Harry Reid: “Yes, I say to my friend. Revisionist history is a very good way of projecting what has been said on the other…”

“Yes, I say to my friend. Revisionist history is a very good way of projecting what has been said on the other side--revisionist history. The fact is, I say to my friend from North Dakota, who, I am sure, realizes this, when Senator Jeffords announced he was going to move from the Republican Party, it was about 6 weeks from the time he announced that to the time the actual change took place; that is, the reorganizing resolution. Technically, the Senator from North Dakota is right. Senator Daschle became majority leader on June 6, 2001. The organizing resolution was adopted on June 29, 2001. So that is a period of over 3 weeks. But the actual time period is 6 weeks. Let's take those 3-plus weeks we waited around. Responding to my friend from Arizona, for whom I have the greatest respect--and he is a fine lawyer, but sometimes lawyers make tones and arguments that are not as factual as they appear--he said 70 days they have been waiting; something should have been done during that period of time. I said it earlier and I will say it again. It is not Senator Daschle's fault that he was not negotiating earlier. It was the fault of the Republicans because they could not determine who was going to be their leader. Senator Daschle had some early meetings with Senator Lott right after the election, but those meetings were for nought because they got a new leader a few days ago, and Senator Daschle has been doing his very best to project a very simple message.…”