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Tavis: I'm pleased to welcome Nevada Senator Harry Reid to this program. His background is the stuff of American lore. His father was a hard rock miner with an eighth grade education. His mother never finished high school. But Senator Reid went on to learn a law degree from George Washington University and at age 28 was elected to the Nevada State Assembly. He is now, as you well know, the highest-ranking Democrat in the U.S. Senate. Earlier today, Senator Reid held an event on the steps of the Supreme Court to press his point in the continuing debate about judicial nominees. He joins us tonight from Capitol Hill. Senator, nice to have you on the program, sir.

Sen. Harry Reid: Tavis, thank you very much for allowing me to be on your show.

Tavis: I'm delighted to have you. I want to get to these judicial nominees and debate around them in just a second. First of all, I ask this respectfully, when I heard that Harry Reid was considering running to be the Democratic leader after Tom Daschle's defeat, I asked myself one question--why? Why would a guy want to take on that job when the Republicans control everything in Washington? Are you a sadomasochist?

Sen. Reid: Well, the United States Senate is what was established by our founding fathers to be the cooling saucer to the coffee, to cool it down. We are the one that protects the minorities--minority rights. Not minorities, but minority. The founding fathers knew that the majority could always protect themselves, so they established the Senate to make sure that there was someone who was there looking out for the everyday person. So I knew, as a Senator, that there are many things we can do. Even though we weren't in the majority, we could do a lot of good things. We could stop some bad things and we could commit to doing some good things.

Tavis: Tell me how you stop the bad things these days without appearing to be an obstructionist?

Sen. Reid: I think this is a buzzword the Republicans have used to try to denigrate what we are doing. When we, for example, stop the president from destroying Social Security, that's good. That's one of our roles. What the president's tried to do with Social Security is take it away from the American people. The most successful social program in the history of the world, he wants to destroy it. He wanted to destroy it back in '76 when he ran for the House of Representatives and lost. He said then it was going to grow and he wanted to privatize it. He and the people around him still believe that. We're not going to let them do it. We're not going to let them privatize it. Even he says that it won't do anything to stabilize Social Security. It would cut benefits by 40%. And we have a study now from a non-partisan group that came out today that said in the long run, young people wind up getting nothing from Social Security. So that's one example of why the Senate's important to our country.

Tavis: One could argue that the president has already lost on this Social Security battle. I mean, it ain't over until the fat lady sings, but everyone seems to feel that the president is in trouble on this issue. Even Republican members, your Republican colleagues in the Senate have taken to talking publicly about the trouble that the president is in on this particular issue. I wonder, one, whether you think he is in that kind of trouble, number one. And number two, if in fact the Democrats are successful in blocking the president on this issue, what will it do for your confidence going forward?

Sen. Reid: Well, we have confidence. We know that what we are doing is representing millions and millions of Americans who have no voice other than the United States Senate. And this applies to rich people, middle class people, poor people, it applies to people of color, people of religiosity. We want to look out for everyone, and we're trying to do our best to do that. I have received letters and emails saying that they're glad we're here.

Tavis: Speaking of receiving letters and emails, you were on the steps of the Supreme Court earlier today to receive, I'm told, about a million signatures urging Senators to stand their ground with regard to judicial nominees and how the process has worked for so many years. Tell me, first of all, what happened on the steps of the Supreme Court today, number one. And then tell me, explain to the audience so that we understand, what this nuclear option, this nuclear option discussion where nominees are concerned is really all about, in layman's terms.

Sen. Reid: It's about the arrogance of power. We know in the House of Representatives, their majority leader Tom Delay had three censures as a result of ethics violations. He won't get anymore because they've changed the rules. Ethics rules will no longer apply to things like he's doing that are wrong. And the same is happening here in the House of Representatives. They're not getting the judges they want. Keep in mind--I want your viewers, Tavis, to understand we have approved 204 judges. We've turned down 10. The dialogue that's coming from the White House, you would think it's just the opposite. We've approved 204, turned down 10. And that's not good enough for them. They want us to be a rubber stamp for the president, and they're going to change long-standing rules of the United States Senate to take away this word--I don't consider it the bad word--the filibuster, the thing that allows us to have checks and balances on the power of the White House. They want this to be taken away from us. And that's what this is all about. We're reaching out to Republicans of goodwill in the United States Senate, saying, don't do this. It is bad for our country. I've been in the Senate now going on--in Congress for going on 23 years. This is one of the most important, of not the most important thing I've ever dealt with. Why? Because they're trying to change our constitution, and that is absolutely wrong. So I was on the Senate steps today, and I was presented with more than a million signed petitions. People saying don't do this. And we got these in two weeks. We didn't get them, they got them for me. I stood there, and there was two of us that spoke there. My friend, who is one of the most wonderful people I've ever served with, John Lewis, the Congressman from Georgia, he and I stood there and said, why are you trying to do this? It's wrong. It's ruining our country. John Lewis did it from another perspective, one that he can speak from like nobody else can, and that is it's been important for developing human rights in our country. That is, the constitutional right we have to slow things down. So that's why we were there. I was happy to be there. We had about 300 people were there in the hot. It's hot back here in Washington, surprisingly. But anyway, I was glad to be there.

Tavis: The way the rules now work, right quick, to break this down a little bit more, if President Bush nominates someone for a judgeship, a federal judgeship that you all do not like, the Democrats, that is, don't like, you all can filibuster. You can hold things up until they get 60 votes. It takes 60 votes to stop the filibuster.

Sen. Reid: Tavis, just like everything we do in the Senate.

Tavis: Exactly.

Sen. Reid: Judges are no different than ambassadors. It's no different than a piece of legislation.

Tavis: Fair enough.

Sen. Reid: But they want it changed, these rules that have worked so well for this country.

Tavis: And the way they want to change it is, instead of 60 votes, they want to stop it, they want to make you guys stop filibustering with a simple majority, correct?

Sen. Reid: Yeah, they want us to be just like the British parliament. Whatever the president wants, he gets, and that isn't how our country works.

Tavis: All right, if the Republicans insist on trying to change these rules, and clearly they are the party in control now, what are the Democrats prepared to do to make sure that doesn't happen?

Sen. Reid: Well, we're going to do everything we can. We understand they've got the power to do this. They're going to violate their own rules and have the vice president just say it takes a simple majority. They have the power to do that, even though I believe it's wrong, it's immoral, and it will ruin, I believe, what this country stands for. They have the power to do that. That's why I'm reaching out to Republicans of goodwill who are United States Senators--we only need six of them--to say don't do this. It's going to be one of the things that will make our government just like the British government, just like most governments around the world. And the Senate will no longer have the ability to slow things down, like we've slowed Social Security down.

Tavis: Well, we will continue to watch in the coming days and weeks as to what Republicans do and how the Democrats respond to this longstanding rule in the U.S. Senate. Senator Harry Reid, nice to have you on. I look forward to doing it again in the coming weeks ahead.

Sen. Reid: Thank you so much.

Tavis: Thank you for your time. I appreciate it. Up next on this program, actress Diahann Carroll. This woman is amazing--the first African American actor to do so many things in this business called Hollywood. we'll talk to her about a long and wonderful career in a moment. Stay with us for Diahann Carroll.