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.