No sparks, but a few smoldering embers between Ensign, Reid

By Lisa Mascaro

Published Thursday, June 26, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Updated Thursday, June 26, 2008 | 3:24 p.m.

The famous nonaggression pact in which Nevada’s two senators pledge not to criticize each other has been challenged ever since the two rose to leadership positions in Congress. But it has yet to crack, not even on Wednesday when it survived another dramatic test.

Sen. Harry Reid, the majority leader, is racing the clock to finish must-pass legislation this week before Congress adjourns for the Fourth of July recess. On tap are critical bills to address the nation’s mortgage crisis, war funding and domestic spying.

But Sen. John Ensign wants to bolster his party’s environmentally friendly credentials, and that’s giving Reid a huge headache.

Just as Reid was trying to bring important housing legislation to stem the mortgage crisis for a vote Wednesday, Ensign halted Senate action until Reid agreed to tack a renewable energy bill onto the housing package.

Ensign is so emboldened by the success of his procedural wrangling, he has vowed to use it again and again this week — keeping the Senate in session during the holiday recess unless Reid relents.

“I’m going to go to the wall on this one,” Ensign repeated during the day. “I really want this bill voted on.”

Reid is waiting for Ensign to blink — or to be reined in by Republican leadership that doesn’t want the Republican Party to be seen as stalling mortgage relief for millions of Americans facing foreclosure.

And, so as to not violate the nonaggression pact, Reid let someone else poke a finger at Ensign.

“It’s curious Sen. Ensign would raise this issue in the state of Nevada, where the value of homes has gone down 27 percent and there were record numbers of foreclosures,” Reid’s top lieutenant, Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin of Illinois, told reporters at a Wednesday briefing as Reid sat by his side. “I don’t understand it.”

Ensign has been trying for months to shepherd through Congress a bill, supported by both parties, to extend renewable energy tax credits. Everyone wants to be green when gas prices are topping $4 a gallon.

The problem, like so many in Washington, is paying for the more than $8 billion in energy tax credits. Ensign thinks they don’t need to be paid for — and has the support of a majority in the Senate, which overwhelmingly passed the bill 88-8 this year.

But Democrats in the House, where fiscal conservatives are trying to force the party to adhere to pay-as-you-go rules, think the tax credits need to be offset with taxes elsewhere — something Republicans rejected last week when the House sent the Senate a similar bill with a tax on hedge fund managers.

But if Ensign could tack the tax credits onto the popular housing bill, he would put House Democrats in a tough position to say no.

Even more, Republicans could then chide Democrats for breaking their pay-as-you-go pledge — and possibly use it to get them to relent on similar items.

“We have to swallow things sometimes from the House, and sometimes they have to swallow things,” Ensign said later in the day as he gathered reporters for a briefing. “This could be a nice compromise.”

So far so good, then, on the Reid-Ensign alliance. No direct name-calling. Just two senators openly disagreeing on federal policy.

But much more is at stake here than the Reid-Ensign pact.

Ensign needs to repair his image after having voted against the renewable energy bill when the House sent it to the Senate this month with a tax increase on hedge fund managers.

That no-vote set off a testy exchange between Ensign and the solar energy association, which targeted the senator with a lobbying campaign over his no-vote.

Ensign, chairman of his party’s Senate election committee, responded by firing off a widely circulated missive criticizing the solar lobby for playing partisan politics. Ensign’s retort was seen as a slap to a group that just months earlier considered him a top ally.

Late on Wednesday evening, Reid stood on the floor of the Senate to ask to proceed to the vote on the housing bill.

Ensign rose from his seat to object.

Durbin stepped in to ask Ensign whether he would pause for a question: Could Ensign tell him the name of the state that has led the nation in foreclosures for the past 17 months?

(Hint: It’s called the Silver State.)

Ensign responded that the whole country was facing a housing crisis.

Reid again asked the presiding officer whether there would be an objection.

“I object,” Ensign said.

Not that they didn’t get along earlier in the day. Together in Reid’s office, they taped a public service announcement on energy efficiency that will start running soon on TV in Nevada.

Editor's Note: A story in Thursday's Sun about Sen. John Ensign's bill to extend renewable energy tax credits incorrectly put the cost at $15 billion. It is $8 billion.