Harry Reid is the kind of adversary who might just wear you down. Last year, for example, the Nevada Senator staged a one-day filibuster, standing on the Senate floor and talking for eight hours and 35 minutes straight to put majority leader Bill Frist hopelessly behind schedule on other bills that he wanted to rush through before the Thanksgiving recess. Reid planned everything carefully, down to his diet. So he wouldn't be forced to go to the bathroom and lose his right to the floor, he ate only a slice of wheat bread and a handful of unsalted peanuts for breakfast, kept Senate pages from refilling the water glass at his desk and made sure he sipped only half of it during the day.
That tenacity was on display the morning after Election Day as Reid, 64, lined himself up to succeed South Dakota's Tom Daschle as the Senate minority leader, a job Reid is expected to secure this week. Having worked the phones, Reid, who as Democratic whip was Daschle's top lieutenant as well as his loyal friend for the past six years, had promises of support from a majority of next year's 44 Senate Democrats two hours after Daschle publicly conceded his seat to Republican John Thune. That enabled Reid to easily fend off a challenge from Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd, who was also interested in the job.
Reid, more conservative than Daschle and many other Democrats, is antiabortion and has voted against an assault-weapons ban. But with a Westerner's quiet style and meticulous attention to detail, he has built alliances across the political spectrum during his 17 years in the Senate. "The biggest strength he has is that he always keeps his word," says liberal Vermont Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy. Reid keeps note cards in his coat pocket to jot down favors requested by colleagues who buttonhole him--and to record when they're done. A skilled legislative tactician who practically camps out on the Senate floor, Reid was Daschle's point man for secretly convincing Vermont's other Senator, James Jeffords, to ditch the Republican Party in 2001 and vote with Democrats as an independent. "He's a straight shooter, smart and easy to work with," says Senate Republican whip Mitch McConnell. "Having said that, I also know he can be a tough opponent."
George W. Bush knows it as well, which was why he phoned the Senator in Nevada the morning after Election Day to begin building a rapport. Reid ducked press calls last week, but he made it clear in an interview with TIME before the election that the President should not expect a honeymoon if he won a second term. "I don't think he has a lot of respect in the Senate among Democrats," said Reid, who hasn't forgotten the hardball legislative tactics Bush and Senate Republicans used in his first term, like shutting Democratic leaders out of negotiations to craft the prescription-drug and Medicare-reform bill Congress passed.