All of which has made Reid a reliable bogeyman among Republicans on the stump. But he has also enjoyed the loyalty and, for the most part, unity of a potentially fractious Democratic caucus that includes several prospective presidential candidates.

That devotion was displayed and returned on Election Night, as Reid placed phone calls to winning Democratic Senate candidates from his suite at the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

"Bob, you did it, my man," Reid said to Sen. Robert Menendez, who was re-elected in New Jersey.

"Hillary, you're the best to work with," Reid told Clinton. "Love you," he signed off. (Clinton offers that she ended the call by saying, "Love you, too, Harry.")

Reid also professed his love to Sen. Kent Conrad, who was re-elected in North Dakota. ("Love you, man.")

Later, when Democrat Claire McCaskill was declared the winner in Missouri, Reid kissed the television.

He and Sen. Charles E. Schumer, the New Yorker who heads the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, kept whacking each other like kids. "Remember, Chuck, when they said Sherrod was too liberal?" Reid said of Sherrod Brown, the newly elected senator from Ohio.

By Thursday, the elation of early Wednesday had given way to exhaustion and talk of working with Republicans. "It is time for bipartisanship," Reid said at the rally, a few seconds after he was introduced for the first time as the majority leader of the Senate. (It's actually not official until January.)

Reid will not venture a guess about what kind of majority leader he will be. "I'm going to throw bombs sometime — I'm going to be conciliatory other times," he said in his office Thursday. "If it comes to me that Alan Greenspan is a political hack, I'm just going to say that. I'm just going to be who I am. "

Reid added that he would "try not to be obnoxious," but also allows that "the Senate is not a place for hugs and kisses." He said he realizes that as a legislator, he can't get anything done without compromising with the president, whom he is scheduled to meet with Friday morning. He can't remember the last time he was invited to the White House, he says.

"I have hope it will change," Reid says of his largely nonexistent working relationship with Bush and other administration officials. "Whether it will or not, I can't say."

Reid is battle-worn and realistic, friends say. He describes himself as "a pessimist about everything in life," which is generally not something politicians admit. "I never thought we could do it," he said about winning the Senate. "I knew it was possible in my head, but I never let my heart believe it."