Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada discusses the Iraq war during a news conference on Thursday in Washington. Photo by The Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- As he prepares to lead Senate Democrats in the debate on President Bush's Iraq policy, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada says he has no second thoughts about his vote in 2002 authorizing the president to go to war.

"The evidence at the time was persuasive -- especially if you go back and look and see what Secretary of State Colin Powell did at the United Nations," Reid said Tuesday.

"We've learned since then that the evidence was manipulated," he said. "So the answer is no. I'm not going to apologize."

On Oct. 11, 2002, the Senate voted 77-23 to authorize Bush to attack Iraq if Saddam Hussein failed to give up weapons of mass destruction that the president insisted he possessed.

In a vote that split Democrats, 29 voted for war while 21 voted against it.

Since then, a dozen of the Democrats who voted aye in 2002 and who still serve in the Senate have said they regret their support for the war, according to a survey this month by The Politico, a Capitol Hill newspaper.

Among them are presidential contenders Joseph Biden of Delaware and Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, and 2004 presidential nominee John Kerry of Massachusetts.

Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, who also is running for president, also has expressed regret over his support for the war.

Reid says he is not sorry for his vote. His stance is similar to that of presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., who voted to go to war but has declined to express regret.

Reid insists his 2002 vote was based on "inaccurate information" propounded by the Bush administration.

On Feb. 5, 2003 -- four months after the Senate vote -- Powell delivered a speech at the United Nations accusing Iraq of harboring chemical weapons.

Powell has since called that speech a "blot" on his record.

The 21 Senate Democrats who voted against war in 2002 included Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, who, as the Democratic whip, is second in command to Reid, and Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee.

Reid's counterpart in the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., also voted against the war resolution, on Oct. 10, 2002.

Reid said his vote on Iraq has not been held against him as he continued to advance in the Senate leadership to become majority leader.

"My caucus accepted it, and the people in the state of Nevada have not raised that as an issue," Reid said.

Eric Herzik, a political science professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, said he does not think Reid's 2002 vote has hurt him in leading Democratic opposition to Bush's proposed increase of troop levels in Iraq.

"I don't think he has anything to apologize for, but an acknowledgment that his vote perhaps wasn't right might be helpful," Herzik said. "Blaming Bush for his vote detracts from what the Democrats are trying to do, which is to change course on Iraq."

Ross Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University, agreed that Reid's vote will not erode his credibility as a war critic.

"You can say some senators were prophetic in voting against the war resolution, but prophecy is a pretty high standard," Baker said. "Harry Reid is not running for the Democratic presidential nomination like Hillary Clinton."

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., has described his vote against the war resolution as "the best vote I've cast in my 44 years in the United States Senate."