The bloggers loved Harry Reid.
Crammed into a series of rooms at the careworn Riviera hotel-casino in early June, attendees at YearlyKOS, a convention of liberal political writers who publish on the Internet, had invited Nevada's senior senator -- and the leader of the Democrats in the Senate -- to be their keynote speaker on the conference's final day.
And when he spoke, they gave him three standing ovations, the same number they gave earlier in the day to U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer.
The amazing thing? Unlike Reid, Boxer is an actual liberal.
In fact, on paper, Reid and the writers who congregate electronically at DailyKOS, the blog that lent its name to the convention, couldn't be more different.
They're pro-choice. He's pro-life.
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But ask him if he likes it, and Reid doesn't say yes. "The job I have is an extremely lonely job. ... Sometimes you don't look forward to what you have to do."
Not that he's complaining: "How could I ever not be grateful for having the opportunity that I have?" Reid says, trotting out his hardscrabble youth in Searchlight. Sometimes, on the ride in to the Capitol, Reid says he thinks "Damn, I can't believe I have this job."
"I don't think there are a lot of people who understand my job," Reid says. Standing up to Bush, the thing that's made him a hero to all those lefty bloggers, is all part of a day's work, not a perk. "I felt that's my duty and my obligation," he says.
"Joy is not part of my life."
more...
http://www.lvcitylife.com/articles/2006/07/20/cover_story/cover.txt