Politicians are often despised on this list.

But the only way to be effective is as Harry Reid did it.

How come American voters do not understand their own political system (representative, representing States of very different size and stature, tending to hold on to the accomplishments of the past rather than facing the challenges of the future, ...).

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December 25, 2009

For Reid, a Hard Climb to the Pinnacle

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

WASHINGTON — It was the pinnacle moment of his political career. The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, on the verge of making history by shepherding through far-reaching health care legislation, was called upon by the clerk to cast his vote.

And Mr. Reid, who had fought tirelessly for months to get the health care bill adopted, looked up from his desk and said, “No.”

For a millisecond there was confusion in the chamber. Had he lost it? Was he joking? Within half a second, Mr. Reid had switched his vote to “yes.” After 25 straight days of bitter, partisan debate, senators on both sides of the aisle burst out laughing.

“To be honest, I’d like to say I was trying to be funny or create some bipartisanship,” Mr. Reid said later in his office, where he slumped, exhausted into a leather armchair after the vote and a quick news conference. “But I was just in dreamland, thinking about where we had come.”

He added, “It was just, I am bushed.”

Mr. Reid’s oh-no vote capped one of the more remarkable stretches in what is shaping up to be one of the more remarkable careers in American politics, characterized in no small part by the sheer inscrutability of much of what he says and does.

In the end, of course, Congressional leaders are judged on one thing alone: whether they come up with the votes. And Mr. Reid — the miner’s son from Searchlight, Nev., the amateur boxer who worked his way through law school as a Capitol Hill police officer, who has a knack for mumbling and off-the-cuff gaffes — had the votes.

After many concessions and much gamesmanship, all 60 members of his caucus — the precise number needed to overcome Republican filibusters — voted for the health care bill. All 39 Republicans in the chamber voted against it. It was a stark display of partisanship, and one of the hardest-fought legislative victories in modern times.

Getting there was not particularly pretty.

“Harry Reid — I can’t tell you how many times that he and I would talk,” said Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, “where the first words out of his mouth were ‘This bill’s dead.’ ”

Mr. Reid, in the interview, would not admit to ever fearing that the bill was dead. “There were times when I had to get people’s attention,” he said. “That’s one way to get people’s attention.”

Democrats said it was Mr. Reid’s ability to bridge the divide between liberals and centrists, urban and rural states, loyalists and rebels, that clinched the votes when he needed every member of his caucus.

Republicans said Mr. Reid, having failed to draft a bipartisan bill, simply resorted to crass political horse-trading to get the legislation approved — by buying the votes in his own party with special provisions intended to sweeten the pot, especially for Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, the last Democratic hold-out.

“This was supposed to be a bill that reformed health care in America,” said the Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. “Instead, we’re left with party-line votes in the middle of the night, a couple of sweetheart deals to get it over the finish line and a truly outraged public.”

Until 2009, Mr. Reid’s tenure as leader was characterized by legislative stalemate.

After Democrats reclaimed a slim majority in 2006, he could not muster the votes, for instance, to force the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.

So as President Obama took office this year with larger Democratic majorities in Congress, the jury was largely still out on Mr. Reid. He muscled through the economic stimulus, winning over three Republicans to do so, but health care presents a defining issue at a defining moment as he prepares to run in Nevada next year for a fifth term.

It is through that prism that his skills as both a national leader and a champion of his home state will be judged.

After months of coaxing Senator Olympia J. Snowe, Republican of Maine, was Mr. Reid right to conclude that it was better to go forward with only Democratic support? And should he have taken a tougher line with Mr. Nelson and other centrists rather than cut deals to placate them?

Mr. Reid’s colleagues often referred to him as their quarterback, but his role was more of head coach or cajoler in chief.

With time short, Mr. Reid juggled negotiations on three levels.

He tapped a team of 10 Democrats — five liberals and five centrists — to broker a deal, while he bartered, one-on-one, with specific holdouts, and also tried to maintain consensus among the full 60-member caucus.

No sooner had the team of 10 announced an agreement than Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, who had been talking to Mr. Reid directly, threatened to sink it.

Mr. Reid quickly bowed to Mr. Lieberman’s demands, including the total elimination of a public plan, which oddly helped unite the Democratic caucus.

At the same time, Mr. Reid and Senator Charles E. Schumer negotiated frantically with Mr. Nelson over several issues, like the emotionally charged question of insurance coverage for abortions.

The breakthrough came after a 13-hour session last Friday, which included top White House officials and Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, representing abortion rights supporters. That night Mr. Nelson shook Mr. Reid’s hand and committed his vote but asked to sleep on it.

Mr. Reid said he did not worry. “A handshake from Ben Nelson is as good as it gets,” he said.

But with 60 votes finally committed, a crater opened in Mr. Reid’s path. Republicans, using every tool to block the health bill, said they would oppose a must-pass military spending bill and potentially lock up the Senate floor until after Christmas.

Mr. Reid had no choice but to ask Senator Russ Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin and an ardent opponent of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, to back the Pentagon measure, which led to what several senators described as a seminal moment — a speech that convinced them to hold ranks and win at all costs.

Referring to Mr. Feingold, Mr. Reid said, “The people of Wisconsin weren’t there watching him and never will know what he said, but being there, for me, that was history in action.”

On the floor early Thursday, for the historic vote, Mr. Reid seemed lost in space as five Democrats ahead of him voted “aye.”

“Mr. Reid of Nevada,” the clerk called. He voted no, then yes — sparking uproarious laughter.

The majority leader briefly hung his head. He smiled sheepishly. He gave a huge shrug.