Up From Searchlight

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.