U.S. Senate leader addresses Nevada Legislature

Thursday, Feb. 24, 2005 | 3:01 a.m.

CARSON CITY, Nev. - U.S. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid urged Nevada legislators on Wednesday to avoid partisanship and work together to scrap a voter registration deadline that hits a month before Election Day.

In wide-ranging comments at the Legislature and at a follow-up news conference, Reid, D-Nev., also called for an increase in the minimum wage, criticized President Bush's plan to privatize Social Security and suggested more White House diplomacy in dealing with Iran.

Reid also renewed his call for an exit strategy from Iraq, noting costs of the Iraq war are approaching $300 billion and more than 1,500 U.S. soldiers have died in that war.

Asked about his political ambitions, the new minority leader in the Senate said he had no "illusions of grandeur" about a presidential bid - but he's definitely interested in becoming majority leader if Democrats can gain control of the Senate.

In his 10-minute speech, Reid said he didn't want to "meddle in your business" - but urged legislators to change the restrictions on voter registration in election years. He later told reporters he favored same-day registration and saw no purpose in the current cutoff a month before elections "unless it's to keep people from voting."

His support for a minimum-wage increase coincided with an Assembly panel's support for a $1-per-hour increase in the current minimum wage, to be paid by employers that don't provide health insurance.

"Minimum wage is decades behind cost of living," Reid said. "Don't make families wait another two years."

On Social Security, Reid accused the Bush administration of "crisis creation" and said the current system won't go bankrupt - and can continue to provide full benefits for nearly 50 years if Congress does nothing.

Privatization "is not the answer. The president's privatization plan will not strengthen Social Security, it will destroy Social Security," he said in urging state lawmakers to pass a resolution opposing the Bush plan.

On Iraq, Reid told reporters he's glad to see that Bush has reached out to the European community for help, but added he wanted to see some recognition "that we must get out of Iraq, and we're not doing a very good job of setting things up so we can get out of Iraq."

"We need to have an exit strategy here that is not yet present," he said, adding, "There's no question that we could win the war, but the problem was there was never any planning done to win the peace, and that has been a miserable failure."

Regarding Iran, Reid said the U.S. "is making a mistake ... by not being part of the negotiations with Iran. I don't think we can leave it to European communities to do our work."

Bush backs the European diplomacy and is seeking to play down differences between this country and Europe. But he has taken a harder line toward Iran for breaking a treaty that prohibits it from making nuclear fuel or for sponsoring terrorist groups.