Columnist Benjamin Grove: Reid-Ensign alliance weathers partisanship

Benjamin Grove

Friday, March 7, 2003 | 5:39 a.m.

LAST WEEK a group of Carson City students peppered Nevada Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign with questions during a video-conference meeting. They asked the No 2. Senate Democrat and his conservative GOP colleague: How do you guys stay friends?

In what is proving to be a bitterly divided new Congress on many issues, that's a reasonable question.

The chasm between the parties already seems wider than ever on topics ranging from tax cuts to education spending to the medical malpractice insurance crisis. The rancor has been on full display in the Senate in a monthlong feud over federal judge nominee Miguel Estrada. Last week the first battle ended when Democrats blocked an up-or-down vote on the nomination.

The Estrada issue offers a glimpse at how two senators from the same state remain friendly allies while rarely seeing eye-to-eye on the work they do in Congress.

Ensign and Reid came out swinging on Estrada, with both politicians backing their party.

Reid bashed Republican senators and the White House for their "arrogance" in pushing a nominee who wouldn't answer their questions about stances on legal issues. Reid used props during Senate floor speeches -- blank poster-sized pieces of paper that Reid said represented all the answers Estrada had provided to Democrats.

Ensign hinted that Senate Democrats will get the same filibuster treatment from Republicans when a future Democratic president taps controversial judicial nominees. Ensign said Republicans in the coming weeks will corral 60 votes -- enough to force a vote. Democrats are orchestrating a dangerous challenge to the Constitution by denying the Senate the right to vote on a judge, Ensign said. "This is not over -- not even close," Ensign said. "We can't afford to lose this."

Last week Ensign even arranged a conference call with Hispanic media in Nevada, an attempt to reach out to minority voters who typically back Democrats, and a subtle show of support for President Bush, whom Reid routinely criticizes.

But throughout the debate, Reid and Ensign were careful not to land a punch on each other.

In the Senate, that's how it's done. It wasn't personal, it was politics, they explained. The two said their amicable working relationship -- they call it a friendship -- is in no danger, even as partisan battles rage around them in the new Congress.

"If you're going to get mad about something like (Estrada), you'll never be friends," Reid said. "He's a card-carrying Republican. I'm a card-carrying Democrat. We just have different viewpoints."

Friends can disagree on politics, Ensign said. He said he grows closer to Reid every day. "We respect each other," Ensign said. "I don't hold any of this against him personally."

Reid and Ensign are somewhat unusual in that most states send senators from the same party to Washington. Nevada and just 12 other states are represented by senators from opposing parties.

But it's not unusual for the senators from those states to work together, especially on state issues, said American University government professor Candace Nelson. It's just smart politics, she said.

"It creates a synergy that benefits them both," Nelson said.

To be sure, voters appreciate lawmakers who can see beyond partisan bickering in an effort to deliver for the state. Ensign and Reid huddled together for months last year in an exhausting but ultimately futile attempt to kill Yucca Mountain.

These days they don't have a big battle like Yucca to keep them close. But by all accounts, Reid and Ensign are still as friendly as ever.

The two men this year decided to continue co-hosting a weekly Thursday breakfast in the Capitol for visiting Nevadans and other guests, often business representatives and lobbyists. Each week over coffee and pastries, they rehash the now-familiar story of how a friendship grew from the bitterness of their 1998 race. When Ensign was elected in 2000 to former Democratic Sen. Richard Bryan's seat, the two men decided to form an alliance.

Of course, Reid and Ensign will face a real test next year, when Reid faces re-election.

"It's something Ensign will have to figure out as he goes along," American U's Nelson said. "How do you draw the line between continuing to work with Reid but also supporting the president and the party on national issues?"

Don't look for Ensign to do any commercials or fund-raising for Reid, UNLV political science professor Ted Jelen said. But he won't alienate Reid either, Jelen said. Ensign, in his third year in the Senate, has learned the value of political loyalty since his long journey from the "partisan snakepit" that is the House, Jelen said.

"Ensign is, if nothing else, a quick study," Jelen said.

Ensign and Reid understand better than anyone the roles they have to play in the upcoming election.

"He had to do certain things in my election," Ensign said, "and I'll do certain things in his election."