pulled me into this little bathroom because he didn t want landra to see him wasting $400 on the senate s worst dressed member. but when i asked harry about it later, he said to me he didn t want to embarrass me in front of landra. that was harry to a tee. it was no secret that harry didn t care for the decorum of public office, but he did know how to dress his part. he cut his hair regularly, he shined his shoes, he wore nice suits from clothiers like kicky freedman that i couldn t afford but a few years later i got the better of harry when i showed up to the senate wearing a freeman suit of my own. harry was surprised. he said, chuck, i thought you said you should never afford a freeman suit. i told him, i can t, so i visited the warehouse in rochester and bought one at a wholesale price. harry stopped slipping me money for clothes after that.
landra pointed out that her own father had been a russian immigrant. later, harry would say, i came to the realization that i was way off base. i m so glad she righted the ship. now, of course, there are plenty of politicians who change their positions just because they want to get re-elected. they ve got their fingers out to the wind. they re interested in clinging to power for its own sake. but for harry, the whole point of holding office, the whole point of wielding power, was to actually get things done on behalf of those he represented. during his time as leader, that is exactly what he did. he got things done. without harry, we would not have
then, it s past my bedtime and with that, he and landra headed for the door. pragmatism, premium on getting things done, lack of pretension. abiding loyalty. that s what harry reid represents. man of old school virtues. there are qualities that are in short supply these days. yet it seems to me they are precisely the qualities our democracy requires.
because he knew what was true for himself was true for everybody, that we re all a bundle of contradictions. we all have our flaws. we all have our blind spots. but despite all that, it was possible for us to affirm our collective humanity, because that s what made america great. once we had both left office, i didn t see much of harry. but we d call each other on the phone from time to time. he d tell me about landra, and he would speak with great pride about his kids and his grandkids and all that they were doing. he told me about his illness and
because he knew what was true for himself was true for everybody. that we re all a bundle of contradictions. we all have our flaws. but despite all that, it was possible for us to affirm our collective humanity because that s what made america great. once we both left office, i didn t see much of harry, but we d call each other on the phone from time to time. he d tell me about landra and he d speak with great pride about his kids and grand kids and all that they were doing. told me about his illness and