| | | | | |  | | By Ryan Lizza and Rachael Bade | | | |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | HARRY REID's journey from a poverty-stricken rock miner's son to the Senate majority leader was so novelistic the details seem made up. In his obituary, NYT's Jonathan Martin rightly describes Reid , who died Tuesday at 82 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer, growing up "in almost Dickensian circumstances" in Searchlight, down in the tip of Nevada: "His home had no indoor plumbing, his father was an alcoholic miner who eventually died by suicide, and his mother helped the family survive by taking in laundry from local brothels." On the way to the Senate there were stints as an amateur boxer and a Capitol Police officer, several losing campaigns, and positions at the highest levels of Nevada politics. BARACK OBAMA noted in his memoir that throughout this journey Reid "was the first to tell you that he had never lost that chip on his shoulder." In a statement, Senate Minority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL — who described their relationship as "cordial," the senatorial term of art generally used when two politicians are not fond of each other — noted, "You could hardly invent a more quintessentially American story, and it took Harry's legendary toughness, bluntness, and tenacity to make it happen." In 2005, as the new Democratic leader in the Senate, he brought a sharper edge to the job and immediately started to deflate the presidency of GEORGE W. BUSH. "Reid took over as Senate leader when TOM DASCHLE unexpectedly lost in 2004," JIM MESSINA, who saw Reid up close as a staffer in both the Senate and White House, recalled to Playbook. "His party was reeling and in the complete minority. Even before officially taking office as leader, he had decided to pick a fight with the just re -elected Bush over the president's second-term pledge to reform Social Security. He summoned several of us to his unpacked office and said, 'This is the right fight and we will win.' A year later Bush's plan was dead, a year after that Reid was in the majority. He understood politics as both checkers and 3-D chess and he was a true master of the Senate." Reid was as famous for mentoring up-and-coming political talent as he was for abruptly hanging up on senators and presidents without saying goodbye. In the many tributes to Reid since his death was confirmed Tuesday, we were struck by how many Democrats, including many younger ones, fondly recalled his role as a source of wisdom and encouragement. "Sometimes, in a quiet or difficult moment, Harry Reid would reach out," Rep. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-N.Y.) wrote. "It was like he knew. His counsel, encouragement, kindness, and generosity was so deeply moving. It was sincere. And I will never forget it." "HMR was a great boss, a master legislative and political strategist and I know a lot will be written about all of that," KRISTEN ORTHMAN, who started as an intern for Reid in 2007 and rose to become his comms director by the time she left in 2016, told Playbook. "But the thing I most appreciate about him is how supportive and encouraging he was of women in leadership roles. He surrounded himself with strong women — from his wife LANDRA, to his daughter and granddaughters to the countless staff and advisors. I wouldn't be where I am today without his mentorship." But it was Reid's relationship with Obama that defined his legacy. In the spring of 2006 Reid summoned Obama to his Senate office and secretly encouraged him to run for president at a moment when the freshman senator was about to close the door on the idea, convinced he wasn't ready. "I think you can win," he told Senator Obama. Three years later, in the aftermath of the financial crisis, Reid ushered President Obama's agenda through the Senate. It was an historical pairing: the highest elected Mormon in America and the highest elected African American in America. (Their House partner, NANCY PELOSI, was the highest elected woman in America.) They had some big victories, including an $800 billion stimulus, the Affordable Care Act, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform bill, the end of Don't Ask Don't Tell, and the confirmation of SONIA SOTOMAYOR and ELENA KAGAN to the Supreme Court. In 2013 he changed Senate rules to eliminate the filibuster for most presidential nominations. In a letter to Reid that he shared publicly Tuesday, Obama wrote, "I wouldn't have been president had it not been for your encouragement and support, and I wouldn't have got most of what I got done without your skill and determination." | | A message from Google: In 2021, the world searched how to conserve. As the world looks to become more sustainable, people are also searching for ways to conserve resources. Search interest for "how to conserve" reached an all-time high worldwide in 2021. Watch Google Year in Search 2021. | | | We reached out to a number of people who knew Reid well and asked them to share their remembrances. Here's some of what we received: Sen. CHRIS COONS (D-Del.): "Somebody said this to me: 'When you meet Harry Reid, just remember, he was a prizefighter. And he wasn't successful because he had the hardest punch. He wasn't successful because he had the longest reach. He won match after match because he just never fell down.' He would let the other boxer exhaust himself beating up on Harry, and then Harry would knock him out. That explained a lot to me about Harry Reid — his persistence, his determination, his ability to absorb a lot of pain and a lot of punishment, but still keep fighting." JIM MANLEY, longtime spokesperson: "Reid had a tough relationship with former President Bush, mostly over the Iraq