Nevada's Reid elected Democratic leader in U.S. Senate

WASHINGTON — Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada won election as leader of the shrunken Democratic minority on Tuesday and said he stands ready to cooperate with Republicans or confront them as he deems necessary.

"I always would rather dance than fight. But I know how to fight," he said at a news conference after the Democratic rank and file chose him leader for the Congress that convenes in January.

Reid, 64, said he and Democrats would stress expanded access to health care and increased support for education. "I believe in the minimum wage and we have to raise it," he said.

Reid also cautioned majority Republicans not to "mess with the rules" in the Senate by trying to make it easier to override Democratic objections to some of President Bush's judicial nominations.

He said the Senate had confirmed 203 of President Bush's court nominations over the past four years and blocked 10. "I think they are crying wolf all too often," he said of Republicans who used the 10 thwarted nominations to label Democrats as obstructionists.

Reid takes over a party with 44 seats in the new Congress, fewer than at any time since the Great Depression. He succeeds Sen. Tom Daschle, who was defeated for re-election on Nov. 2 in South Dakota.

The 64-year-old Nevadan, who has long served as Daschle's second-in-command, was elevated to leader in a closed-door meeting of Democrats who will serve in the Senate that convenes in January.

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois was unopposed to replace Reid as the party's whip, the Democrat's second-ranking Senate leader.

Daschle has served as party leader since 1995, leading Democrats in periods in which they were in the minority, the majority and then back again.

There were other reminders of the Nov. 2 election as Democrats met in a historic room in the Capitol. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts participated in the session as he picked up his Senate duties two weeks after losing his bid for the White House.

Reid was nominated for the party leadership job by Sen. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, who served in the post in the 1970s and 1980s. Seconding the nomination was Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, who occasionally vexed Daschle by crossing party lines.

"I said he will lead this caucus into a new era and oppose where necessary, compromise where possible and avoid the obstructionist label," Nelson said of his closed-door remarks.