Reid sees ‘a permanent change’

WASHINGTON -- Democrat gains in last week's election will "resound for years to come" if the party can show it is ready to "roll up our sleeves and get some work done," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said in an interview televised Sunday.

"A permanent change has taken place" among voters, Reid said, including a boost in turnout and Democratic support among Hispanics, and shifts in places such as Nevada's Washoe County, which voted blue this year after 30 years of supporting Republicans.

"This is not going to change," Reid said. "If we do our job by letting the American people know this was not a mandate for the Democratic Party, not a mandate for some ideology, but a mandate to stop the divisiveness and to roll up our sleeves and get some work done ... this is going to resound for years."

Reid said Democrats will be careful not to overreach as they did after the 1992 elections, which solidified the party's majorities in the House and Senate and sent Bill Clinton to the White House. Two years later, Republicans won control of Congress.

"We have to understand the power we have and the power we don't have," Reid said. "We can only do so much. The key is understanding this was an election, it is not forever."

Reid said Democrats have two years, to the next election, to prove themselves.

Reid was interviewed Friday for a segment of CNN's "Late Edition" that aired Sunday.

On other issues, Reid said he and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., have decided to let bygones be bygones after a campaign in which the Nevadan blasted the Republican presidential candidate as abusive and not temperamentally suited to become president.

During the race, Reid carried in his wallet a news clipping of Republican Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi saying his "blood would curdle" if McCain were elected president. Reid said he would throw it away.

In a phone call Friday, "I said to John, 'I said some things that maybe I could have said them differently, and you hurt my feelings a time or two during the campaign,'" Reid related. "John McCain said the election is over with."

Reid also cast doubt on whether Congress will pass an ambitious economic stimulus bill this month during a lame-duck session.

Until the new Senate convenes in January with a Democratic lineup of at least 57, Reid said, Democrats still have only a one-vote majority.

"There is no thought that I can come in and get done what I think should be done, and that is a very robust, bold stimulus package," Reid said.

If Republicans do not cooperate, "there is no reason for me to get on the floor and have a vote I know I'm going to lose."

Reid said he was more hopeful that Congress will complete legislation extending unemployment insurance to people whose benefits will run out soon. That bill already has passed the House.

Tuesday's victory by Barack Obama removes any doubt that U.S. troops in Iraq will be withdrawn, Reid said.

"They are coming home; it is just a question of how fast they come home," he said.

"There will be a timeline," as well as a plan that will leave an undetermined number of troops behind "to take care of our assets and to make sure the Iraqis are training properly."

Reid said the Iraq strategy also will include "rapid deployment forces in the vicinity that can move in a matter of an hour or two to take care of problems."

On another loose end from the election, Reid suggested there still will be a place in the Democratic caucus for Sen. Joe Lieberman, even after the Connecticut senator campaigned for McCain and was critical of Obama during the race.

Reid and other Democrats considered Lieberman's actions traitorous and reportedly are seeking to remove him as chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

While those discussions continue, Reid said, Lieberman's critics should not forget he is a reliable vote for Democrats on most issues.

"Joe Lieberman has done something I think was improper and wrong. ... But Joe Lieberman votes with me a lot more than a lot of my senators," Reid said.

"Joe Lieberman is not some right-wing nut case. He is one of the most progressive people ever to come from the state of Connecticut."

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