With Obama in Charge, Reid Returns to Preferred Role

By Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 7, 2009

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid defined the terms of his relationship with the newly elected president when he announced in early January: "I do not work for Barack Obama. I work with him."

Like many of Reid's pronouncements, the statement did not come out quite right. It suggested a degree of bravado that the Nevada Democrat does not possess, and diminished the bond that developed between Reid and Obama during their four years together in the Senate. Yet it was vintage Reid, awkward but pointed, reminding an ambitious president of his boundaries while establishing Reid as a singular force and perhaps Obama's most important ally outside the administration.

Friends and colleagues say the 69-year-old inside operator felt liberated by the 2008 election. Reid was never comfortable in his public attack-dog role during the Bush years, and it showed. He lost stature in Washington and faced sagging support at home. With Obama in the White House, Reid can return to his roots and his preferred role as a dealmaker, a role that is already yielding dividends for his party.

(More here.)