Reid seems to have his
shit together:
The new session is opening amid signs of uncommon Democratic unity in the Senate. Minority leader Harry Reid of Nevada used a news conference on Democrats' legislative priorities to boast that majority leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican, "wishes every day" that his members were as united as Democrats.
For the first time, the 44 Democratic senators are coordinating their media messages through a centralized Senate Democratic Communications Center. The new center has its "war room" in an office on the Capitol's third floor, where staff members send out daily talking points to Democratic press secretaries, line up radio and television interviews with senators, and issue "rapid-response" news releases in the style of political campaigns.
The center has an aide dedicated to getting information to Democratic-leaning bloggers and yesterday launched a website, democrats.gov, to better communicate the positions of Senate Democrats.
As noted in recent days, the Republican/Democrat ratio on cable news and Sunday morning shows is deplorable. The GOP has been masterful at getting their people on those shows, and the Democrats need to fire back. One of the measures of success of this new Senate Dems war room, I think, should be how effective they are in getting their people on TV. If the national Democratic Party and House Dems get into the act as well (they are nowhere near as organized as Reid's operation), we may be on to something special.
There's more:
On Friday, a newly formed Democratic Committee on Oversight and Investigations will hold its first hearing, in an attempt to highlight areas and issues that the Republicans are not willing to. The initial hearing will focus on whether Bush's contention that the Social Security system is in crisis is accurate.
Reid said Senate Democrats do not consider Bush's victory over Senator John F. Kerry to have been a statement in support of Bush's policies, and will continue to fight for their own values.
"Let's not get carried away with the 'mandate' of President Bush," Reid said. "There is no mandate, and the issues that Senator Kerry ran on ... are good issues."
Lots of the kwetching about Reid's ascendency to leader status seems misplaced now. Daschle's strong suit was his parliamentary skills, and it remains to be seen if Reid can match up to the South Dakotan. But in terms of organizing the caucus and whiping it up into fighting shape, he's far eclipsed Daschle.