Sen. Harry Reid vastly overstated annual attendance figures for the federally subsidized National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Nevada.
The Senate majority leader claimed that "tens of thousands of people" visited the annual event in Elko, Nev., "every year." He was speaking on the Senate floor March 8, defending federal funding for such events. But his claim was far from true.
The fact is that the event attracts between 6,000 and 8,000 people each year, according to Charlie Seemann,