built up a formidable as any in the country and dominated nevada politics for a decade and a half but he also took a tiny ignored even derived western state and turned it into a national power by getting the democratic national committee to make nevada an early state in the presidential nominating process and who had the most influence over who would win those contests, none other than harry reid. you re so right. since you brought that up i want to talk about that. personally, i think it does make sense the demographics of nevada much better represent the demographics of the country but when the form erma jurorty former majority leader said that, it became the chamber of other lawmakers helped make this a reality. so kudos to him for that.
that the president was enduringly grateful for him doing. he essentially as i said several times now had to commit legalized bribery to get a couple of the reluctant colleagues to vote, one of whom ben nelson sacrificed his career to vote for the affordable care act. reid when i talked to him for the book i m writing about him, brings it up a lot. his partnership with obama and how obama trusted him to get that through. i think it went into the story of harry reid is written, at least the one i ve written i ll talk about reid care and why it s named reid care in the inside story of what really happened. as far as nevada goes, harry reid loved nevada. the fact he was able to do two things to build a democratic party machine after a near death experience barely one in 1998 by about 400 votes against john, he
life scene from 1978, a hearing when reid was chairman of the nevada s gaming commission. reid s incredible life story includes growing up in poverty in tiny nevada and a shack with no running water. his mother making ends meet doing laundry in brothels. his memoir he recounted learning to slim at a brothel, actually. while you may have heard about his time as an armature boxer, he was a capitol police officer while attending school and defending a cocktail waitress accused of writing bad checks to become one of the most powerful and interesting people in washington. reid became nevada s lieutenant governor at the tender age of just 31 years old. he also served in the house of representatives before he was elected to the upper chamber, the senate in 1986.
stamps? i said southern baptist and only harry laughed. well, as a southern baptist, i m laughing, as well, my friend. yeah. yeah. and you re right after the state of the union, it was quite busy so for those of us on the hill at that time covering it, i m sure you re like give me cover here and talk to me like i m important. you heard senator franken say, speak about senator reid s role in the affordable care act. you yourself have talked about this and said that the affordable care act could have been called the reid care because of the out sized role that he played in that. talk if you will about that and his legacy in nevada, particularly his role in building the democratic party and what is now very purple state with increasingly changing demographics. well, i think he was most proud of getting the affordable care act through the senate, which was no mean feat you know
clobbered norm coleman by 300 points, if you recall. i do recall. my apoloapologies. smallest clobbering in history. a clobber is a clobber. my apologies. i thought he d encourage you to run again after. john, i want to bring it back to you he actually did. okay. i see what you re talking about now. yes, yes, we talked about that. yes. history has been written. john, i want to toss it back to you. something interesting that i saw that the senate majority leader did. he actually tried to out law prostitution in nevada. you know, he learned to swim in brothels and that s a huge part of nevada s economics. he thought it was an impediment. i m curious because he was so beloved by the people in the state. how did they feel about that? well, i can tell you there