid was wearing a seatbelt at the time of impact, and walked into the hospital on his own.
Reid officials say other members of the senator's security detail and a staffer had minor injuries and were taken to the hospital for evaluation.
Six vehicles were involved in the apparent chain-reaction crash, including two Las Vegas police vehicles and two Capitol Police vehicles that were escorting Reid. Images from the scene showed broken glass, bumper damage and deflated tires on some of the vehicles.
Two lanes were closed and four tow trucks were summoned to the freeway that runs parallel to the Las Vegas Strip, Nevada Highway Patrol Office spokesman Jeremie Elliott said.
Officials in Reid's office said it wasn't immediately clear where Reid was headed at the time of crash.
Earlier, Reid took part in a ceremony honoring the National Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas as the newest "national" museum. The museum's exhibits focus on the history of the development and testing of a nuclear bomb.
He was also due to speak to the editorial board of Spanish-language newspaper El Tiempo at 2:30 p.m., according to editor Hernando Amaya.
Reid's wife was speaking at a Las Vegas event featuring first lady Michelle Obama at roughly the time the crash happened, but she made no mention of the incident during her remarks.
In March 2010, Reid's wife, Landra, and daughter, Lana, were injured when a tractor-trailer slammed into their minivan while they were returning from a shopping trip in Virginia. Landra was left with a broken back, neck and nose and daughter Lana suffered minor injuries.
Reid, who has served as state legislator, lieutenant governor, congressman and five-term senator, has been majority leader since 2007.
As the top Democrat in the Senate, he helped steer President Barack Obama's health care overhaul to passage in 2010 and secured his own re-election later that year, a surprise win in a Republican wave. Reid defeated tea party-backed candidate Sharron Angle despite early prognostications that the Democrat was one of the most vulnerable in the congressional elections.
The past two years, with Republicans controlling the House, Reid has thwarted the House GOP, protecting Obama's agenda and angering Senate Republicans.
Let's see, America is in debt now of over $16-billion dollars, but I'm sure the campaigns have paid at least 5% of what it really costs to hear Reid and the Anointed One speak in Vegas - right?
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Drink some more Kool-Aid, believe in the "5-million new jobs created just this month", and keep spending. Â Spend, spend, spend until America is a broken Country. Â It won't be repairable.
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The Greatest Generation fought and died to leave us a Great and Strong Nation.  This President sees his role to spend and travel among the stars often with he on one late night show and his wife on another before we pay to fly them out to California to be on the View and other daytime shows.  Then he calls into the Rapper-radio show in Miami to talk about Beyonce and Jay-Z.
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Are you really going to send him back for another 4-years? Â
Why does he need six vehicles ? Including police escorts??Â
to commenters asking for decency in here I remind you you cannot rationalize with the irrationale. Â its futile.
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the right wing nuts will always be....well they will always nutty.
 @sunnysandiego That may be so but you left-winged lunatics fell off the nutty scale. If you weren't depressed when you heard Harry was ok than you need mental help.
 @Jimmy Weed I was depressed when I heard Cheney would get yet another heart.
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They keep putting hearts in him and his body keeps rejecting them since it acknowledges he is not meant to have a heart.
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Sunnysandiego, is that anything like the death threats and tweets promising rioting if Mitt Romney is elected, that have been in the news lately? I'm just sayin, let's call it all wrong, from both sides, shall we?
 @takncarabizniz well lucky for us that will not happen.
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Obama has the EC wrapped up. Â The popular vote is a toss up.
 @Jimmy Weed  @takncarabizniz well I guess we will know in a few days
 @sunnysandiego  @takncarabizniz Oh really now and you think that would be a good thing if it were really true? Go back to your boob tube and turn on Rachael Madcow.
 @sunnysandiego I think you need to tighten your tinfoil hat...
 @sunnysandiego Mr. High and Mighty, go back and read some of the comments when Andrew Breitbart died. Decency? I'd be willing to bet you were among those dancing that day!
 @Liberal_Illness  @sunnysandiegoBreitbart? Oh, you mean another chickenhawk warmongering cheerleader who was all too happy to send young Americans off to their death for an elective war he knew he'd never have to fight in? Him dying like a dog on the sidewalk was just God's justice.
 @Mittens_Ryan  @sunnysandiego I would not expect decency from the lunatic left. God's justice? I doubt you believe in God anyway.
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"Liberalism is a mental disorder."
@sunnysandiego same with the left wing nuts Like Ed Shultz! saying he wants to rip out dick chenney's heart and stomp on it like that type of nut job?
 @wynooheeman  @sunnysandiego Have you two lost your marbles? How can you turn a little car crash into political dribble? Never-mind don't answer those questions. You two are nut-balls.
 @wynooheeman  @sunnysandiego Except Dick Cheney has blood all over his hands, thousands of innocent civilians and young US service members are DEAD because he lied us until a useless, needless, pre-emptive war for WMDs that were never there. He should get the death penalty for treason. He deserves that and worse. But go ahead and defend him...I'm sure you were all too happy to chearlead a war you knew you wouldn't have to fight in, just like the rest of your chickenhawk friends.
 @Jimmy Weed  @Mittens_Ryan  @wynooheeman WOW  did you come up with that all by yourself!!
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you must be proud of yourself!!
 @Liberal_Illness  Wackadoodle...
 @Mittens_Ryan  @wynooheeman  @sunnysandiego And yet, your boy obama has continued the same policies. In fact, there have been more casualties in Afghanistan under obama than the during both of Bushes terms.
Great that he's in the hospital, now keep him there. He can do less harm there.
 @lmdk2 Agree,  but you also have to agree he supports abortion in it's entirety.
 @lmdk2 Hey while I don't agree with the man's politics, I wouldn't wish him to be hurt and sent to a hospital or even kept there. Come on this isn't the place for that.
 @Gaikokujin agreed, I don't wish harm on Reid, but I just couldn,t pass up the chance to flip him off for some of his politics.
 @Gaikokujin  @lmdk2 The thing is the world would be a better place and I try to see the big picture.
 @Gaikokujin Wishing harm on anyone who doesn't share your political opinions is common place in this "end justifies the means" society we now have. Civil discourse is a thing of the past.
 @Funky-Munky  @Petwlkr Not true. Yall just better liars kinda like your messiah BO.
 @Petwlkr Not true... I found no humor in it! Neither did you and apparently Gaikokujin didn't either. Maybe we're all that's left?
Poor guy can't catch a break. He got read ended in 2010 and ended up with a broken arm and busted up face if I remember correctly. Hope everyone is ok. Â
 @caphillkid funny phonetic error there - not that his misfortune is funny
 @Komo Dragon  @caphillkid Oh but it is...