Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Senate minority frustrated by Reid’s leadership style

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Nevada Sen. Harry Reid sits down with the Las Vegas Sun Editorial Board on Thursday, Aug. 21, 2014.

It’s a typical May day in the U.S. Senate, and Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid opens the chamber with a speech. He berates his Republican colleagues for blocking votes on U.S. attorney nominees.

“I call upon Senate Republicans to end their obstruction of these nominees and give our nation’s law enforcement all the tools they need in protecting us,” he says.

One floor above, top Republican aide Don Stewart watches the speech on C-SPAN. The man known as Stew to reporters turns to his keyboard and types out an indignant message:

To: The Fourth Estate

From: STEW

RE: Sen. Reid really should know this stuff

Sen. Reid today complained on the Senate floor about having to file cloture on U.S. Attorney nominees, and used that as a basis for suggesting he may have to break the rules of the Senate — again. But there’s just one problem: there hasn’t been a single ‘filibuster’ of a U.S. Attorney this Congress. He hasn’t filed cloture on any of them because they all clear. Even the ones he mentioned on the floor today had already cleared our side.

Can one of you please let him know?

Thanks,

STEW

@StewSays

He blasts a similar message out on Twitter.

Reid may control the Senate, but Republicans are doing their darndest to chip away at his bully pulpit. It’s a message that’s gaining urgency eight weeks before an election that could flip the Senate in Republicans’ favor and knock Reid out of the majority position.

Republican aides miss no opportunity to call out Reid when they think he mischaracterizes their bosses. They email, live tweet during Reid’s floor speeches and roam the Senate halls before and after Reid holds news conferences.

“I think it’s important to make sure people have the whole story,” said Stewart, spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. “It’s an important role of any communications job, to point out when somebody’s saying something that’s not accurate or a little bit of gray.”

While Reid and McConnell interact daily to open the Senate floor, many in Washington say the two leaders don’t get along.

Practically everything Reid says makes news because of his role as majority leader. Republicans, the minority for seven years, have to shout louder to make headlines.

It’s anyone’s guess which party will win the Senate. Recent analyses from the Washington Post and New York Times put the GOP’s chance of winning a Senate majority at 57 to 65 percent.

Republicans increasingly are taking advantage of Senate floor speeches to deride Reid because they know other lawmakers are listening. The hope is to capitalize on frustrations with how Reid runs the Senate. Freshman senators on both sides, for example, have had trouble getting votes on their initiatives.

Reid blames Republicans for his tight control of the Senate.

“If that makes me powerful, that’s too bad,” he said.

And Reid holds the microphone — for now.

But if Republicans take the Senate this fall, Democratic aides might do well to remember Stewart’s advice:

“There’s a tendency for the majority to have a little easier access to press and for press to write down what they say,” he said. “But there’s always another side.”

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