Monday, Jan. 17, 2005 | 9:34 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., on Sunday urged Democratic leader Harry Reid to "pull back just a little bit" in leading his party's steadfast opposition to President Bush's Social Security reform proposals.
But the Nevada senator countered, "We're not going to be part of a scheme to destroy the most successful social program in the history of the world, Social Security."
Trading barbs in separate segments on ABC's "This Week," Reid and Frist set the stage for a contentious debate on an issue likely to dominate the first year of a new Congress in Bush's second term.
In an interview taped Saturday with ABC's George Stephanopoulos in front of the stone fireplace at his Searchlight home, Reid said there was room for compromise with Bush this year on issues including education, tort reform and asbestos safety.
"But he has to come with a little bit of -- I don't know what the right word is -- humility," Reid said. "I mean, let's work together. I think we don't need arrogance here."
The new Democratic leader said the party was "willing to work with the president to take care of the out-years" on Social Security. Reid said Democrats may be open to some type of reform, but not Bush's vision of allowing younger workers to funnel part of their payroll taxes to private investment accounts.
Reid reasserted that Bush is falsely proclaiming that the Social Security system is in a crisis. Reid said that even if nothing was done to improve the system, the popular retirement program would continue to pay out full benefits for 45 years and 80 percent of full benefits for years thereafter.
"That's not a crisis," Reid said.
On another topic, Reid said the Bush administration doesn't have a plan to win the peace in Iraq.
"He hasn't figured out a way to do that and it's being lost big time," Reid said.
He said the United States should "stay the course" in Iraq but called for more United Nations troops.
On a personal note, Reid mentioned Judy Hill, assistant postmistress in Searchlight, who fears daily for her daughter, serving in the military as a truck driver in Iraq.
"Every day of Judy Hill's life is a day that she is afraid that something's going to happen with the telephone ringing that her daughter has been hit by a roadside bomb," Reid said.
Reid also vowed that Democrats would again block the 10 federal judicial nominees Bush has sent back to Congress. Reid noted that Democrats allowed 204 of Bush's nominees to be approved last year.
In what was his second foray into the national spotlight of the Sunday morning talk shows as Democratic leader, Reid was asked about his criticism of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on NBC's "Meet the Press" last month.
On Sunday, Reid asserted that he was familiar with Thomas' opinions and that "when we have an activist judge like Thomas who wants to turn precedent on its head it's not good." Reid noted that he voted against Thomas' Supreme Court nomination.
"Why in the world would I ever vote for that man for chief justice?" Reid asked.
Reid also said that if Republicans follow through on their threat to use a parliamentary procedure often called the "nuclear option" to make a historic change to the Senate rules so that the minority party could no longer filibuster judicial nominees, the GOP will "rue the day" those changes were pushed through.
"If they want to carry that through, it's a short-term victory for them because they are not going to be in the majority forever," Reid said.
Frist said there was GOP Senate support for the change.
Looking back at the presidential race, Reid said Sen. John Kerry lost his bid for the White House because he could not figure out a way to win votes in "cow" counties.
"There are many issues that are important to rural America and there are Democrats who are in tune with those issues, also. We just have to let rural America know that's the case," Reid said.
Frist, appearing on ABC in an interview after Reid, urged Reid to consider "pretty much everything on the table" in the Social Security debate. He noted that Bush has not offered details of his plan and called for a bipartisan approach to reform. He acknowledged that Republican advocates of Bush's call for reform had to do a better job of educating the public about the "crisis."
"You can't put this off to 2050 or 2040 or 2030," Frist said. "The Baby Boom hits (retirement age) in 2008 and that's when the problem begins."
Later on the show, political commentator Cokie Roberts said Democrats were underplaying the Social Security crisis and Republicans were overstating it.
"They're both being, at best, disingenuous," she said.
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