May 12, 2008
Up From Searchlight
Senate boss Harry Reid's book
recounts a rough road to power
By Steve Friess
NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE
You know you're reading a different sort of political
memoir when the wise person who first predicts greatness for
the protagonist isn't a parent or a teacher but rather the local
brothel owner. Yet it was the "whoremonger," as he's called
in the book, who caught the young Harry Reid stealing some empty
bottles from a local casino in hopes of cashing them in for
loose change—and encouraged Reid to aim higher. "Pinky," the
brothel owner warned, addressing Reid by his childhood nickname,
"you should never steal anything from anybody. I didn't get
you in trouble because I think you could amount to something.
Don't you do stuff like that."
Reid heeded the advice. In "The Good Fight" Reid and ghost
writer Mark Warren of Esquire detail his rise to power from
a hardscrabble rural mining town south of Las Vegas to the halls
of Congress—and his stint as a lawyer battling the Mafia along
the way. Reid writes at length about a difficult childhood growing
up in a dilapidated two-room shack with parents, he says, who
both drank to excess. According to Reid his father beat his
mother until, at 14, young Harry and his brother pinned Pop
down to stop the violence.
Reid, a former boxer, is comfortable with the gloves off,
writing of his absolute disdain for President Bush, a man Reid
calls "among the worst presidents—if not the worst—in the history
of our country." The 68-year-old four-term senator spoke to
NEWSWEEK's Steve Friess about the book, the current Democratic
presidential race between Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama
and clocking his future father-in-law. Excerpts:
Newsweek: First off, what do you make of last Tuesday
night's primary results in North Carolina and Indiana?
Harry Reid: I think everybody should be patient.
After June 3, Obama and Clinton will have a few days to make
their case to uncommitted superdelegates at the time, and it'll
all be over with and we'll have a five-month general election.
That sounds pretty good to me. Is the prolonged process hurting
Democratic chances in the fall? I believe the presidential primary's
been good for the country. It's been good for Democrats. First
time in history Pennsylvania has more than 4 million Democrats,
first time in a generation in the state of Nevada we lead the
Republicans by tens of thousands.
In your book you talk about Senator Clinton arriving
in the Senate as a "very strong voice" on women's issues. You
don't mention what Senator Obama arrived in the Senate as a
very strong voice for.
I gave Obama the platform to be very strong on ethics. He led
the ethics and lobbying reform, which led to the most significant
change in ethics and lobbying in the entire history of the country.
I think he has his mark on that.
Would you ever consider giving up your leadership post
to Senator Clinton to get her to give up her presidential campaign?
It's not a question of giving up my post. The only thing that's
been written on that came from a Republican operative, Bill
Kristol, who, of course, would do anything he can to hurt Democrats.
I'm elected by 50 Democrats. I have pretty good support among
my caucus. Senator Clinton is a good friend of mine. I can't
imagine she'd even consider that.
In the book you make reference to former Texas Sen.
Lloyd Bentsen warning you in 1989 that President George H.W.
Bush was a good guy but to watch out for First Lady Barbara
Bush, because she's a bitch. Then you write that the current
President Bush is more like his mother than his father. Can
you explain that?
The purpose of putting that in the book was to show the difference
between George Bush the first and George Bush the second. George
Bush the first was so easy to work with, so fair, so understanding
of what government's all about. The son is just the opposite.
You make a point of criticizing President Bush for
not being willing to acknowledge mistakes or even being able
to think of one. But in the book you don't cop to any mistakes
of your own as Senate Majority Leader. I'm going to put you
on the spot here: name one.
Oh, I can name lots of them. First and the most glaring is
that I didn't ask a lot more questions on the second Gulf War.
I look back and think, "Why didn't I do that?" But you weren't
majority leader then. What about since then? As majority leader
I think reaching out to the Republicans. I've done it a lot;
perhaps I could do it more. But when we've been stopped so many
times, your patience runs thin.
Your father is described as a misogynist who would
not read a book written by a woman. How would he have viewed
this year's presidential race? Do you think he would be representative
of good white male Democrats who say they won't vote for a woman
or black man?
My dad did say that, but I'm sure my dad—you know, he killed
himself quite a few years ago—I'm sure he would've grown with
the times. He was a person who, as I explain in the book, was
depressed a lot.
You also write that at one point you had to punch your
future father-in-law, an observant Jew who was trying to stand
in the way of your dating his daughter, Landra. Is that a courtship
tactic you'd recommend?
Well, it worked for me. [Laughs] Let me say this. I was 18
years old and I was in love. His daughter and I were going together
since I was 15, she was 14. So I didn't realize, coming from
the religious background I came from [Reid was raised in a secular
household but later became a Mormon], that there were centuries
of tradition standing in my way with my father-in-law. The fact
is, he had harassed me and my wife quite a bit in the preceding
several months. So he stood at the door and pushed me, and my
patience had run out. That was a little physical episode that
didn't take very long, but it had a good ending. I have his
ring that he gave me on his deathbed. He died at the young age
of 52.
You and your wife later became Mormons. Do you think
that your own achievements and the campaign of former Massachusetts
governor Mitt Romney have changed the country's impressions
of Mormons?
I hope so. I hope my religion has not been a barrier to how
people feel about me. With Mitt Romney, I think his problems
in the election had a lot less to do with his religion than
that he couldn't figure out who he was politically. He was for
abortion, against abortion. He was for immigration, against
immigration. In your book you describe several interactions
with soldiers wounded in Iraq who believe the war effort is
futile and should be stopped. Do you believe most soldiers serving
in Iraq feel that way? No, I don't think so. Soldiers don't
think that way. If you're a baseball player you fight till the
very end. They should do that. That's what they're trained to
do and that's what I want them to do.
You describe having to spend 9/11 in a safe location
with Sen. Trent Lott and Sen. Don Nickles, then the Republican
Senate leadership. Did you think that you were bonding with
those men that day in a way that would lessen partisan rancor?
Oh yes, and we did a wonderful job for six months after 9/11.
We joined together remarkably. We did great things for New York,
for the people at the Pentagon. That trip we took to the hideaway
was one that was very important. We worked together until President
Bush gave up working with us.
You write a lot about your experiences
having been threatened and attacked during the waning days of
the Las Vegas mob era as chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control
Board. There is a whole industry built out of nostalgia for
the Vegas mob era. What are people missing when they say "Vegas
was better when the mob ran it"?
The people who wish it was the way it used to be don't appreciate
the fact that in those days the city was 100,000 people. Now
it's a community of 2 million. We can never go backward. But
the idea of the mob museum (planned for downtown Las Vegas)
came from (Las Vegas Mayor) Oscar Goodman and Harry Reid. I
think that's a great idea for the people of Nevada. The history
was there. We can't deny it, and the people who come to Las
Vegas should understand it's a new era and we should not run
from the fact. We can't run from that any more than I can run
from Searchlight.
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