Wild About Harry

I thought Harry Reid would be an easy target for criticism when I wrote a commentary for the libertarian/conservative Nevada Policy Research Institute years ago. The editor edited out whatever I had written about Harry and explained, after I protested, “one of our biggest donors (Newmont Mining) is a supporter of Senator Reid.” I’ve met people all over the country and to a person, they all disliked Reid. And when you point out that the airport is named for him, they groan and complain. 

Jon Ralston tells you most everything you need to know about Nevada’s most prominent politician in his very readable new book The Game Changer: How Harry Reid Remade the Rules and Showed Democrats How to Fight. Ralston gained access to everyone still living to tell his story including Reid himself before he died. And for those annoyed with the current president, you’ll wish Harry was still alive and in office to trade unfiltered barbs with number 47. 

The author makes Mr. Reid’s career from student body president at Basic High to Senate Majority Leader (and many elected and appointed positions in between) fly by in under 400 pages. Reading on a Kindle with a built-in dictionary will help with Ralston’s considerable vocabulary. For political junkies Reid’s life has plenty of highlights. And for anyone living in Las Vegas since the 1970’s, and doing any sort of business around town, there are plenty of names you’ll recognize. 

Famously known as “Mr. CleanFace” by the mob, Ralston writes, with a bit of irony, that Reid put family above all else, “like a Mafia chieftain.” And he stood by his friends and supporters, writing character letters for Benny Binion, Judge Harry Claiborne, and Billy Walters. The son of an alcoholic abusive father who scratched out an existence mining underground in Searchlight, Reid was a friend to the mining industry while being known as an environmentalist for protecting thousands of acres in the state.

The average Joe wouldn’t know that Reid once sounded Trumpian railing against immigration and even birthright citizenship, until his wife Landra made him see the light. While the most powerful Democrat in the country, he was pro-life. Like Trump, Reid had a contentious relationship with the press and called the revered Fed Chair Alan Greenspan, “one of the biggest political hacks we have here in Washington.”

Word around Vegas has always been that Reid profited mightily on inside knowledge involving land deals. The author goes to great lengths in his book claiming Reid was innocent of any such misdeeds involving his land investments in southern Nevada that made him rich. The author doth protest too much, methinks.

Harry was very proud to have called the heads of the large banks which had financed CityCenter for MGM when the hotel giant had a large payment due during the great financial crisis and was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. He got the banks to back off. I would have loved to have heard Reid harangue banking industry wunderkind Jamie Dimon.

The Reid Machine still has power in Nevada elections, evidenced by the majorities enjoyed by Democrats in Carson City to this day. The Republicans have nothing to match it. What Ralston doesn’t mention is the 2014 Nevada Attorney General’s race between Democrat Ross Miller, son of former Governor Bob Miller, and Republican Adam Laxalt, grandson of former governor and senator Paul Laxalt. An endorsement from Reid would have surely put Miller over the top. But Harry stayed out of the race and Laxalt would become AG. The Reids were close friends with the Laxalts. The Millers, not so much. 

Charlie Cook of The Cook Political Report said of Reid, “No nonsense, no emotion, no BS.” The same can be said of Ralston’s The Game Changer.