http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/53966.htmlWelcome to the Senate, rookie.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sent a warning shot Thursday across the bow of his newly appointed junior colleague, Rep. Dean Heller, making it crystal clear who’s still the top dog in the Nevada delegation. It was a masterpiece of subtle condescension from a politician not known for his eloquence. Without ever raising his voice or saying anything explicitly insulting, Reid relentlessly demeaned Heller and his credentials in a local radio interview.
“He now is in a different world,” Reid observed, in his usual mild tone, in the interview with the Las Vegas public radio station KNPR. “He’s not in [just] the most conservative part of the state, in some instances the most conservative part of the country.
“He now represents 70 percent of the people of Nevada, that is Clark County, which is not like representing Battle Mountain. And so he’s going to have to broaden his view and understand that. He’s going to have to, in my opinion, start looking at a broader view than what he’s represented in that little congressional district.”
The implication was that Heller is unfamiliar with the portion of the state that lies outside his district — Clark County, home to Las Vegas and the vast majority of the state’s population. Heller, however, hardly ranks as a hayseed newcomer: He was a statewide elected official for 12 years before being elected to Congress in 2006.
And that “little congressional district”? It is the largest non-statewide congressional district in America, covering more than 100,000 square miles. Yes, it includes the remote mining town of Battle Mountain, but the majority of its voters live in the Reno area.
When the interviewer noted that Reid once served in the House of Representatives himself, the senator seized the opportunity to thrust the knife still deeper.
“I did serve in the House. It’s a wonderful experience, good job,” Reid said, as if he were talking about working at a summer camp. “The main difference is that in the House of Representatives, [there are] 435 members. You go to a committee, some of those committees have 65 members. Before you get to ask a question you might have to have lunch first.”
From this little civics lesson, it would be easy to assume Heller was a callow freshman back-bencher — rather than a three-termer with a seat on the Ways and Means Committee.
“In the Senate, that’s not the way it is,” Reid continued. “From the minute you step into the Senate, you’re in the limelight and subject to the world, and that isn’t the way it is in the House. You can hide in the House of Representatives. You can’t hide in the Senate. There’s no place to go.”
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Heller and Reid are said to be cordial; despite the pleadings of national Republicans, Heller declined to challenge Reid in 2010, helping pave the way for the fractious GOP nomination of Sharron Angle instead. Reid, according to congressional sources, helped convince Heller he’d have a better shot if he waited until 2012.
But now that his slim majority is at stake, friendship has become a luxury Reid can’t afford.
Reid’s Democratic colleague, Rep. Shelley Berkley, is running against the soon-to-be-incumbent Heller in 2012, and Reid has indicated he’ll back her not just nominally but with the full power of his far-reaching Democratic machine.
Already Reid has laid a trap for Heller with the announcement that he’ll hold a Senate vote on the House Republican budget drafted by Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. Democrats see the Ryan budget as a potent political weapon to turn seniors against the GOP, and now, as a Democratic operative told POLITICO Wednesday, “Heller’s going to have to vote for this thing twice.”
