Posted By: Judy Smith
Laura LitvanFri Nov 10, 2:40 PM ET
Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Senator Harry Reid has played
defense as minority leader, forging a Democratic united front
against Bush administration proposals to create private Social
Security accounts and cut estate taxes.
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Now, with Democrats in control of Congress for the first
time since 1994, he can go on the offensive. Reid is poised to
become Senate majority leader and join House Democratic leader
Nancy Pelosi in pushing the party's own legislative goals of
raising the minimum wage and reducing Medicare drug prices.
Reid will have the tougher job, analysts say, in trying to
maneuver a Democratic agenda past the Senate's Byzantine rules
in a chamber where almost a dozen lawmakers are weighing 2008
presidential bids.
``It's a job that involves persuasion, not demand,'' said
Ross Baker, a professor of political science at Rutgers
University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. ``He understands
acutely the challenges of leadership in the Senate.''
Reid, 66, is likely to be unchallenged in the leadership
elections scheduled for next week. After Democrats clinched a
51-49 majority by winning a close Senate race in Virginia, Reid
said voters want Democrats to lead in a new direction.
``This country has spoken loudly and clearly,'' Reid told a
Capitol Hill rally yesterday. ``There must be a change of
direction in Iraq. We have to have results in doing something to
make health care more affordable and more available. We have to
do something to create energy independence.''
Half-Dozen Initiatives
While Pelosi can promise to act on a half-dozen initiatives
within 100 hours in the House, it might take Reid months to
muscle similar measures to the Senate floor. Any senator can
block legislation with a filibuster, which takes 60 votes to
overcome.
Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat,
acknowledged that his party needs the support of Republicans to
pass legislation. ``A one-vote majority allows you to organize
and to propose an agenda,'' Durbin told reporters yesterday.
``Before you can pass anything important and controversial you
better be ready to put 60 votes on the board.''
Today Reid and Durbin discussed their agenda with President
George W. Bush at the White House. ``The only way to move
forward is with bipartisanship and openness,'' Reid said after
the meeting. Bush said he'd assured the senators that his
administration would ``cooperate as closely as we can to solve
common problems.''
`Bad Example'
Reid has already reached out to Republicans. He phoned the
No. 2 Senate Republican, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, in late
September to discuss ways the two can work in a bipartisan
fashion, Reid spokesman Jim Manley said.
McConnell is the front-runner to replace Senate Republican
Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, who is retiring in January.
``Republicans set a very bad example in not working with
us,'' Reid said yesterday. ``We're not following that example.''
Reid plans to advance through the Senate an increase in the
minimum wage to $7.25 an hour from $5.15 and a mandate that all
cargo shipped into the U.S. be screened, Manley said.
Along with the legislative initiatives, Reid plans to
direct Democratic committee chairmen to begin oversight hearings
examining Bush's policies. Reid wants panels to focus on the
Iraq war, investigating the use of faulty intelligence leading
up to the conflict, contracting abuses, and what Democrats say
is the lack of appropriate planning leading up to the conflict,
Manley said.
Reid, first elected to the Senate in 1986, provides a more
temperate public image than Pelosi, who has been branded a ``San
Francisco liberal'' by Republicans throughout the fall campaign,
said John Pitney, a professor of political science at Claremont
McKenna College in Claremont, California.
Gun Ownership
A practicing Mormon, Reid has voted with Republicans in
favor of restrictions on abortion, and he has opposed some
limits on gun ownership. He isn't likely to make himself
vulnerable to Republican criticism by calling for a repeal of
Bush's tax cuts, Pitney said.
``Republicans are hoping he'll push for tax increases, but
Reid represents a low-tax state,'' Pitney said. ``And he's also
a smart politician.''
Manley said that Democrats will likely work first to extend
an expiring research and development tax credit that has
bipartisan support.
Reid became minority leader after his predecessor, Tom
Daschle of South Dakota, lost his Senate re-election bid in
2004. Republicans branded Daschle an ``obstructionist'' for his
use of the filibuster and other legislative maneuvers to oppose
the Republican agenda.
Reid nudged his party toward the political center on some
matters. He supported Harriet Miers's nomination to the Supreme
Court while opposing John Roberts as chief justice.
Class-Action Suits
He did nothing to dissuade Democrats who supported
legislation moving most class-action lawsuits to federal courts,
or limiting the ability of consumers to escape debts by filing
for bankruptcy protection. He also didn't push for a filibuster
to block the nomination of Alberto Gonzales as attorney general.
``He is a great leader because he listens to everybody,''
said Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer of California. ``He
doesn't impose his will on anyone.''
Yet he pushed for united Democratic opposition to Bush's
proposals for Social Security private accounts, oil drilling in
an Alaska wildlife refuge and a reduction in the estate tax. In
doing so, he worked each day as if he were in campaign mode,
operating a ``war room'' with about 20 staffers who made sure
Democrats got their message out each day to the media.
Miner's Son
The son of a hard-rock miner, Reid grew up an hour away
from Las Vegas in the small town of Searchlight, Nevada. He
lived in a cabin that lacked indoor plumbing, and boarded with
another family to attend high school. He put himself through law
school at George Washington University by working nights as a
U.S. Capitol police officer.
When he sought to clean up Nevada's gambling industry as
chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission beginning in 1977, he
became a target of organized crime, and a bomb was once
discovered in his wife's car.
He has said that his political mentor is his former high
school boxing coach, Mike O'Callaghan, who went on to become
Nevada's governor, with Reid as his running mate.
After two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives
beginning in 1983, Reid was elected to the Senate in 1986 and
then rose to the No. 2 spot in 1999.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Laura Litvan at llitvan@bloomberg.net .
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