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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday that
Democrats have to be “very, very careful” about overreaching. In an interview with The Hill, Reid argued that it is essential
for President-elect Obama and congressional Democrats to work closely with
Republicans in the new Congress. He added that 2009 is very different than
1993, the last time Democrats controlled both Congress and the White House.
Back then, Reid said, Democrats had controlled the House for
decades, while this time around, a recent stint in the minority will result in
their being more committed to bipartisanship.
The Democratic leader also defended Leon Panetta, Obama’s reported
selection to head the CIA.
While stating that the Obama administration could have
communicated with lawmakers about his pick, Reid said, “There is nothing wrong
with Leon Panetta.”
Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.)
have expressed concerns with Panetta’s experience to head the agency, but Reid
noted that Obama’s choice has extensive experience in government.
He added that he has made calls to his colleagues to rally support
for Panetta’s nomination.
Reid, entering his second term as majority leader, will be busy
during the 111th Congress. With a Democrat in the White House and strengthened
Democratic majorities in Congress, expectations for the next two years are
high. And, as he is working to move a slew of bills to President-elect Obama’s
desk, Reid will be raising millions of dollars for what he expects to be a
challenging reelection race in 2010.
Republicans successfully targeted then-Senate Minority Leader Tom
Daschle (D-S.D.) in 2004, and Democrats fell short last year in their bid to
oust Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). It is unclear which
Republican will face Reid next year, but the 69-year-old Silver State
legislator knows that the GOP is gunning for him.
Reid, a former boxer and U.S. Capitol Police officer who grew up
in poverty in Searchlight, Nev., is comfortable in his own skin.
He acknowledges that he can be impulsive. Reid has called
President Bush a “loser” and a “liar” and labeled former Federal Reserve
Chairman Alan Greenspan “a political hack.”
During the intense months before the 2008 elections, Reid
regularly sniped at Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
But on “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Reid expressed some regret. He
said he called McCain a day after the election.
Reid said, “We came to Washington together in 1982. We've been together
in the House and we came to the Senate together. And we talked about the
campaign. We had both said things about each other that probably we shouldn’t
have, but we did. He’s my friend. He said, ‘Harry, I, I want to come back to
the Senate. We want to do some good things. I want to work with you.' ”
In his book, The Good Fight, Reid writes that his
off-the-cuff remarks have “not always necessarily served me well, but it is who
I am. I can be no one else.”
After expressing frustration with the strong GOP minority in the
110th Congress, Reid is clearly excited about how much Democrats can accomplish
in 2009 and beyond.
Reid stated that the future will be much brighter than Bush's
tenure, writing in his memoir, “January 2009, the twenty-first century truly
begins.”
The full interview with Sen. Reid will appear in Wednesday’s print
edition of The Hill.
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