In his final weeks as Senate majority leader, U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., is starting to draw fire at home in Nevada and in the usually friendly confines of the U.S. Senate.
A host of conservatives gathered in Nevada on Thursday, promising to make the Silver State ground zero for their efforts in 2016 and talking with the media.
On Tuesday night the country fired Harry Reid from his job as Senate majority leader, said Taylor Budowich, the executive director of the Tea Party Express. Now, by unifying around a common goal in 2016, we will retire Harry Reid once and for all. This race will be ground zero for the entire conservative movement as we look to keep Nevada red.
That wont be easy. Nevadans can be pardoned if they think Reid is older than his 74 years. He burst onto the political scene in 1970 when he became lieutenant governor. Trying to ride the Democratic wave that drowned many Republicans after Watergate, Reid came within less than 700 votes of beating conservative darling U.S. Sen. Paul Laxalt, R-Nev., in 1974. After losing a Las Vegas mayoral election in 1975, it looked like Reids rising star had flickered and vanished.
But Reid bounced back to chair the Nevada Gaming Commission, working with the FBI in public corruption matters, and won the states lone congressional seat in 1982. In 1986, Reid was elected to the U.S. Senate.
During his time in the Senate, Reid has come close to defeat several times before, but usually on off-year elections. Reid scored a narrow win over Republican challenger John Ensign back in 1998 and eked out a slim victory over Sharon Angle back in 2010. But in presidential election years -- 1992, 2004 -- Reid prevails by large margins and he will be banking on that come 2016.
Over in the Senate, Reid is drawing fire from an unexpected source. During his almost four decades in the Senate, U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who is about to become president pro tempore of the body, has often been torn between his conservative principles and teaming up with Democrats -- including his longtime friend the late U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.-- to shepherd legislation through the process. Once one of the most conservative senators, Hatch is now one of the defenders of Senate tradition.
Despite saying he considered Reid a friend, Hatch came out swinging this week at the Democrat. In an interview with The Hill on Thursday, Hatch said Reid was a disaster as majority leader, calling his handling of the Senate "the most pathetic, pitiful way I've seen the Senate run in all my 38 years -- and I've seen some pretty pathetic, pitiful times." Hatch even called Reid a pathetic majority leader and said the Democrat pulled the plug on several good bills with bipartisan support because they had Republican sponsors.
Had this criticism come from a tea party darling, it could have been ignored. But Hatch is one of the lions of the Senate and not exactly the type to be throwing bombs. If hes saying Reid acted in an overly partisan manner as majority leader, Hatch might just have a point.
Budowich and his allies have their work cut out for them since Nevada increasingly trends blue in presidential years. Hatch isnt exactly the type of Republican that tea party supporters like Budowich embrace. But they should note what Hatch said about Reid and use it against him. Even if its blue in presidential years, Nevada is pretty purple as a whole -- and voters there arent exactly fans of extreme partisans, which is exactly how Hatch painted Reid.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN. Derby served as Sen. Hatchs New York chairman during his bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000.
