ABSTRACT
Harry Reid exhibited some of the traits one might see in a baseball manager who is passionate about beating the other team but is also capable of admiring the sheer craft of a player of the rival club. Throughout his period of leadership in the Senate, Reid usually played his cards close to his chest. Presented with a new idea or a legislative proposal, he would almost never dismiss the proposal out of hand. Harry Reid was not only a master tactician but also a sympathetic confidant. He understood that in the perilous world of take-no-prisoners politics how important it is to provide political protection and resources for imperiled members of his party. A more eloquent or personable leader might have shown more brilliance than Reid as the public face of the party, but such a person could hardly have been more loved and admired by his fellow Democrats than Senator Harry Reid.
