Nevada's Reid tapped to lead Senate Democratic caucus

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada won election as leader of the shrunken Democratic minority on Tuesday, and said he stands ready to cooperate with Republicans or confront them as he deems necessary.\n"I always would rather dance than fight. But I know how to fight," he said at a news conference after the Democratic rank and file chose him leader for the Congress that convenes in January.\nReid said he and Democrats would stress expanded access to health care and increased support for education. "I believe in the minimum wage and we have to raise it," he said.\nReid also cautioned majority Republicans not to "mess with the rules" in the Senate by trying to make it easier to override Democratic objections to some of President Bush's judicial nominations.\nHe said the Senate had confirmed 203 of President Bush's court nominations over the past four years and blocked 10. \n"I think they are crying wolf all too often," he said of Republicans who used the 10 thwarted nominations to label Democrats as obstructionists.\nReid takes command of a party that will have only 44 seats when the new Congress convenes in January, fewer than at any time since Herbert Hoover sat in the White House, according to records on the Senate's Web site. Republicans have 55 seats, and there is one independent. He succeeds Sen. Tom Daschle, who was defeated for re-election on Nov. 2 in South Dakota.\nThe 64-year-old Nevadan, who has long served as Daschle's second-in-command, was elevated to leader in a closed-door meeting of Democrats who will serve in the next Senate.\nSen. Dick Durbin of Illinois was unopposed to replace Reid as the party's whip, the Democrat's second-ranking Senate leader.\nDaschle has served as party leader since 1995, leading Democrats in periods in which they were in the minority, the majority and then back again.\nThere were other reminders of the Nov. 2 election as Democrats met in a historic room in the Capitol. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts participated in the session as he picked up his Senate duties two weeks after losing his bid for the White House.\nReid was nominated for the party leadership job by Sen. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, who served in the post in the 1970s and 1980s. Seconding the nomination was Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, who occasionally vexed Daschle by crossing party lines.\n"I said he will lead this caucus into a new era and oppose where necessary, compromise where possible and avoid the obstructionist label," Nelson said of his closed-door remarks.\nWith the exception of abortion rights and gun control, both of which he opposes, Reid's recent voting record on major issues puts him in the mainstream of Senate Democrats.\n"My senators who support me know who I am. No one has to guess where I stand on issues," Reid said in a recent interview. "I'm going to do what I think is right."\nReid, a veteran of 22 years in Congress, voted against President Bush's tax cuts in 2001 and opposed the final version of the administration's landmark Medicare overhaul legislation in 2003.\nLike a majority of Democrats, he voted to give Bush authority to use military force to oust Iraq's Saddam Hussein, and he voted, many months later, to spend $87 billion to help pay the costs of military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan.\nEarlier this year, he helped bottle up a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages, and he sided with organized labor when it sought to make sure no worker lost overtime rights under new administration regulations.\nHe's also worked with environmentalists to block oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.\nHe's been a loyal supporter of Democratic filibusters against 10 of Bush's judicial nominees deemed extremists by a coalition of civil rights, women's and other groups.\nAn early test of Reid's strategy is likely to come on judicial appointments, and, already, there is some pressure on him to stay the course set by Daschle.\nWhile Democrats lost seats this fall, they have more than the 41 votes needed to block Bush's legislation or his judicial appointments if they remain united. At the same time, some Democrats have said their party will have to pick its fights more carefully.\nReid is a fierce opponent of the effort to build a repository for nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in his home state and has used his seat on the Appropriations Committee to battle the administration.\nReid was first elected to the House in 1982, then won his Senate seat in 1986. Six years ago, he nearly lost a campaign for re-election, prevailing by only 428 votes. He won his fourth term far more easily two weeks ago.\nDurbin, who celebrates his 60th birthday next week, served 14 years in the House before winning his Senate seat in 1996. He was re-elected in 2002 with 60 percent of the vote.\nDemocrats also were electing Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow as caucus secretary.