Sen. Harry Reid has said he is not a "Brokeback" kind of guy. But has his ascension to Senate majority leader perhaps uncorked a hidden well of emotion?
After Sen. John Kerry announced to the Senate on Wednesday that he was not going to run again for president, Reid tossed bouquets at the Massachusetts Democrat in a speech.
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Wrapping up his speech, Reid said, "I love you, John Kerry. I am so sorry things didn't work out for our country, but that doesn't take away from the fact that I will always care about you greatly and remember the times we have spent together."
It previously has been reported that during the Democratic sweep on election night, a euphoric Reid kissed the television when Claire McCaskill won the Senate race in Missouri.
Reid that night also told Sen. Hillary Clinton, "Love you," and said the same to Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota.
Aide Jon Summers couldn't explain the new Sensitive Harry Reid.
"That is how he feels," Summers ventured. "He speaks his mind. He is just trying to be supportive."
With a smile, one former aide said Reid "has always felt love in his heart but maybe he has not been able to articulate himself in those terms."
Lest anyone think Reid is going soft, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., mentions the Nevadan in a just-published memoir.
Reid "is soft-spoken and polite and is a deeply religious Mormon," Schumer writes. "He will also kneecap you if you cross him."
SENSITIVITY TRAINING?
There were some red faces at the Department of Energy after a spokesman said perhaps it was best that Edward McGaffigan, who blasted Yucca Mountain to reporters last week, was resigning as a leader of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
"It is good that we are going to get somebody new with open eyes to look at (Yucca) at the NRC," spokesman Craig Stevens said, adding McGaffigan was "tainted."
NRC officials were angered at what they took to be an insensitive comment. McGaffigan is leaving the NRC to fight metastatic melanoma, an aggressive cancer he does not expect to defeat.
An aide to commission Chairman Dale Klein called the Energy Department to complain, according to an NRC source. One call went to the high-ranking deputy secretary, Clay Sell.
Stevens said later in the week he was unaware that McGaffigan was ill.
While he still disagreed with McGaffigan's view of Yucca, "I did not know he had terminal cancer," Stevens said. "I felt like an ass."
FACT OR FICTION
Did you know that Mitt Romney is the only Republican presidential candidate who is a monogamist?
So says Sen. Harry Reid, a fellow Mormon who imparted the tidbit while exchanging small talk in a telephone interview with reporters on Wednesday.
"Mitt Romney is the only person running for president who has had one wife," Reid said. "The rest have been married at least twice, so he is the only monogamist we have.
"Enough of that Mormon talk," Reid said, going on to other business.
Is that true? Among presumed GOP candidates, Sen. John McCain of Arizona has been divorced. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has been divorced twice.
Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, though, is still married to his first wife, as is Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, who declared on Thursday, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who announced his candidacy on Sunday.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who has not yet decided to run, has been divorced twice.
Reid spokesman Jon Summers said the senator heard the observation as a joke. Reid couldn't remember where he heard it.
ERASING THE PAST
Politicians who feel they've been smeared sometimes resentfully inquire where they can go to get their reputations back.
For former state treasurer candidate Geoffrey VanderPal, it wasn't a rhetorical question.
VanderPal has secured the services of a Kentucky-based Internet company called ReputationDefender Inc., which works to scrub negative references to one's name from the Web.
A blogger who goes by Anon Guy, who writes the up-and-coming Nevada political site Dullard Mush, got an e-mail from ReputationDefender last week asking him to please take down some blog posts, chiefly one headlined "VanderPal Loans Campaign $177K Despite Recent Bankruptcy" from the day before the Aug. 15 primary election.
VanderPal lost the primary to now-Treasurer Kate Marshall.
"We are writing to you today because our client, Geoffrey VanderPal, has told us that he would like the content about him on your Web site to be removed as it is harmful to his reputation," the company's exceedingly polite e-mail states. "Would you be willing to remove or alter the content? It would mean so much to Mr. VanderPal, and to us. Considerate actions such as these will go a long way to help make the Internet a more civil place."
Anon Guy responded that he saw no reason to take down the post, as VanderPal had been "a public candidate and open to scrutiny" and the information in question was accurate and sourced to public records.
The company responded simply, "Thank you for your time. We completely understand your position on this matter."
Anon Guy said in an e-mail interview that far from making him feel compassion for VanderPal, the incident was likely to inspire him to ridicule the former candidate in a new blog post.
FOCUSING ON '08
Sen. John Ensign is sure of at least one thing that Republicans will need to recapture the U.S. Senate in 2008: money, and lots of it.
The Nevadan who is chairman of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee unveiled his financial strategy on Tuesday in a closed-door meeting with fellow GOP senators.
He wants to raise at least $119 million for the 2008 campaigns, in which Republicans will need to defend 21 seats. Democrats have to defend only 12 seats.
The sum is about a third more than the GOP raised for the most recent elections. A good chunk of it, about $30 million, will have to come from senators themselves under Ensign's plan.
There were some gulps in the room, according to accounts of the session, and questions from some senators afterward as to whether they can meet such an ambitious goal.
"We are going to find out whether our colleagues are hungry enough to put in the effort to get in the majority," Ensign told Roll Call. He told another reporter he has only "peer pressure" at his disposal to extract cash from other senators.
SMALL TALK
As the House Ways and Means Committee begins its work in the new Congress, two of its newest members convened a powwow on Wednesday with executives and lobbyists from the gaming industry.
Nevada Reps. Shelley Berkley and Jon Porter, who also are co-leaders of the House Gaming Caucus, paid for breakfast at Berkley's Capitol Hill townhouse.
"We felt it would be an opportune time for the gaming individuals to meet members of Congress," Porter said. "(Berkley) and I talked about the importance of educating Congress about the gaming industry to put a face on gaming as real families and people and impact."
The Nevada lawmakers said the event was social. But their new seats on the tax-writing -- and tax cut-writing -- Ways and Means Committee, which the industry helped them secure, were duly noted.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., showed up, as did Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, where Internet gaming bills are debated.
Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the Republican deputy whip, and Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., a leader on the House government reform committee, also attended.
Freshman Nevada Rep. Dean Heller and 10 others from Ways and Means or who represent gaming districts also were there.
Among the gamers were representatives of the MGM Mirage, Harrah's, Isle of Capri, Station Casinos, Penn National and Boyd Gaming, as well as lobbyists from the Duberstein Group, Potomac Counsel, Fierce & Isakowitz and the American Gaming Association.
Contact political reporter Molly Ball at 387-2919 or MBall@reviewjournal.com.
