Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) called NRC Commissioner William Magwood, a fellow Democrat, a “first-class rat,” “miserable liar,” “shit-stirrer” and “tool of the nuclear industry” in an interview with The Huffington Post, released yesterday. “You know, when you’re in this government, this business of politics, the only thing that you have is your word,” Reid told HuffPost. “I can be as partisan as I have to be, but I always try to be nice. I try never to say bad things about people. Bill Magwood is one of the most unethical, prevaricating, incompetent people I’ve ever dealt with. The man sat in that chair, right there, and lied to me.” The NRC and Magwood’s office declined to comment yesterday, and the White House did not return calls for comment from RW Monitor.
Reid’s venom toward Magwood is rooted in two major issues: Yucca Mountain, and the embarrassing events of the last few months of former NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko’s tenure. Jaczko was named Chairman of the NRC by President Barack Obama—at the urging of Reid, for whom Jaczko had worked as an aide—in 2009. Last October, Magwood and his three fellow commissioners wrote to the White House that Jackzo was a manipulative manager and had created a "chilled" work environment. At two Congressional hearings, Magwood and the other commissioners told lawmakers they felt Jaczko was unfit to continue serving as chairman. “Magwood was a shit-stirrer. He did everything he could do to embarrass Greg Jaczko,” Reid said this week. In May, while a damning internal NRC Inspector General report was being readied for release to Congress, Jaczko resigned pending confirmation of his successor. Allison Macfarlane was confirmed to replace Jaczko in July. Former Reid staffers recently held a fundraiser to help Jaczko pay for legal fees accrued during the IG investigation, and Reid himself donated $10,000.
Reid said that he agreed to meet with Magwood based on a senior White House official’s information that the future commissioner was empathetic with Reid’s anti-Yucca agenda. Reid told the HuffPost that, in the conversation with Magwood before he was appointed to the NRC, Magwood indicated he was against the Yucca Mountain project. However, as a commissioner Magwood has favored continuing a technical review of the project, despite then-Chairman Jaczko’s ultimately successful efforts to shutter the review completely. "I do not have words to describe how little I think of this person," Reid said. "And as long as I have this job, he will never be chairman of anything that takes Senate confirmation."