Unless "a lot of things" consists of his shoe size or favorite color, I highly doubt it. But what I am trying to squeeze out of you is that you're asserting that Harry Reid is so clever and Machiavellian that he knows the particular aide of Bush who is secretly a liberal. It's crazy. Bush knows her best. Reid met her a few times when she was shepherding through nominations. She was probably very polite to Reid during the filibusters.
He doesn't necessarily need to be "clever and Macchiavellian" to be privy to that kind of knowledge about her. Politicians have connections, that's just a plain fact. And those connections aren't always necessarily confined by party lines. You know, "six* degrees of separation" and all that.
Reid met her a few times when she was shepherding through nominations. She was probably very polite to Reid during the filibusters.
Now that's crazy. Politicians, especially those who've gotten to where he's gotten, know better than to let themselves get schmoozled by close associates of their political enemies. What I'm trying to squeeze out of you is that Reid recommended to the President someone whom the President knew very closely, but whom Reid knew not at all. How could he possibly have become Senate Minority Leader by being that clueless?
(* usually much fewer than that in the world of Washington politics)