Harry Reid says he’s retiring in 2016
WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, a tactician who united Democrats to help deliver tough victories for President Barack Obama, said Friday he’s retiring next year. He immediately endorsed brash New York Sen. Chuck Schumer to succeed him as leader of a party desperate to regain the Senate majority.
Reid, 75, rose from hardscrabble beginnings in Nevada, and brought his amateur boxer’s tenacity to congressional politics.
Friends said his doggedness and indifference to popularity helped rebuff Republicans who fiercely oppose Obama on health care, spending, immigration and other issues. But critics say Reid added to Washington’s poisonous partisanship, particularly by changing Senate filibuster rules in 2013 to enable Obama to appoint more judges.
On Friday, Schumer seized the inside track to succeed Reid as the Democratic Senate leader after next year’s elections. Potential rival Dick Durbin of Illinois said he would back Schumer. Durbin is currently Reid’s No. 2; Schumer is No. 3.
Oklahoma unveils fraternity findings
NORMAN, Okla. — Members of a University of Oklahoma fraternity apparently learned a racist chant that recently got their chapter disbanded during a national leadership cruise four years ago that was sponsored by the fraternity’s national administration, the university’s president said Friday.
President David Boren said the school interviewed more than 160 people during its investigation into members of its now-defunct Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter who were captured on video taking part in the chant, which included references to lynching, a racial slur and the promise that the fraternity would never accept a black member.
“That chant was learned and brought back to the local chapter,” Boren said at a news conference in which he disclosed the school investigation’s findings. “Over time, the chant was formalized by the local chapter and was taught to pledges as part of the formal and informal pledgeship process.”
