WEEK IN REVIEW: WASHINGTON, D.C.

Sunday, May 6, 2007 | 7:03 a.m.

WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had on his lucky tie, the one his wife bought for him to wear on Election Night, as he strode across the Capitol last week to sign the Iraq war bill Congress was sending to President Bush.

It's an electric blue number, with reddish half-inch circles, and while it did the trick last November (along with voter discontent and tens of millions of dollars from the Senate's campaign chairman Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York), its power may not be as strong as it was that magical night for Democrats.

Reid continued to take a beating for a second consecutive week for having said what many Americans believe, that the war in Iraq is lost. Republicans in both the House and Senate repeated the phrase with disdain as they took to the floor to denounce the Democratic bill with timelines to withdraw troops.

Bush vetoed the bill Tuesday evening as planned, drawing praise from Republican leadership but nothing in the in box from Nevada's Republican Reps. Jon Porter and Dean Heller.

Only Sen. John Ensign sent out a release saying Bush was right to stop the Democratic bill and its "surrender date," as Republicans call the withdrawal deadline.

When Porter and Heller went on to vote against an override of the veto in the House the next day, the Nevada Democratic Party didn't pass up a chance to bash them for supporting Bush's "failed policy." The liberal Americans United piled on, calling Porter and Heller "enablers" for helping Bush's "stay the course policy."

Porter instead chose to highlight his ability to get the House to approve an amendment to the Head Start Reauthorization Act. It would require criminal background checks on employees working with children. Porter's proposal passed on a voice vote.

Even before the veto ink dried, Reid and Republicans - and later the White House - were working on the next step in Iraq and trying to find a compromise.

Republicans are bracing for Reid to continue bringing Iraq bills to the floor in the Senate as Democrats try to end the increasingly unpopular war, an aide said.

But as much as polls show Americans have grown weary of the war, some observers believe Democrats face a risk in focusing on Iraq at the expense of domestic issues. Gasoline prices are climbing again, middle America needs jobs and millions remain uninsured.

"They have got to pass a few things voters like," Wendy Schiller, a political science professor at Brown University, said recently. "If Democrats use all of their energy protesting the war, they're going to be in big trouble. They're going to have nothing to show for."

Despite the partisan warfare in the chambers, Porter and Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley momentarily joined forces later in the week to unveil a bill to study Internet gambling, something they tried to do last year before the Republican-led Congress outlawed online gambling. The idea is to study whether online games can be regulated.

This week, Ensign could be in the spotlight as Attorney General Alberto Gonzales possibly returns to the Hill for another hearing, as Congress continues its investigation over the firing of eight U.S. attorneys last year, including Nevada's Daniel Bogden.

Ensign remains the only member of the Nevada delegation not calling for the attorney general to step down. Berkley said last week Ensign, who is in charge of finding a replacement attorney, needs to stand up to the White House and get Bogden's job back.

After a week boxing the president all week, Reid was planning to be ringside at the big fight in Las Vegas between Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather last night - pledging to pay for the pricey seat after ethics questions arose last year when he accepted free entry to another bout, which he later admitted looked bad.

But the next big question will be whether Reid, a former boxer himself, courted De La Hoya to run for Nevada's 3rd Congressional seat against Porter in 2008, as he has done in the past. A spokesman could not say Friday whether the two planned any face time.

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