[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Pages 18622-18623]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   CONGRATULATING THE MAJORITY LEADER

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, the State of Nevada was admitted to the 
Union in 1864. Since 1864 there have been 25 Senators in its 148-year 
history. Today Harry Mason Reid becomes the longest serving Member of 
Congress in the history of the State of Nevada.
  Senator Reid was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives the 
same year I was elected, 1982, and became a Member of the House in 
1983. He became a Member of the Senate in 1987. He has served with 
great distinction in both Houses of Congress, serving his State of 
Nevada, and today is the highest ranking Democrat in the Senate, 
serving as its majority leader.
  I daresay, Mr. President, that you and I would probably not really 
know anything about the town of Searchlight, NV, were it not for Harry 
Reid. Harry Reid has told us so many stories of his youth and his 
background in that tiny town and what brought him to this station in 
life today. I almost feel that if there were a town or high school 
reunion, I could attend it with Harry and look around and recognize a 
lot of people there because I have certainly heard a lot of stories 
about his youth and the people who have had a dramatic impact on his 
life from the time he was growing up in Searchlight, NV.
  We know he came from modest circumstances. His family raised him in a 
very small home without indoor plumbing. He attended a two-room 
elementary school in Searchlight, NV. As a child, Senator Reid's father 
was a hard rock miner and his mother took in laundry. He says of his 
parents that his father gave him quiet and his mother gave him 
confidence.
  Opportunities were scarce in Searchlight, but Harry made the most of 
what he had. His book ``The Good Fight'' has a great opening paragraph 
that I would like to share with everyone because it says so much about 
what life must have been like in the town of Searchlight.
  Harry wrote in his book:

       I come from a mining town. But by the time I came along--
     December 22, 1939--the leading industry in my hometown of 
     Searchlight, NV, was no longer mining, it was prostitution. I 
     don't exaggerate. There was a local law that said you could 
     not have a house of prostitution or a place that served 
     alcohol within so many feet of a school. Once, when it was 
     determined that one of the clubs was in violation of the law, 
     they moved the school.

  It says a lot about Searchlight. It also says a lot about the 
circumstances he faced growing up. He made the most of what he had.
  Between hitchhiking more than 40 miles and staying with extended 
relatives, Harry was able to attend Basic High School, the nearest high 
school to Searchlight. While at Basic High in Henderson, he met two 
people who dramatically changed his life--Landra Gould, who would 
become his wife of 53 years and counting, and Mike O'Callaghan, who was 
a coach, a teacher, a mentor, and a friend. Harry Reid said of Mike 
O'Callaghan that he was the toughest man he ever met.
  Harry Reid played high school baseball with Rey Martinez, who would 
become his chief of staff, and Donnie Wilson, who would also go to work 
for Reid in Washington.
  I once invited ``Mr. Cub,'' Ernie Banks, to my office, and I invited 
Harry Reid--a former baseball player in his youth--to come up and meet 
Ernie Banks.
  Ernie Banks looked in his eye and said: What position did you play, 
Harry?
  Harry said: I played catcher.
  Ernie Banks said: I don't believe it. Get in the position.
  At that point, I heard the bones creaking as Harry went down in the 
catcher's crouch in my office in front of Ernie Banks, and we all 
cheered.
  He won his first election in high school when he ran for junior class 
treasurer. Of course he would win because Landra, his wife-to-be, wrote 
his speech and got him elected. Rey Martinez managed his campaign when 
he became the senior class president.
  He also ran into the fellow I mentioned earlier, Mike O'Callaghan, 
who had such a profound impact on his personal and political life. 
Behind Harry's desk, he has a picture of his friend and mentor Governor 
O'Callaghan.
  Harry Reid also took up boxing after he was inspired by Mike 
O'Callaghan--as I said, the toughest man he ever met, in Harry's 
memory.
  In his book ``The Good Fight,'' Harry said:

       There are sluggers, and then there are boxers. I became a 
     pretty good boxer. I could assess situations well, and I 
     learned to recognize and exploit an opposing fighter's 
     weaknesses. I could hit hard, and I could take a punch.

  Mr. President, you and I know that is a perfect background for the 
business we are in today.
  With scholarship money Mike O'Callaghan had helped put together for 
him, Harry Reid left for the College of Southern Utah in Cedar City. He 
hated being so far away from Landra, so he moved back to Henderson for 
the summer.
  Despite the best efforts of Landra's father to discourage him, Harry 
married Landra. They eloped in September of 1959. The newly married 
couple moved to Logan, UT, where he would

[[Page 18623]]

