Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Home not so sweet

Sen. Harry Reid, once a fairly obscure conservative Democrat from the small state of Nevada, is all the buzz inside the Beltway lately - unfortunately for him, it's the Washington and not the Las Vegas Beltway.

Reid is praised by his party's national grass-roots activists for his forceful opposition to the Republican agenda and ability to keep Senate Democrats unified. His opponents concede - occasionally with close-fisted frustration - that he consistently bests his counterpart, Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.

"No minority leader has so dominated the Senate since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1953-54," conservative columnist Robert Novak, who has covered the Beltway for decades, wrote last week, citing Reid's ability to hold up immigration reform and a bill to bail out companies with asbestos liabilities.

But Reid's national stature among activist Democrats, concentrated on the blue-state coasts, carries risks for him at home, analysts say. His consistent opposition to President Bush and his need to mollify the liberals in his party is costing him in Nevada, where polls show he has lost support since becoming minority leader.

Although Reid, who won re-election in 2004 and still has four years in his term, said in an interview that he pays no attention to polls, his actions in Nevada during the two-week Easter recess suggested that he is keenly aware of his vulnerabilities. He spoke to groups that carry at least a patina of conservatism - chambers of commerce, police and firefighters, religious groups, military men and women, district attorneys.

Reid touted national security, faith-based solutions and anti-gang measures. In front of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, he reminded the audience of his support last year for legislation long sought by conservatives that made it harder to declare bankruptcy.

And yet, in the conflict Reid faces - between his more conservative Nevada roots and his new coastal liberal friends - he struggled to quell his bluest, Democratic instincts, launching a shot at Bush at the chamber event.

"How can Republicans support somebody who's running us into the ground like this?"

In Washington, Congress-watchers say Reid's recent victories on Capitol Hill result from several factors: Republican disarray caused by President Bush's unpopularity, an improved communications operation, smart parliamentary maneuvers, and Frist's presidential aspirations, which have undermined his effectiveness.

"The question is whether it's President Bush's popularity, or lack thereof, or is it Harry Reid?" asked Marty Kady, who covers the Senate for the respected journal Congressional Quarterly.

Bush's unpopularity "doesn't seem like a short-term thing," said David Lublin, a professor of political science at American University and an authority on Congress. "It's a long-term thing, and there's no way out.

"In the past, Congressional Republicans have rallied around the president, but they can't do that, and they're feeling uneasy because they have to run for re-election, and they're in chaos."

Republicans were most recently divided on a landmark immigration bill, with many running to the right of Bush's more moderate proposal. When Frist announced a grand compromise without having the Republican votes to back it up, he looked incompetent, while Reid appeared shrewd, Lublin said.

While Senate Republicans have been divided on a number of issues, such as privatizing Social Security or making tax cuts permanent, Reid has kept his caucus together. In fact, Congressional Quarterly, which tracks party unity, showed that Democrats were as united on party line votes last year as they have ever been.

Conversely, Bush's weakened standing has made opposing him a less risky proposition, Kady said.

"In the post-9/11 environment, when they blocked the Republican agenda, there was a political price to pay for Democrats," he said. "But that's not working right now. Judging by the polls, the majority of Americans don't mind Democrats blocking the Republican agenda."

Kady said Reid has been adept at building coalitions among Democrats. He pointed to a recent measure Reid proposed with Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York to give broader access to birth control. It was billed as a way to reduce teen pregnancy, but also abortions, and so united moderates and liberals.

Reid has also set up a campaign-style "war-room" operation to direct the Democratic message. He recruited Andrew Fois, an old Clinton hand, as staff director.

That operation hones a strategic message each day and tracks and grades senators on their TV and radio appearances to make sure Democrats are well represented.

"That's something new Reid has brought in, and it's helped get the message out," said Tom Matzzie, political director for MoveOn.org, the liberal group.

At the same time, Republicans have complained that the White House has lost focus in getting its own message across. As of Sunday night, the administration was without a press secretary.

Finally, Reid has taken advantage of Frist's several distractions - including a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation of a stock sale, and his presumptive presidential run - to shock him with parliamentary jabs.

"Trying to create a presidential run while you're majority leader is darn near impossible," Kady said. "What you have to do to be majority leader, and what you have to do to create a presidential run - Sen. Trent Lott and former Sen. Bob Dole believed they're mutually exclusive."

Frist could be running into jealousies and irritation in his own party, which includes Sen. George Allen and other presidential aspirants.

"He looks like he's running for president, which he is, and what's funny is, the more he tries, the less presidential he looks," Lublin said. "And you get the sense his colleagues don't appreciate it."

Frist often seems off-balance when Reid launches a parliamentary sally, such as when he invoked an arcane rule to force the Senate into closed session last year, demanding an investigation into the use of pre-Iraq War intelligence.

It was a stunt, but it worked, riling Frist and grabbing front-page headlines across the country right as Bush tried to win back the public on Iraq.

The respect of MoveOn.org's Matzzie, one of the more influential voices in liberal Washington, may be the ultimate gauge of Reid's standing among activist Democratic circles these days.

"When he's with you, he fights hard, and that's why he's able to gather people and be a leader of Democrats nationally," Matzzie said.

"In terms of the Senate, he's a master."

Matzzie noted that Reid differs from MoveOn.org on a number of issues, such as MoveOn's call for withdrawal from Iraq by the end of 2006.

But it is the adulation of people like Matzzie that also endangers Reid at home. "Absolutely it hurts him at home," said Eric Herzik, a UNR political scientist. "He has to take up the cause of the most liberal wing of the party."

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