Dancing his way to power, Reid begins in jig time

Thursday, Nov. 9, 2006 | 7:06 a.m.

WASHINGTON - Every night in the days leading up to the election, Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid flipped to the calendar on his BlackBerry and counted down another day. When an aide asked him Tuesday evening how it looked, he replied: "Pensive."

But then the Senate seats started rolling in for Democrats on Tuesday. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Rhode Island. When Claire McCaskill won in Missouri, Reid literally kissed the TV. When Jon Tester took the lead in Montana, he did a little jig.

By 7:15 a.m. Wednesday, Reid knew his life had changed. That's when the phone rang and President Bush was on the line. He knew that a Nevada miner's son from Searchlight would become Senate majority leader.

Bush was reaching out after the midterm elections put Democrats in control of both houses of Congress for the first time in 12 years.

Reid had been up all night, too excited to sleep. He took the call and shared with Bush the top priority he has been repeating for days.

"We want to be part of a Congress that accomplishes something," Reid recounted at a packed morning press conference in the Capitol. "I told him I want to work with him to get things done."

The comment was an unspoken comparison to the current Republican Congress, which accomplished little and was in session less than any Congress in over a half century.

Reid, along with presumed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, will have enormous ability to lead the national policy debate at a time when voters have grown weary of Republican control of Washington. While Pelosi has been something of a lightning rod for conservatives, Reid, an anti-abortion Mormon, gives Democrats a more moderate persona.

But there was nothing moderate about the energy Reid displayed Wednesday. He called for a bipartisan congressional summit on Iraq. He said the party's wish list for the final weeks of the Republican-controlled Congress include legislation on bioterrorism, off-shore oil drilling, a nuclear agreement with India and tax credits.

Over the next 60 days, the party will lay out its priorities for the 110th Congress, drawing from their election-year agenda: ethics reform, raising the minimum wage, lowering Medicare prescription drug costs, fulfilling the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission and holding oversight hearings on Iraq.

"This may be the man of the moment," James Hershman, senior fellow at the Government Affairs Institute at Georgetown, said of Reid, whose skills have been compared to a master of Senate leadership, Lyndon B. Johnson. "He's at the top of his game."

In many ways, the structure of Reid's life will be no different than when he was minority leader. He will still rise for a 5:30 a.m. walk, put in 12-plus hours in the Capitol and keep himself fueled with steady snacking on apples, bananas and nuts.

He will get no new budget and no new staff, as the Senate in recent years has split resources evenly between the majority and minority parties.

Experts said Reid's lack of ambition for the presidency will serve him better than past Senate leaders, including Johnson, former Sens. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and Bob Dole, R-Kan., and outgoing Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.

All struggled to maintain control of the chamber while positioning themselves for higher office.

Reid is what some political scientists call an internal politician - not a crowd-pleasing star like former President Clinton.

"Johnson and Reid share one big skill - they are consummate behind-the-scene players," said UNR professor Eric Herzik. "Neither one is very good in front But you know who's running the parade."

As Reid told one interviewer Wednesday, this was the best job he could ever have.