finish college while renting from a loving Mormon family, Matthew and 
Louise Bird. Harry Reid and Landra decided to join the Church of Jesus 
Christ of Latter Day Saints based on this wonderful family who served 
as their landlords. He told me many times that he didn't come from a 
religious family. In his book, he said that the only family religion he 
remembered was their devotion and love for Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 
his house.
  Mike O'Callaghan left teaching high school for Democratic politics at 
that point, and he urged Harry to move to Washington, DC, to attend law 
school. Harry Reid put himself through law school by working nights as 
a U.S. Capitol police officer. In his book are pictures of Harry in 
uniform as a Capitol police officer--a job that O'Callaghan had helped 
line up for him--when he was a law student.
  He returned to Nevada after law school and served as Henderson city 
attorney before being elected to the Nevada Assembly in 1968.
  In 1970, at age 30, Harry Reid ran for Lieutenant Governor of Nevada, 
with his friend and mentor Mike O'Callaghan running for Governor. They 
won the race, and Harry Reid served as Lieutenant Governor from 1971 
until 1974, becoming a friend to my mentor Paul Simon, who was then 
Lieutenant Governor of Illinois.
  Harry lost his race for the U.S. Senate in 1974 when the seat was 
vacated by Alan Bible, but he lost by fewer than 600 votes. Governor 
O'Callaghan then asked him to serve as chairman of the Nevada Gaming 
Commission.
  When Nevada's population growth led to an additional seat in Congress 
in 1982, Harry Reid ran for the new seat and won, and that is when I 
first met him. He served two terms in the House from 1983 to 1987 
before running for the Senate. In 1986 Reid won the Democratic 
nomination for the Senate seat of retiring two-term incumbent 
Republican Senator Paul Laxalt.
  From 1999 to 2005 Harry Reid served as Senate Democratic whip, as 
minority whip from 1999 to 2001 and again 2003 to 2005, and then as 
majority whip from 2001 to 2003. During those years as whip, Harry Reid 
lived on the floor of the Senate. He developed a real understanding not 
just of the rules and procedures of the Senate but of the institution 
and the Members.
  Mike O'Callaghan died of a heart attack while attending daily 
Catholic mass in 2004, so he didn't live to see his good friend elected 
as minority leader in 2005 or, obviously, as majority leader in the 
Senate. But I know that every single day Harry serves in public life, 
Mike O'Callaghan is in his heart.
  I listened this morning to some of the analysts about what just 
happened with this historic vote yesterday in the Senate. Some of them 
this morning, who know a little bit about what really happens here, 
were diminishing the role played by Harry Reid. I can tell everyone 
that on the day leading up to the vote, the last day, December 31, I 
spent the better part of 16 hours in Harry's office as the negotiations 
went back and forth. There were three parties to that negotiation: 
Senator McConnell, the President of the United States, and Harry Reid. 
There was not a minute that passed that e-mails were not transferred 
back and forth to put together the coalition that passed this historic 
measure and avoided the economic disaster that otherwise would have 
occurred. It was not the first time I have seen Harry in that 
position--behind closed doors, without a lot of fanfare, playing a 
critical role in the passage of legislation that really makes a 
difference for the average working families of America.
  A few years ago I worked with him as he led the effort to pass the 
Health Care Reform Act, a measure on which I believe he shares my 
thinking--it is one of the most important pieces of legislation we have 
ever worked on in our lives. It never, ever would have become law if it 
were not for his skill, determination, and the trust the Democratic 
majority had in their leader, Harry Reid.
  This is a day, of course, in Nevada history as much as American 
history as Harry becomes the longest serving Congressman and Senator in 
the State of Nevada.
  I recall one particular visit to his office. I dropped in frequently 
there to see what was going on and to chat with him about the business 
of the Senate and life itself. When I came in, I saw a young rock group 
called the Killers sitting in his office. Yes, that is their name, the 
Killers, and they are from Nevada. Harry told me this young group, 
popular as they are in other places, was especially popular in Nevada 
because they performed the Nevada State song, which is entitled ``Home 
Means Nevada.'' When I think about this historic moment today when 
Harry becomes part of the history of his State, I recall one stanza 
from that song. It says, ``Deep in the heart of the golden west, home 
means Nevada to me.'' In all of my conversations over all the years, 
time and again the conversations always return to his home State of 
Nevada, his hometown of Searchlight, and the people he loves so much to 
represent in the Senate.
  It has been an honor to serve with this great man. I am glad he 
achieved this great moment in history on behalf of Nevada and the 
United States.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader.
  Mr. REID. No one would believe this, but I did not know Senator 
Durbin was going to say a word. Most of what he said is unimportant, 
but I appreciate his efforts to try to make me better than what I am. I 
really do appreciate his friendship.
  We came as a couple of anxious people to the House of Representatives 
30 years ago. Speaking for both of us--and I can do that--it was such a 
wonderful experience. During the first 3 or 4 months I was in the House 
of Representatives, I kept thinking I was going to have to pay somebody 
because I was having such a good time. It took me a while to figure out 
that the taxpayers were paying me for doing a job that was so much fun.
  I appreciate very much Senator Durbin's friendship. I so admire and 
appreciate him for all he has done for me, the State of Illinois, and 
the country. He is absolutely right about this--he had a mentor by the 
name of Paul Simon who had the good fortune to serve, as we were both 
Lieutenant Governors at or near the same time. We served in the House 
of Representatives together and we served in the Senate together. What 
a wonderful human being. Senator Durbin and I have talked about this. 
Senator Simon was to Dick Durbin what Mike O'Callaghan was to me. He 
was not only the toughest man I ever knew but the most honest. When he 
would drive, he would never, ever exceed a posted speed limit. He is 
somebody whom I will always remember. I could never be like him.
  In addition to being tough and honest, he could swear like no one we 
have ever heard, but only he could do it, this massive man who had 
almost 200 amateur fights before going to Korea and losing his leg. He 
was such an exemplary person in my life. So I appreciate Senator Durbin 
mentioning him. But to me, he was like this great man Paul Simon. I 
don't know how many books he ended up writing. I am sure it is 15 or 
20. He never went to college. He was a brilliant man. So I thank 
Senator Durbin very much. I appreciate it a lot.

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