Quantcast
MobileRJ | RSS Twitter Twitter FacebookFacebook E-mail Alerts
Home manage Las Vegas Review-Journal
  Jobs Cars Homes Shopping Travel Weddings Golf Best of Las Vegas Photo   Search:

RECENT EDITIONS
Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu

sponsored by
News
Nov. 20, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

A kinder Reid will return to Congress

Democrat majority to make his job little easier

By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU

Sen. Harry Reid
Re-elected majority leader

WASHINGTON -- With a friend in the White House and substantially more Democratic senators at his back, look for a kinder and gentler Harry Reid to be running the Senate as majority leader next year.

"I will be able to be a different leader. I will have the votes," the Nevadan said in an interview Wednesday. "There will be a different, softer majority leader, not because of being afraid to continue to fight but there is no need to."

Most Popular Stories
  • NORM: When live news shots turn bad
  • NORM: Terry Fator, wife ending marriage
  • NORM: Blaze breaks out during magic act
  • NORM: Jackson worked on album at Palms
  • Ex-Ensign aide details wife's affair
  • NORM: Jacksons set up LV memorial area
  • Ensign wrote lover a letter, saying their affair was a 'sin'
  • Coroner says sexual assault suspect killed by police was shot in back
  • LV area residential real estate sales reach record in June
  • Official: Fatal gunshot in back




    • Not that Reid minded fighting, of which he did plenty during his first two years as Senate leader. Battles with Republicans and the White House helped draw distinctions between the parties and helped Democrats win the presidency and new majorities in Congress, he contended.

    "Even though my fighting for two years at times was not very photogenic, at the end of it is a pretty good picture," Reid said.

    Reid spoke a day after he was elected to a second term as Senate majority leader for the two-year session that will begin in January.

    At the same time, he has begun positioning himself for a 2010 re-election campaign where Republicans already have indicated he will be a target for defeat.

    Reid, who has been in Congress since 1983 and in the Senate since 1987, plans to tell Nevadans he has accomplished more for the state than any of his predecessors.

    Most recently, tax breaks for Nevada's growing renewable energy industry, sales tax deductions for families, $250 write-offs for teachers, and full funding for federal payments to rural counties would not have become law "but for me," he said.

    "As I look back on the years of knowing something about Nevada history, I know what others have been able to accomplish and no one has been able to do what I have done," Reid said. "That includes Pat McCarran, Howard Cannon, Alan Bible, Paul Laxalt, you name them. If that is boasting I don't mean it to be that way, but I am trying to be as factual as I can."

    In the meantime, Reid said his job as majority leader will get easier "without question" when President-elect Barack Obama takes office along with an infusion of fresh Democratic senators.

    Rather than managing only a one-seat majority that proved fruitless at achieving any legislation that was at all controversial, Reid next year will lead a Senate containing at least 58 Democrats, with the promise of being able to recruit a few Republicans here and there in order to gain 60 votes necessary to overcome filibusters.

    As another example, Reid said he will no longer be solely responsible for filling Democratic slots on federal boards. He has several staffers working on that full time but those candidates will be vetted at the White House in an Obama administration.

    And he compared his soon-to-end combative relationship with President George W. Bush to that of bighorn sheep that seek to establish dominance by running at each other and ramming their horns together.

    "That is what George Bush and I have been doing, and we won't do that anymore," Reid said. "I will have nobody to butt heads with."

    Contact Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia. com or 202-783-1760.

    Newsvine Digg Fark Technorati reddit StumbleUpon del.icio.us Slashdot Propeller Mixx Furl Twitter MySpace Facebook Google Bookmarks Yahoo! Bookmarks Windows Live Favorites Ask MyStuff myAOL Favorites

    Leave Your Comment 36 Reader Comments
    Terms & Conditions
    The following comments are provided by readers and are the sole responsiblity of the authors. The reviewjournal.com does not review comments before publication nor guarantee their accuracy. By publishing a comment here you agree to abide by the comment policy. If you see a comment that violates the policy, please notify the web editor.

    Some comments may not display immediately due to an automatic filter. These comments will be reviewed within 48 hours. Please do not submit a comment more than once.
    Current Word Count:

    Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background.

    TEST wrote on February 11, 2009 09:46 PM:


    tj wrote on November 20, 2008 07:59 PM: Harrie Reid and the liberals are God's joke on America.


    D Jones wrote on November 20, 2008 07:20 PM: Enjoy it while you can Harry. You're out in the next election.


    big don wrote on November 20, 2008 04:43 PM: Harry Reid is a fool and needs to be sent back to Searchlight to raise pigs. His poor behavior and unprofessional comments embarrassed the entire state. Maybe his magic underwear will protect him, but hopefully we can get a real Senator in office in 2010.


    jake wrote on November 20, 2008 04:27 PM: reid you have almost destroyed the US economy in 2 y3ears the fight has just begun to take back our country.


    Hometown Girl wrote on November 20, 2008 04:24 PM: Las Vegas is my hometown. I remember, in the early days, being a supporter of Reid in the state senate. This guy, however, has become not only an embarrassment to our state, but a menace to our society! We, as a country, need to have politicians who are willing to do whatever it takes to reach across the aisle and reach what seems to be so elusive, "compromise". I have promised, (and mean to follow through!), that I will actively campaign against Reid in 2010, and will work to have him removed from office. Sen. Reid makes Nevada look like a joke, and it is no accident our economy is in the proverbial toilet with people like Reid, Dodd, Pelosi, Frank and Cox leading the way. He has lost his way, and forgotten to represent us, the people who put him in the position of power in the first place.


    HARRY REID wrote on November 20, 2008 04:06 PM: Remember...
    The article says a "kinder" Reid ---
    NOT A SMARTER OR MORE INTELLIGENT REID!

    No Hope No Change... only the same you know what.


    Joe C wrote on November 20, 2008 04:02 PM: What did I tell ya, Reid and his moron supporters are already saying we don’t get it.
    Wow it’s hard for us knuckle heads to understand the complexities of government.

    Read what,, I support Reid, stated,

    Already beaming with the new power they are about to have and dismissing all those that disagree with the democrats agendas.
    As if we are not able to understand.

    What self-absorbed idiots, actually believe they are the only ones who understand.

    I’m not even a republican and the so-called change with Obama and Reid seem like the same old ethnocentric and special interest agendas to me. Right along with the lobbyist.

    You have to love them like the kids that ride the special bus.


    honesty wrote on November 20, 2008 03:47 PM: amazing ... people call harry reid a leftist ... he's a tepid centrist ... if you think he leans left, move to massachusetts or san francisco where politicians actually are liberal ... and as for him being a disgrace to the state, i haven't heard of him slamming any cocktail waitresses up against the wall, or claiming success at helping his party by losing only seven senate seats, or leaving the state treasury in a mess before running for lieutenant governor and making plans to lose to reid in 2010 ....


    I support Reid wrote on November 20, 2008 03:35 PM: The negative comments made by some of these readers are clear they do not get it. This is a great opportunity for Reid to get things done for this country but more importantly for the people of Nevada. Wake up he is the majority leader with a majority in the Senate and a President on his side. This is a great opportunity for Senator Reid. The negative comments are from people who have little to no understanding about the importance of Senator Reid’s and the power he now holds and the good is able to achieve.
    Senator Reid there is many of us who are happy you are in a key position to make an importance difference. Senator Reid you are a smart politician it is to bad John Ensign has not learned from you.


    Read All Comments