Reid remains a man on a mission

By J. Patrick Coolican

Saturday, June 3, 2006 | 7:39 a.m.

I'm the best they've got. I'm the spokesperson.

The opposition is cranked up, and I'm the target, I'm in the line of sight, and I didn't realize it would be as intense as it's been.

I do think this job gives me unique opportunities to do things for Nevada.

My office has been bombarded by hateful phone calls, hateful, hateful phone calls on immigration.

The day after the election, I told the president, "We aren't going to allow this to happen." This was like me taking on Mike Tyson at the time, but I knew in my heart we could beat him, and we took him on, and we beat him on it.

I'm not going to vote for this marriage thing. It's only there to divide and distort.

Estate tax affects one-half of 1 percent of Americans today. You'll create dynasties that make Rockefellers and Vanderbilts look like peons.

When people ask me what do we stand for, I say, don't ask what we stand for, ask who we stand for. For the 46 million people with no health insurance. For college kids and their parents who can't send their kids to college because they can't afford it. For my grandkids who will pay all this debt.

We stand for doing something about global warming. The snows of Kilimanjaro don't exist anymore. We have mountains dropping into the ocean every day in the north and south poles.

We've fought back, we've stopped bad things and we've proven, and we're going to continue to prove, we have positive agenda.

Any American who speaks out against the war has a right to do that. Who can say the war is going well? We all have the same goal in mind, and that is to have a stable Iraq.

The president has said some frightening things lately. He said the next president can take care of Iraq. He said those coming into West Point this year will solve the problem.

I just have a different way of approaching that. Draw down (American troop levels), have the Iraqis take care of their security situation.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid called for an independent commission to investigate military atrocities in Iraq because, he said, the military can't investigate itself.

In a wide-ranging interview Friday with Sun editors and reporters, a weary-looking Reid kept up his attacks on President Bush and congressional Republicans, even at the end of a week in which he was chastised for accepting free ringside boxing tickets.

Bolstered by polling that suggests Democrats will pick up many House and Senate seats in November, the Nevada Democrat said he would stay on the attack.

He said he would make a speech Monday questioning Republicans for bringing traditional GOP wedge issues - such as gay marriage and flag-burning constitutional amendments - before Congress while the country suffers from serious problems more properly the domain of the federal government. Gasoline prices hover around $3 a gallon, 46 million Americans have no health insurance and polls show that the nation is pessimistic about the course of the country.

In calling for a commission to investigate military conduct in Iraq, Reid released a letter he sent to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. In the letter, Reid said he is "disturbed by recent press accounts that indicate more than two dozen civilians were killed in Haditha, Iraq, by U.S. Marines."

Reid was referring to the alleged massacre of Iraqi civilians, including women and children, after a roadside bomb killed a Marine last year.

His letter asks Rumsfeld about delays in reporting and investigating the incident, about the progress of the investigation and about other possible incidents.

This week the BBC put up video on its Web site purportedly showing other American killings of Iraqi civilians. In the interview, Reid said he was aware of at least one other alleged incident because of a soldier who contacted his office.

He also rejected the military's tradition of investigating itself through its Uniform Code of Military Justice.

"If there was a scandal at the Southern Nevada Water Authority, I don't think we'd want the Southern Nevada Water Authority telling us what they had done, to investigate the scandal. It'd be better if they had an outside investigation, someone from the DA's office, the sheriff's department taking a look at that."

Paul Adams, chairman of the Nevada Republican Party and a former military prosecutor, released the following statement in response to Reid's letter:

"Sen. Reid's presumption of guilt on matters relating to our troops and his apparent use of potential troop misconduct for partisan advantage establishes that he has no credibility on military matters and that Democrats cannot be trusted on national security matters."

Lt. Col. Tracy O'Grady, Defense Department spokeswoman, said Rumsfeld would respond to the letter promptly.

Reid said he and the Democratic Party differ from Bush because they believe in a quicker drawdown of American forces from Iraq.

"The president has said some frightening things lately. He said the next president can take care of Iraq. He said those coming into West Point this year will solve the problem."

Reid said Democrats are finding their way with more self-assurance on national security issues and will be more outspoken. Although he expressed a disdain for polls, Reid more than once cited recent surveys suggesting the public trusts Democrats as much as Republicans on Iraq and national security. That has allowed Democrats to be even more aggressive, he said.

He said his speech Monday would take on Republicans for bringing up constitutional amendments that typically play well with conservative Republican voters as the next item of Senate business while more important issues, such as health care, the war in Iraq and the deficit lie in wait .

If the election were held today, Democrats would pick up five Senate seats, which would lead to a 50-50 chamber, Reid predicted. His list of five favorable races - Pennsylvania, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Rhode Island - did not include Nevada, where Democrat Jack Carter is challenging Nevada's junior Sen. John Ensign, a Republican.

Reid's overall confidence was somewhat surprising given the week he has had. The Associated Press reported that Reid had accepted free ringside boxing seats from the Nevada State Athletic Commission while considering legislation that would have affected that agency. He eventually sided against the agency, voting for legislation that would have created a national boxing regulatory body that could usurp the state commission's authority.

Reid said he regretted taking the tickets. "In hindsight, it didn't look very good."

He acknowledged that the near-daily attacks from the conservative message machine take a toll: "The opposition is cranked up, and I'm the target. I'm in the line of sight, and I didn't realize it would be as intense as it's been."