Injuries force Reid to skip opening session

WASHINGTON (AP) - On doctor's orders, injuries have forced the Senate's top Democrat to skip the opening day of the new Congress.

Sen. Harry Reid suffered broken ribs and facial bones last week when an exercise band broke at his home in Nevada. He also suffered a concussion, an injury his office had not previously disclosed.

Reid, 75, will be the minority leader in the new Senate, since Republicans now have the majority.

Reid tweeted a photo of him meeting with fellow Democratic leaders on Tuesday at his apartment in Washington. He sported a bandage over his blackened right eye.

"Working from home on doctor's orders," Reid tweeted. "Just wrapped up a good meeting with my leadership team."

"The doctors have told me I'd better take it easy," Reid said in a video posted on YouTube in which he promised Senate Democrats will fight for the middle class. "The rich are getting richer. The poor are getting poorer. The middle class is getting squeezed literally out of existence."

Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin will assume duties as the Democratic floor manager until Reid returns.

"He's pretty banged up," Durbin said. "Imagine going through the windshield of a car what your face might look like. The right side of his face is pretty badly beaten with a lot of broken bones and bruising and discoloration and then add three or four broken ribs to it."

Durbin said Reid "was stretching these straps and one broke and tossed him like a slingshot against built-in cabinets. He crashed into them with his face and side of his body. Lots of blood."

Durbin said Reid, who had been hospitalized overnight, underwent additional treatment in Washington. He said Reid's doctor ordered him to rest and limit his activities.