I read it, so I got the chapter wrong.

In addition, Senators and Senate staff should be wary of accepting any gift where it appears that the gift is motivated by a desire to reward, influence, or elicit favorable official action. In
the 102d Congress, the Committee rebuked a Senator for repeated acceptance of and failure to disclose gifts from a university and its president over a period of years when the Senator was being asked to take routine official actions which affected the school. The Committee found thisconduct, and the failure to disclose miscellaneous gifts from other persons (as required for gifts worth more than $250), inappropriate, despite finding no linkage between the gifts and any official action. Similarly, the Committee has advised a group of staffers against accepting coffee and donuts for their weekly legislative meeting from an organization that lobbied the Congress, ruling that ‘‘such an arrangement between a committee staff and [an organization with] an interest within its jurisdiction could reflect discredit upon the Senate.’’ 69 Thus, repeatedly taking gifts which the Gifts Rule otherwise permits to be accepted may, nonetheless, reflect discredit upon the institution, and should be avoided.

There are exceptions to all rules.

If I wanted to paint democrats as corrupt I would just use their statistics against Republicans history of political corruption.

I’m comparing Reid to his own rhetoric and McCain.