Wednesday, April 25, 2007 | 7:07 a.m.
WASHINGTON - If Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid needed a way to change the topic from last week's "war is lost" comment, Vice President Dick Cheney may have helped him Tuesday.
Cheney's unusual appearance outside the Senate made the vice president the Republican voice in the war debate, at least for the moment. Cheney is the least popular member of the Bush administration, according to public opinion polls that also suggest that his public credibility is dwindling.
"Reid was making enough of a mess for himself without us having to go out there and say anything," said one Republican leadership aide.
Democrats, on the other hand, would rather debate Cheney than most anyone else on the war.
"The more he's out there, the better off we are," a Democratic leadership aide said.
Certainly that is what Reid hopes. The Nevada Democrat has been trying to fend off heavy criticism from Republicans who say his comment undercut the U.S. troops in Iraq and demonstrates that Democrats are not good stewards of national defense.
Cheney spoke out as Congress and the White House head for a showdown over Democrats' plan to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq. Opinion polls show that the public increasingly favors the Democratic position. Bush has said he will veto the bill.
Cheney told reporters he felt so strongly about what Reid said last week that he was compelled to "make a statement that I think needs to be made."
"What's most troubling about Sen. Reid's comments is his defeatism," the vice president said.
"Maybe it's a political calculation... Sen. Reid himself has said that the war in Iraq will bring his party more seats in the next election. It is cynical to declare that the war is lost because you believe it gives you political advantage."
Republicans standing near Cheney as he spoke appeared buoyed. "It was great, wasn't it? Historic," Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott said. "When he speaks he feels very strongly about it I think he was highly offended by what Sen. Reid had to say."
Senators, however, had not asked Cheney to become involved in the issue, Lott said.
Moments after Cheney's comments, Reid appeared in the same corridor. "I'm not going to get into a name-calling match with somebody with a 9 percent approval rating," he said.
Reid said Bush should quit being so brusque and should support Congress' bill to bring the troops home. "This is a time for cinching up our belts and doing what's right for the troops," said Reid, who remained a Republican target for a fifth day since he made his "war is lost" comment.
The Republican National Committee bought ads that began Tuesday on Reno and Las Vegas radio stations. The ad focuses on Iraq war veteran Capt. Emory "Trip" Bellard, who says Reid's comments "undercut the morale of our soldiers Our troops in harm's way deserve better than to be treated like a political football by a Washington politician."
John Pitney, a former Republican strategist now at Claremont McKenna College in California, said Cheney's appearance would help activate Republican voters who have been demoralized by losing control of Congress and the White House's diminished popularity.
But Pitney said Cheney's appearance "obviously has a down side of energizing the Democrats as well."
Democrats continued, at least publicly, to stand by Reid and his comments, which many of them see as a turning point in the war debate.
"What we admire and love about him," Sen. Patty Murray, D- Wash., said of Reid, "he speaks from his heart. In doing so he helps everybody understand what's at stake and the critical issues we face."
Privately, however, a number of Democrats say Reid went too far with his comment last week.
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