War, but after the 2008 election he was gracious enough to invite Sen. Reid down to the White House for one last leadership meeting. Of course there was a spray at the top in the Oval Office, and at the end of it President Bush's beloved dog Barney came waddling in. Without skipping a beat Reid looked at the president and said, 'Mr. President, your dog is fat.' "After we left the meeting I asked him why in the hell would you say that. Sen. Reid threw up his hands and said, 'Because he was fat.' (He was.) I worked in the Senate for 21 years, and unlike most politicians, he really was unafraid to mix it up." GENE SPERLING, longtime adviser to BILL CLINTON, Obama and JOE BIDEN: "He used a JACK DEMPSEY reference when he was telling me why I was wrong on a policy issue. After his next meeting with President Obama, I approached him with some questions — not on policy — but that showed I had done some research on his Dempsey story. Best smile I ever got from him. PETE SOUSA later gave me a picture of that moment, which I will always treasure." JIM MESSINA: "One of my favorite things about Reid is that he would never say goodbye on the phone, he would just hang up. You could be giving him good news, bad news, or confessing your truest feelings and all you would hear at the end would be 'click.' President Obama and everyone else got the same treatment. Obama would laugh and say, 'I never get used to that' after Reid hung up on him." JON RALSTON, Nevada's dean of political writers: "Many people will talk about his toughness and ruthlessness. Or the loyalty he inspired. Or what a polarizing figure he was. Or his legion legislative accomplishments. All true. But most do not know about his wry humor. Once on my TV show, I put up the Amazon ranks of our books and asked how his could be so much higher. He deadpanned, 'I'm just a better writer.'" DAVID MEADVIN, Reid's speechwriter from 2006-2009: "I always thought he was someone who lived in the wrong era. He was an incredible operator, and if he had been majority leader before the TV era, he would've been the best ever. His ability to manage his caucus, juggle a hundred things at once and keep everything moving forward was a kind of genius we might never see again. He was the Master of the Senate in every way." REID'S SENATE LEGACY — Burgess Everett chronicles how Reid shaped his successor atop the Senate Dems, current Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER. Obituaries: Nevada Independent … Las Vegas Review-Journal … WaPo … AP … POLITICO Good Wednesday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza, Tara Palmeri. | | | | A message from Google:   As the year comes to a close, see the people, stories, and events the world was searching for. Watch Google Year in Search 2021. | | | BIDEN'S WEDNESDAY: The Bidens will leave Rehoboth Beach, Del., at 5 p.m. and travel to Wilmington, arriving at 6:50 p.m. The White House Covid-19 response team and public health officials are briefing at 11 a.m. THE HOUSE and THE SENATE are out. | | | | POLITICO TECH AT CES 2022 - We are bringing a special edition of the POLITICO Tech newsletter to CES 2022. Written by Alexandra Levine and John Hendel, the newsletter will take you inside the most influential technology event on the planet, featuring every major and emerging industry in the technology ecosystem gathered together in one place. The newsletter runs from Jan. 5-7 and will focus on the public policy related aspects of the gathering. Sign up today to receive exclusive coverage of the Summit. | | | | | PHOTOS OF THE YEAR | 
President Joe Biden and a bipartisan group of senators speak outside the White House on June 24 amid infrastructure negotiations. | Win McNamee/Getty Images | | | PLAYBOOK READS | | THE PANDEMIC RECORD CASES — Almost two years into the pandemic, the U.S. on Tuesday recorded a record high seven-day average of new coronavirus cases. (Big caveat, of course: The holidays cause plenty of data abnormalities.) More from CNN … The D.C. metro area has some of the worst numbers in the country, with hospitalizations rising and the region's new case count setting a record Tuesday. More from WaPo ISOLATION FALLOUT — Scientists and public health experts split Tuesday over the CDC's new guidelines that some people with the coronavirus could leave isolation after five days, NYT's Benjamin Mueller reports. Some called it necessary for the economy and important for mental health, while others warned that "letting hundreds of thousands of infected people forgo those tests — even if, crucially, their symptoms were not entirely gone — risks seeding new cases and heaping even more pressure on already overburdened health systems." — WaPo's Yasmeen Abutaleb, Sean Sullivan and Eli Rosenberg report that worries about too many essential workers being taken out of commission spurred the new rules. STRANDED — "Travel nightmare continues: Another 2,800 flights canceled Tuesday," CNN ALL POLITICS REDISTRICTING ROUNDUP — Michigan has its new, more competitive congressional district lines, adopted by a mix of Democrats, Republicans and independents on the citizen-led redistricting commission. Three of four partisanship measures indicate the new map will favor the GOP, but far less than the post-2010 map did; the current delegation is evenly split. The Detroit Free Press breaks it down — Consider Michigan a new House battleground, write Zach Montellaro and Ally Mutnick, with three likely competitive seats. Republicans could nab anywhere from four to nine of the 13 seats depending on the year. The new map also sets up an incumbent-on-incumbent primary between Democratic Reps. HALEY STEVENS and ANDY LEVIN, who are poised to run in the same district. — And Virginia officially has its new map, as the