Reid's early-warning system for re-election and an eventful meeting with Obama
He wondered in 2008 if Joe Lieberman was becoming Zell Miller
104 days to publication of my Harry Reid biography — don’t forget to preorder!
Today I want to share a few discoveries I made while researching “The Game Changer,” including how Reid’s team was preparing as early as 2006 for a tough re-election in 2010 and how the agenda for a 2008 sitdown with President Obama included notes about forcing Republicans to take tough votes and fretting about Joe Lieberman, the senator from Connecticut whom I interviewed for the book and who has several mentions and anecdotes in it.
First, in 2006, after he had become Democratic leader, Reid’s staff began to pick up the first rumblings of trouble now that he was in the national spotlight. He wasn’t up until 2010, but emails I obtained from key staffers are illuminating:
-Susan McCue, Reid’s then-chief-of-staff, received an email on May 20:
My extensive Nevada family says…Pack your bags, Harry-boy. You are going home to your ghetto in the next election. Buh-bye.
-Two days later, McCue had received more and decided to let top staffers know of a percolating issue:
Fyi—someone in the blogosphere gave out my email address (happens all the time) and I’m getting tons of these types of emails. Only reason they’re catching my eye is they seem to be arising from Nevada. Am passing along as fyi of some bubbling sentiments, albeit likely from those who have never and would never support sen reid. danger is any spillover to indies and mods in the state.
That danger, of course, was real and would only grow more acute. Shannon Raborn, another key Reid aide, weighed in and said a couple of callers had mentioned a recall. McCue responded that her executive assistant’s father said Reid was “taking on water.”
This was four and a half years before Reid was up again! The Las Vegas Review-Journal higher-ups were just beginning an all-out campaign against Reid, declaring him dead long before the election. How he survived is a remarkable tale I tell in the book.
The other document I wanted to share was a memo written by Reid staffers to prepare him for a June meeting with Barack Obama, then a candidate for the presidency.
The reference to imagemaker Jim Margolis, a longtime close Reid adviser, and veteran Democratic strategist Anita Dunn is for them to coordinate with Reid’s “war room” to help Obama respond to GOP contender John McCain. And I love the question to Obama on which issues to “force Republicans to vote on…” It’s as if Reid would do it just to cause political damage to the GOP. senators. I’m shocked, shocked to find politics going on here.
The rest of the memo also has this gem:
The stuff about Joe Lieberman is something else. The comparison to Zell Miller, the conservative Democrat who backed George W. Bush over John Kerry in 20024, is noteworthy, especially since Lieberman had already endorsed John McCain and would speak that summer at the GOP national convention. Reid’s kid gloves treatment of Lieberman, which would roil his caucus, was one of the most significant strategic moves of his career — the backstory is in the book. His asking Obama’s advice on what to do with Lieberman is interesting.
A lot more where that came from, so keep checking back here and, need I say again: Pre-order!