Reid Is Unapologetic as Aide Steps on Toes, Even the President’s.
(Sorry if this has already been posted.)
President Obama called Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, to broach a particularly delicate subject. It was during last year’s government shutdown and standoff with Republicans, but Mr. Obama’s frustration focused on one of their own. The president said he suspected David Krone, Mr. Reid’s intensely loyal and influential top aide, of leaking to the news media, and requested that he stay away from future meetings.
It did not take much time for the president’s comments to reach Mr. Reid’s right-hand man. To Mr. Obama’s surprise, Mr. Krone was listening in on the call. Suddenly, the aide piped up and made it clear to the president that he did not appreciate the accusation.
On Friday, Mr. Obama and Mr. Reid traveled to Nevada, a trip that allowed the president to promote his executive action on immigration and the senator to unofficially start his re-election campaign. The public harmony contrasts with the private discord between the two men and their staffs, much of which has centered on Mr. Krone, a wealthy former cable executive whose defining principle is to defend Mr. Reid at all costs.
Administration and congressional officials have argued that the transgressions of Mr. Krone — publicly challenging the president, betraying the Oval Office code of silence and acting more like a senator than a staff member to one — have damaged Democratic unity at a time when the party can least afford it, as its numbers in Congress dwindle and the president sorely needs discipline in his ranks to advance what is left of his agenda.
It all exploded this month when Mr. Krone, 48, astonished even some veteran Capitol Hill staff members by speaking on the record in a highly critical way about private conversations with Mr. Obama.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/22/us/politics/as-democrats-work-to-unify-a-top-reid-aide-causes-a-rift.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
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