Harry Reid looked very wounded – literally – when Congress returned after November elections that robbed Democrats of their majority status and Reid of his post as Senate majority leader. He had badly banged up his ribs and an eye while exercising, and walked around the halls of the Capitol in sunglasses (which actually gave him a hip, Bono-esque look).
But it’s a mistake to take that single snapshot in Reid’s 75-year-long life and 32-year career in Congress and conclude that he is retiring from the Senate because he’s too weak or battle-scarred to go on. A former boxer, Reid is a fighter. And there’s a difference between being knocked down and just recognizing that the time has come to get out of the ring.
Soft-spoken and deceptively timid-looking, Reid was in fact one of the toughest leaders either party has seen in the Senate in recent years. At a time when party leaders have decreasing control over their own members, Reid has been astonishingly strong in handling his caucus. He managed to get all 60 members of the Democratic caucus to vote for the Affordable Care Act on Christmas Eve morning in 2009, sealing a legacy item for President Barack Obama, himself and for his colleague, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who had died just four months previous. He hung onto his own seat in 2010, a banner year for Republicans, beating back a strong challenge from tea party movement Republican Sharron Angle. In 2012, when many pundits predicted the GOP could take back control of the chamber, Reid’s Democrats actually picked up two seats. For better or for worse, he spared vulnerable Democratic senators from having to vote on politically sensitive issues ahead of the 2014 elections (not that it ended up saving them).
In 2013, Reid, frustrated over Republican filibusters of non-controversial presidential nominees, exercised what the GOP had once threatened but never launched: the nuclear option. Through a parliamentary procedure reinterpreting Senate tradition on the filibuster, Reid took away the option of having the minority hold up certain nominations. The move was, in some ways, a devastating moment for the Senate, but it also represented a cold and calculating – and arguably realistic – response to an unprecedented abuse of the filibuster. Several Obama judicial appointees owe their jobs to Reid’s action.
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Reid said Friday that he was not leaving because of his injury, but did say the episode led him to rethink his future. Said Reid: “I’ve had time to ponder and to think. We’ve got to be more concerned about the country, the Senate, the state of Nevada than us. And as a result of that, I’m not going to run for re-election.”
Naturally, we still saw predictably snide statements from spokepeople in the opposing party (not that Democrats don’t do the same thing). The Republican National Committee issue a statement claiming Reid was leaving because he was “about to suffer a humiliating defeat,” and the National Republican Senatorial Committee statement described the veteran lawmaker as deciding to “hang up his rusty spurs,” and declaring that “there is no hope for the Democrats to reclaim control of the Senate.” Those remarks are not only unnecessarily snotty, but are inaccurate and disrespectful of the concept of public service.
The GOP has far more seats up (24) than the Democrats (who must defend 10), so just on the math, Republicans have more of a challenge. There’s nothing dishonorable about being minority leader – and that goes for Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, who held that job before the GOP assumed the majority in this Congress. And there’s no shame in leaving the Senate, or any job, for that matter, at the age of 77, which is how old Reid will be upon retirement.
Until then, Reid impishly warned McConnell, whom he called his “friend,” the Democratic leader is not planning to retreat in his remaining time in office. If anything, Reid might feel more emboldened, freed from making the political calculations that burden incumbents facing solid challenges. Reid the boxer will go out fighting.
