Reid-Pacquiao meeting set

An aide to Sen. Harry Reid confirms the Senate majority leader will be meeting in Washington on Feb. 15 with Manny Pacquiao, the championship boxer who campaigned for him last fall.

Details were being arranged, they said. There was no word as to whether Reid is involved in arranging for Pacquio to meet President Barack Obama, a get-together whose potential is being hyped by boxing promoter Bob Arum.

Pacquiao, who is a congressman in his native Philippines, will be in Washington that day on a tour to promote his May 7 fight against Shane Mosley at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas.

Arum, a Reid friend and chairman of Las Vegas-based Top Rank Inc., arranged for Pacquiao to campaign shortly before Election Day with the Nevada senator who of course was a boxer himself in his youth.

Pacquiao’s Oct. 29 appearance for Reid also was further evidence of a trend noted by Politico (and former Review-Journal) reporter Molly Ball during the campaign.