Harry Reid's Gambit [View all]

[Cha]

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“This is the right thing to do,” Reid told one of his closest advisers. “If I don’t do this, I might as well just walk away.”

As some of his fellow Democratic senators remained on the fence, Reid called in a heavy hitter to close the deal: President Barack Obama, according to sources familiar with the matter. Obama personally called senators on Wednesday to back the move, and Reid ultimately won the vote on a slim margin, 52-48. Just three Democrats broke with Reid: the retiring Carl Levin of Michigan, the moderate Joe Manchin of West Virginia and the vulnerable Mark Pryor of Arkansas.

When the seismic moment finally came, shell-shocked senators in both parties couldn’t believe that Reid pulled the trigger — and were grasping to understand the far-reaching ramifications.

Asked how history would remember him after this move, Reid told POLITICO: “I don’t write history.”

But nobody disputed that the move was emblematic of Reid’s hard-ball style that has come to characterize his leadership in recent years — whether it was his passage of the health care law in 2009 on a straight party-line vote, his willingness to go over the fiscal cliff in 2012 or his refusal to bend to GOP demands during the 16-day government shutdown last month


Much More..
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/11/harry-reid-senate-fillibuster-100243.html

http://theobamadiary.com/2013/11/22/rise-and-shine-676/

I could only snip so much but the whole long article is worth the read.. not bad from "politico" imv

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"Asked about his changing views on the issue, Reid told reporters Thursday: “I have a right to change how I feel about things.”

Harry Reid