At the end of last summer, after all the heated town-hall meetings on health care reform, Senate majority leader Harry Reid was in a meeting with senior staff in his offices on the second floor of the Senate. He was prepping for an interview when an aide raised a concern about the effect Reid's actions might have on his re-election back home — which wasn't going so well. Reid gazed at his staff sitting in a semi-circle in front of him before answering the question. "Look, everyone, I am who I am, and I'm not going to change ... O.K.?"...