Print
E-mail
Share
digg
Newsvine
Facebook
Stumble
Technorati
reddit
Fark
twitterLETTER FROM WASHINGTON:
Is Harry Reid moderate on health care, or keeping powder dry for final fight?
Harry Hamburg / associated press
Donnetta Miller, a registered nurse from Nevada, presents scrubs to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid during a health care rally Sept. 23 on Capitol Hill.
Sunday, Oct. 4, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Sun Archives
- Bigger premium discounts seen as a reward — and a problem (9-27-2009)
- Harry Reid: Public option trigger 'pretty doggone good idea' (9-25-2009)
- Crafty wording for bill would help cancer institute (9-23-2009)
- Reid maneuvers for sweeter deal; some not impressed (9-23-2009)
- Harry Reid cuts Medicaid deal for Nevada (9-22-2009)
- Ensign will offer 30 tweaks to health care bill (9-22-2009)
- How the overhaul could alter the popular but costly Medicare Advantage (9-20-2009)
- Sticker shock: How the overhaul could exact a heavy toll on state finances (9-20-2009)
Sun Coverage
Washington — Toward the end of summer, after the long, hot August protests in the health care debate, word leaked that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was working on his own health care bill.
True or not, it was a startling development for a majority leader who has taken great care — even pride — in deferring to his committee chairmen and giving them authority to develop big pieces of legislation on their own.
This style of Reid’s has infuriated those who want a stronger hand at the helm, someone who isn’t looking over his shoulder as a difficult 2010 reelection campaign approaches and who has no qualms about buttonholing colleagues and pushing legislation through — LBJ style.
Yet others see in Reid what Jim Kessler, vice president of policy of the centrist Third Way think tank, calls the “steady, invisible hand” guiding the debate.
Reid’s moderation in both policy and process has given his more conservative and centrist colleagues the breathing room needed to work through their positions, and is seen as creating a reservoir of goodwill he can call on when it’s time to cut the final deal.
Whether Reid’s style has set health care reform on a path toward victory or hobbled it for defeat will be known only as the great health care debate reaches its conclusion.
The Senate floor action that is scheduled to unfold later this month may be one of the greatest legislative spectacles of our times.
But one outcome is certain, if the landmark legislation accomplishes the health care reform that is President Barack Obama’s signature priority, the president will be credited with a victory that has eluded Democrats for generations.
If it fails, Reid will get much of the blame.
Princeton University Professor Julian Zelizer said the questions being raised over Reid’s style are the same “arguments against Reid since the Democrats took over in 2006.”
Can he bring his Democratic senators to vote together as one?
•••
The morning after the 2004 election, when then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota lost his seat, Reid began calling fellow senators to secure their votes for him to take over.
Reid was the assistant leader at the time, the whip, and he knew his colleagues well from his long hours on the Senate floor. Some of his first phone calls were to the committee chairmen.
Reid pledged to them that he would run the Senate differently — he would defer to them to form legislation rather than shape it himself. He would respect the committee process.
As health care reform got under way this year, Reid had expected to rely on Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy at the Health Education and Labor Committee, a well-known deal maker, to take the lead and craft a bill that could win broad support.
But Kennedy’s declining health, and death this summer, shifted committee power to an unlikely new star of health care reform, Montana Sen. Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, whose slow and methodical attempt to deliver a bill that would bring Republicans on board infuriated liberals and was seen as a waste of time by those who wanted Democrats to flex their 60-seat majority and craft a bill to their liking.
Baucus blew one deadline after another for completing the draft this summer, with his hand-picked gang of six senators from both sides of the aisle. Congress recessed for August empty-handed and endured a long summer of attacks from Republicans, who made great strides in rousing public anger against the bill.
Some began to wonder: Where was Reid?
Reid did insert himself at one point in July, and word leaked of a testy meeting where he told Baucus to forget the Republicans and move on. Reid disregarded reports of the comments and said Republicans would remain at the table.
By the time senators were to return to Washington in September, word was out that Reid had been working on his own bill. This appears to have been more fiction than fact, perhaps a ruse to nudge Baucus along. No bill from Reid ever emerged, and Baucus hit his Sept. 15 deadline for delivering his product.
Critics say Reid could have avoided so much delay and the pain of August by simply laying out clear goals and pushing Baucus to meet them.
They point to Reid’s difficult reelection bid back home as a problem, making him hesitant to take bold, progressive positions Democrats want — such as an insistence on a public plan option — for fear of alienating moderate voters in the swing state of Nevada.
Progressive groups are trying to mount a television campaign against Reid in Nevada, and have threatened to work against his reelection — even if it means electing a Republican — unless Reid makes a push for the public option.
“They want Lyndon Johnson, not Harry Reid,” Zelizer said.
Yet even a leader with all the freedom and vision to point his senators to the mountaintop would still face the challenges Reid does leading his diverse caucus there.
The 60 Democratic senators have views that span the spectrum from liberal to conservative. Even more, the politically divisive atmosphere in Washington, what political scientists call hyper-partisanship, makes it unlikely to form the kind of cross-party coalitions that Lyndon Johnson used.
What’s more, senators have more independence today than they did during Johnson’s era, with their own campaign funds and political machines back home that make them less beholden to leadership in Washington, said Norman J. Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
“I’m not sure a leader at this point will carry the weight where he can say there will be a public option, period,” Ornstein said. “It’s an educational experience for some of these Democrats. You have to go through this process.”
Senators on both flanks of the Democratic caucus see what Reid is up against.
Independent Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, a committee chairman who opposes the public option, said if Reid had tried to push Baucus any harder, “it could have been chaos.”
Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, among the more progressive Democratic members, said of his allies who wish the Senate majority leader were less Reid and more LBJ, “They wouldn’t have liked LBJ.”
Regardless, Reid’s style is not going to change on this bill, Brown said. “If it works in the end, you’ll say he did it masterfully.”
Discussion: 25 comments so far…
Comments are moderated by Las Vegas Sun editors. Our goal is not to limit the discussion, but rather to elevate it. Comments should be relevant and contain no abusive language. Comments that are off-topic, vulgar, profane or include personal attacks will be removed. Full comments policy.
Post a comment
Spotlight
- Most Read
- Discussed
- Most E-mailed
- Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas to close in May
- Pricey land buy on Strip a bit of a surprise
- Engineering marvel taking shape near Hoover Dam
- Harry Reid’s co-writer unloads while discussing polls, Obama quote
- Grim numbers show Nevada leads nation in suicides over 60
- UNLV back in the polls: No. 23 in AP, No. 25 in ESPN/USA Today
- MGM Mirage to leave N.J. in dispute over Macau partner
- Governor plans emergency address on Nevada budget
- Police: Legal runner returned to home, shot husband and wife
- GOP should blame itself for deficit, not Democrats
Blogs
The Kats Report
A 3.5-day sprint, highlighted superflously at Flamingo with Las Vegas newcomers
Politics: Ralston's Flash
Horsford: No taxes now, but tax reform later (10 Comments)
Gibbons: Cutting the budget can help me raise money (8 Comments)
Gibbons: Lawmakers made State of State worse with taxes (4 Comments)
Ugly lawsuit between former garbage czar, ex-elected official continues in court Monday (7 Comments)
The Kats Report
The Fortune Ball speaks: Take the Saints on the money line
Bloggity, Bloggity, Bloggity
The Shootout could be a good indication of things to come (4 Comments)
Calendar »
- 9 Tue
- 10 Wed
- 11 Thu
- 12 Fri
- 13 Sat
-
Hugh Fink at the Riviera Comedy Club
The Riviera Comedy Club
-
The Automatic Tour at The Square Apple
The Square Apple
-
Rhumbar presents Pink Sugar Mondays
The Mirage Hotel and Casino
The Sun
Locally owned and independent for more than 50 years.
Maybe Harry is expecting one of those million dollar hand shakes like he gets from local developers here in Las Vegas.
At least Harry Reid is trying to craft the best bill possible. If the critics on the left and the right are so unhappy with his work, they should get a wake-up call and take a look at Nevada's other Senator. What the heck has John Ensign done other than throw around meaningless amendments and make arguments that make no sense?
Sure, there are plenty of times when I wish Reid showed a stronger hand. But as long as he delivers a good health care bill with a strong public option that works for us in Nevada, I'll be happy.., And Reid will be reelected next year.
Let me see:
Ensign: introduced several amendments...
Reid: thinking about something...
When Harry Reid banks a few more of those million dollar hand shakes he'll jump. But not until than.
Ahhhh. Just think. In just a short amount of time we won't have to read about Harry Reid anymore other than what he happens to be doing in retirement.
No public option means a NO vote for Reid's re-election.
But wait, we already have decided not to vote for Reid since he sold out to Rogich on the DesertXpress. Dumb move.
Harry and the Dem's need to get some balls.
When will the US catch up to the rest of the world and give US citizens what the US required in rewriting the constitutions of Germany and Japan after WWII?
We required a right to a job, national health care and union rights.
The US is now a Plutonomy- e.i run by rich people-This is a direct Quote from A Citibank Executive Board memo.
The wealth distribution in the US is worst than a 3rd world country run by rich people and its citizens are all exploited.
I don't get the point of this article. Reid is simply doing his job. His job is to meld the two bills that came out of the Finance and Health and Human Services committees. This does give him a lot of power in the end to determine what survives, namely the so-called public option that the Finance committee railroaded out. The Republicans are not part of the equation at all, he is right about that, they are playing silly games.
Mr. Sun, the answer to the question is Senator Reid is neither a moderate nor is he keeping his powder dry...he is an opportunistic politician with no ideals and no values...as most are, he is disgusting...
It's a shame that our politicians govern with their eye on the next election. Pass term limits,legislate and vote your conscience.
I'll ask again, What has Harry done in the past 5 years for Nevada? All of a sudden in the last 2 mos. he's been in the limelight. You'd think he had a re-election coming up.
We need a Senator that will work for Nevada for his/her full term. A part-time Senator is not what we the people vote for.
The saga of HumptyReid: All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't make Harry a Senator again.
dumpreid.com
Harry Reid will not go "all in" until he is almost certain he can win. He is no fool, nor is he a big mouth. He thinks, he calculates before he acts. Harry Reid has the Nevada citizens interest at heart.
Harry doesn't look well. He needs to take a long vacation.
Bob the Socialist says: "The wealth distribution in the US is worst than a 3rd world country run by rich people and its citizens are all exploited."
The problem with the Kenyan Marxist's (Obama) policy of stimulus packaging us to death is a borrowed philosophy straight out of the 1917 Bolshevik revolution playbook.
Does Lisa Mascaro find it difficult to type while sitting on Harry Reid's lap? She can barely disguise her fan-boy enthusiasm for the geriatic geezer in every story she writes.
Now, I'm sure this is exactly what Brian Limousine Liberal Greenspun wants from her, but I'm just letting the Sun know that we do notice. Just because you know you can condescend to your core readership of dopey liberal sheep -- and they love you for it! -- don't assume the rest of us can't recognize tripe for what it is.
I recognize it for the fodder on the floor in a horse barn.
Harry Reid a "Moderate"...you've got to be kidding!!!!!!!!!!!
Comment removed by staff.