Trying to gain the upper hand

Thursday, Nov. 16, 2006 | 7:05 a.m.

The nonaggression pact between Nevada's two senators has hit a snag.

One day after Democrat Harry Reid was elected Senate majority leader, John Ensign became the Republican charged with taking him down.

Ensign was chosen Wednesday to head the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Its mission is to win back the Senate majority that Reid and Co. wrested away in the Nov. 7 elections.

That makes Reid the primary target of Republicans, and will likely change the relationship between two Nevadans who famously dropped their swords after a brutal 1998 campaign to work across party lines for the sake of the state.

As Ensign said Wednesday: "The only agreement Sen. Reid and I have is to not criticize each other personally."

Carl Tobias, a former UNLV law professor who watches Nevada politics from the University of Richmond in Virginia, said Republicans will surely rev up attacks on Reid.

"That's going to be awkward, isn't it?" Tobias said. "There will be more tension, and I don't think it'll be that easy to work it out."

Experts point to the Republican attacks on former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. The South Dakota Democrat lost his seat in 2004 after being targeted by Republicans who pumped millions of dollars into his opponent's campaign.

"That's the Republican playbook," Tobias said. "Will Ensign sign on for that, or will he not?"

Reid and Ensign began their mutual admiration society shortly after the 2000 election, when Ensign won a seat in the Senate. Two years earlier, the two had engaged in a bruising campaign. Reid squeaked out a 428-vote victory.

When Ensign won the other Senate seat two years later, the two decided the best way to work together for Nevada was to put aside acrimony - even though the moderate Democrat and conservative Republican continued to spar over policy and national issues.

Over the years, political observers have concluded that the agreement shrewdly helped both men.

Ensign was less than vigorous in supporting Reid's Republican opponent in 2004, and Reid returned the favor this year. Both men handily won re-election.

For now, both senators are still speaking sweetly of one another, like old buddies who wouldn't dream of doing the other harm.

"There's a little tiptoeing that may have to occur, a little tap dancing," Ensign acknowledged after having just told reporters his job will be to make sure "this title of minority party is a title we only have for two years."

Reid said he understands that Ensign will be going after "some of my senators but it doesn't affect our relationship at all."

Over the years, the two have grown close. "It's not a 'Brokeback Mountain' situation," Reid quipped. "He and I just like each other. I think we set a good example here in the Senate. I wish other people had the same nonaggression pact we have."

And yet ...

The new position gives Ensign his first real spin on the national stage. He has long been a party darling, after riding former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's Republican wave to the House in 1994, aided by his ties to the deep pockets of gaming.

Ensign has made no secret of his desire to rise through the party ranks, and heading the senatorial committee is one way to do it. The Republican minority leader in waiting, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, paused at that rung on his way up.

Even if Ensign fails to win back a Senate majority in 2008, he will improve on his predecessor's performance if he merely maintains the status quo. Outgoing chairwoman of the campaign committee, Sen. Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina, presided over the loss of six Republican seats and was no match in fundraising or strategy for New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer, chairman of the Democrats' Senate campaign committee.

As one Republican aide said: "Not repeating that would be an excellent achievement."

But Ensign's job will be tough. The Republicans will have 21 seats up for re-election in 2008 and nine of those are held by first-term lawmakers. The Democrats will have 12 seats in play.

Ensign will need to raise tens of millions of dollars for the election, attracting potential donors in part by invoking the specter of two years of Democratic control under a bogeyman named Harry Reid.

Weeks before the November election, the committee pounded Reid over his land deal problems after a story broke that he failed to properly record a $1.1 million transaction. A signature campaign piece was an Internet video that showed Reid in a mock police-booking photo, and later behind bars.

Lobbyist Mike Pieper, a one-time aide to former Republican Rep. Barbara Vucanovich and head of Las Vegas-based R&R Partners' Washington office, said he doesn't see the job hurting the senators' relationship.

"They've done a pretty good job of it over the past years. I don't think that's really a different thing at all," he said.

On the other hand, how many workers through the ages have been handed layoff notices by bosses uttering the consoling words: Sorry, it's nothing personal.