Harry Reid Nevada senator is the chamber's Democratic leader
WASHINGTON -- As he looked back on his first year as Democratic leader of the U.S. Senate, Harry Reid on Friday said his biggest surprise was how easily he was elected to the post.
With a few phone calls to senators after the November 2004 election, Reid secured enough votes to cut off a potential challenge from Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd.
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"You know another surprising thing? I never understood how hard this job was," he said.
"I'm not whining, but it is a tough, tough job. ... People look to you to have all this knowledge and wisdom and judgment, and sometimes, I feel so inadequate to meet the expectations my 44 (Democratic) senators have."
Reid is completing a year in which he set the pace for Senate Democrats who were largely unremitting in their criticism of President Bush, from Bush's plan to restructure Social Security early in the year to his performance in managing the war in Iraq as U.S. casualties continued to mount.
Independent political observers generally gave Reid positive marks for keeping the Democrats united on the major issues.
"I think people are surprised that he was quite effective," said Ross Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University.
But critics said Reid's blunt style, which included calling Bush a "loser" and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan a "hack," undercut his effectiveness and revealed him as an unyielding partisan.
"Through his taxpayer-funded, self-proclaimed 'War Room,' Harry Reid has made political stunts and partisan antics the top priority of the Democrat leadership at the expense of the business of the American people," said Brian Nick, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Reid shrugs off criticism that Democrats lack a coherent message to take into the 2006 elections.
During the year, Democrats began employing "America Can Do Better" as an umbrella slogan under which party members framed policies on energy independence, education and pension reform.
Reid insists growing disenchantment over Iraq has changed the war debate in favor of Democrats, even though they cannot agree among themselves on whether the United States should pull out from the country sooner or later.
"We've played offense when we can, and we've done really well on defense," Reid said.
Reid became leader after his party lost four seats in last year's election.
Newly re-elected, President Bush spoke about spending his political capital and reforming Social Security.
"I think that the president and vice president thought that I would be an easy takedown," Reid said. Then, after a long pause, Reid added, "and it hasn't worked out that way."
White House spokesman Ken Lisaius issued a terse statement last week saying President Bush looks forward to working with Reid in the future.
In the Senate, Republican leaders began the year citing the defeat of Reid's predecessor, Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota, as a warning to Democrats not to interfere with the president's agenda.
In February, Republicans released a 13-page research document labeling Reid an obstructionist.
"That was a mistake," said a Republican staffer in the Senate who requested anonymity. "Whatever problems Reid might have had in unifying the Democratic caucus ended after that."
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., was poised to invoke the so-called nuclear option to allow approval of judicial nominees by a simple majority. On the eve of a scheduled vote on the nuclear option in May, a group of moderate senators dubbed the "Gang of 14" announced a deal to avert a showdown.
Reid called thwarting the nuclear option not only the highlight of his first year as Democratic leader, but of his 40-year political career.
"We whipped them on that," Reid said. "The nuclear option is gone."
Another pivotal event occurred Nov. 1, when Reid invoked a rarely used rule to shut down the Senate to force the intelligence committee to complete the second phase of a probe into the Bush administration's use of intelligence leading up to the war in Iraq.
"When Reid pulled that off without anybody knowing what he was going to do and caused Frist to lose his cool, he became even more popular with the (Democratic) troops," said Norm Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
Frist accused Reid of hijacking the Senate and said he could never trust him again.
Reid said Frist's reaction was one of the biggest surprises in his first year as Democratic leader.
Asked if the shutdown has further strained his relationship with Frist, Reid would only say, "It didn't help."
Reid speaks of Frist in condescending terms, calling him "a fine physician."
"I like Bill Frist as a person. The problem is you can't have the leader of the Senate chosen by the White House," Reid said.
"When he got this job, he had had limited experience on the Senate floor. And he was leaving. He had term-limited himself. So he has no institutional integrity. ... He doesn't feel as strongly about the Senate. He does whatever the White House wants him to do."
Frist spokeswoman Amy Call declined to comment.
Reid did not confine his criticism to Frist.
"I believe this is the most corrupt Congress in the history of this country," Reid said. "Not only corrupt ethically, but corrupt in not having institutional respect for what our Founding Fathers established. ... Whatever the White House wants, they try to deliver."
The only regret Reid acknowledged about his first year as leader was calling President Bush a loser in May during a speech to a class of high school students in Las Vegas.
"I felt that I made a mistake, and I tried to rectify it as quickly as I could in calling the president a loser because it was to the wrong audience and it was just the wrong thing. It was a bunch of high school kids and I felt real bad about that. That was not good," Reid said.
Reid still refuses to apologize for calling Bush a liar. He believes the president lied in saying sound science would determine if Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, would be designated as a nuclear waste repository.
Reid also believes Bush misled him when the president said he would stay out of the debate on the nuclear option.
"I called the president a liar twice because he lied -- once on nuclear waste, once on the nuclear option," Reid said. "I don't regret that because it was true."
Perhaps the biggest setback Reid faced this year was a ministroke in August. But Reid said he is not worried about a relapse and the only change he has made in his lifestyle is that he goes to bed a half-hour earlier.
Reid remains popular among Democratic bloggers even though he denies cultivating their support.
"Until a year ago, I didn't know what the word 'blog' meant," Reid said.
During his first year, Reid occasionally sought the advice of his two predecessors, Daschle and former Sen. George Mitchell, D-Maine.
Daschle said he would not have done anything differently than Reid has done in his first year as Democratic leader.
"We lost some seats in the last election, and once again, the (Democratic caucus) was on the defensive," Daschle said. "Anytime, you put the pieces together and unite the caucus as an effective political force -- I think Harry deserves great credit for that."
Mitchell said Reid's job is tougher because of intense partisanship in Congress.
"You need a level-headed and calm person for that position, and Harry has the right temperament," Mitchell said.
Republicans are not so charitable in their descriptions of Reid.
Earlier this year, former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., accused Reid of being mean.
Paul Adams, chairman of the Nevada Republican Party, said Reid has let down Nevada by failing to use his leadership post to benefit the state.
"He seems more interested in representing the interests of East Coast liberals than Nevada," Adams said.
Baker, the Rutgers political science professor, cited Reid's six-year apprenticeship as Democratic whip as good preparation for the leadership post.
"One example was the appearance of the Gang of 14 during the nuclear-option debate," Baker said. "Reid was much less surprised by that than Frist, who felt blindsided."
Baker said Reid's leadership style is similar to Daschle's and Mitchell's.
"Mitchell was a judge who was extremely courtly and Daschle had this boyish charm, and Reid has this down-to-earth Western style," Baker said. "But all of them are hard as nails."
Eric Herzik, a political science professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, said Reid shrewdly picked his spots in opposing the Bush administration.
"On Social Security, he let the president take his case to the American people, and it failed," Herzik said.
Herzik also alluded to President Bush's failed nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. "Reid even suggested her to Bush," Herzik said. "So he didn't spend any political capital on Social Security or Miers."
Reid, who turned 66 this month, said he has no plans to retire.
