Reid says Demos are set to gain

Democrats can gain significant ground in conservative Western states, and if they do, it will largely be thanks to President Bush, the Senate minority leader told Utah Democrats on Friday, a few hours after apologizing for calling the president a "loser" during a lecture in a high school civics class.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., told a crowd of about 900 gathered for the party's annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, a run-up to the party's state convention today, that the groundwork has already been laid in states like Utah.

"The chief cornerstone of any political party is political activists, and we have 900 here tonight," he said. "The foundation is in place here in Utah, but the structure above the foundation is not. . . . Most of the assistance (in building the structure) is going to come from one person: President Bush."

Reid outlined several steps Bush has taken that he believes will weaken the president's popularity and will be felt throughout the GOP. Among those was the president's push to privatize Social Security.

"Social Security is not in crisis," he said. "If we as Congress do nothing with Social Security, President Bush will still draw his benefits until he's 106."

He said the Republicans' support for the so-called "nuclear option," a proposed rules change to do away with the filibuster in Senate debates over judicial nominees, is widely unpopular and represents "an absolute abuse of power" among Republicans who already control the White House and both houses of Congress.

Earlier Friday, Reid told a high school civics class in Las Vegas that Bush is "a loser."

"The man's father is a wonderful human being," Reid told students at Del Sol High School when asked about the president's policies. "I think this guy is a loser."

Shortly after the event Reid called the White House to apologize, his spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said. Reid spoke with Bush adviser Karl Rove, asking him to convey the apology to Bush, who was traveling in Europe.

At the Utah event, Reid emphasized that the Democrats did not do as poorly in the 2004 election as is widely believed. While Bush was re-elected and seats were lost in Congress, Reid said Democrats gained at the grass-roots level, going from a 12-seat deficit in state legislatures to a 64-seat lead.

But, he said, Democrats could have done better nationally.

"We as Democrats ignored rural America," he said.