state Supreme Court took over the process after an independent commission deadlocked. Biden won seven of the 11 new districts, but two are tight and vulnerable for Democrats in a bad year. Democratic Rep. ABIGAIL SPANBERGER will still face a tough decision as her district moves north. More from the Richmond Times-Dispatch MEDIAWATCH FIRST AMENDMENT FILES — The NYT got a bit of good news Tuesday as an appeals court paused for now a New York judge's demand that the newspaper hand over and destroy Project Veritas records. More from Reuters O'DONNELL ON TOP — LAWRENCE O'DONNELL, who four years ago was at risk of losing his job, "has inadvertently become MSNBC's most valuable star; or, at least, its most dependable one, owing to the rare, direct line he enjoys into the Biden White House," Max Tani reports. The reason, in part: "[F]ew, if any, cable hosts have mirrored the president's professional arc as closely as he has." AMERICA AND THE WORLD IT'S A DATE — The U.S. and Russia have set Jan. 10 as the date for new security talks on Ukraine and other issues, followed by a broader meeting Jan. 13, Reuters' Trevor Hunnicutt and Andrew Osborn scooped. CONGRESS THE SPREADING DYSFUNCTION — Congressional ethics investigators are increasingly running up against lawmakers who simply refuse to cooperate, NYT's Luke Broadwater reports, in yet another instance of the legislative branch not working. That includes six of the 14 House members under investigation by the Office of Congressional Ethics this year, the highest rate ever — most recently Reps. MIKE KELLY (R-Pa.) and JIM HAGEDORN (R-Minn.). The bigger picture, experts say, is "a troubling trend in American politics in which improper behavior is no longer a political liability." | | | | A message from Google:   More than ever before, the U.S. searched for "road trip" in 2021. Watch now. | | | POLICY CORNER FED UP — Biden is considering SARAH BLOOM RASKIN for a top post at the Fed, along with economists LISA COOK and PHILIP JEFFERSON, WSJ's Andrew Ackerman and Nick Timiraos scoop. "Ms. Raskin's nomination could mollify progressive Democrats, some of whom opposed Mr. Biden's decision in November to offer a second term to Fed Chairman JEROME POWELL … The potential nominations of Ms. Cook and Mr. Jefferson, who are both Black, would help Mr. Biden achieve his promise to improve diversity atop the central bank." THE RICH GET RICHER — NYT's Jesse Drucker and Maureen Farrell have a deep dive into a tax break called the qualified small business stock exemption, which the Biden administration wants to shrink — but experts say the mega-wealthy could end up avoiding even more taxes. "The story of the tax break is in many ways the story of U.S. tax policy writ large. Congress enacts a loophole-laden law whose benefits skew toward the ultrarich. Lobbyists defeat efforts to rein it in. Then creative tax specialists at law, accounting and Wall Street firms transform it into something far more generous than what lawmakers had contemplated." BEYOND THE BELTWAY THE POLITICIZATION OF EVERYTHING — School boards have emerged as a culture war front around the country the past couple of years. Now, Republicans in several states, including Tennessee and Florida, and national conservative organizations are pushing to make their elections explicitly partisan, report Andrew Atterbury and Juan Perez Jr. "These divides have brought new energy to a long-running debate on the role of overt partisanship in school board campaigns, as prominent conservative groups have called this year for major shifts in the timing of board elections and for voters to see party labels on their school board ballots." CITY OF BROTHERLY LOVE — In Philadelphia, WaPo's Cleve Wootson Jr. examines the explosive Democratic debate on crime between progressive, white DA LARRY KRASNER and Black former Mayor MICHAEL NUTTER, as anger over surging murder numbers breaks down along complex racial and ideological lines. "Philadelphia's political leaders have grasped for solutions, old and new, as the crisis has intensified." CUOMO LATEST — The Westchester County, N.Y., district attorney won't pursue criminal charges against former New York Gov. ANDREW CUOMO, though she said Tuesday that the sexual harassment allegations against him were credible. The Nassau County criminal investigation into Cuomo concluded similarly last week. More from Newsday TRUMP CARDS FORE! — The PGA and the Trump Organization have settled after clashing over the association's decision to move the 2022 PGA Championship from Trump's course in Bedminster, N.J., to Oklahoma. The amount of the settlement was not disclosed. More from the Golf Channel | | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president's ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | Commander Biden enjoyed the beach in Rehoboth. Lou Cannon, political journalist and Reagan biographer, is retiring (to work on his memoir). IN MEMORIAM — "Manuel Perez, former Editorial Director of CNN Digital, dies at 57," by CNN's John Blake and Brandon Griggs MEDIA MOVE — Leila Fadel will be the fourth host of NPR's "Morning Edition" and "Up First," based in D.C. She's currently a Los Angeles-based national correspondent covering race and identity. Announcement ENGAGED — Hari Sevugan, VP for comms at Uniswap Labs and a DNC alum, and Emily Abrams, head of customer experience and comms at portable benefits company Catch, got engaged. He proposed at home by getting her a record player for Christmas and had a record made with the proposal. The couple, who are also both Pete Buttigieg alums, met at the Obama farewell afterparty in Chicago in 2017, where he worked on the campaign and she was a super-volunteer. Instapic WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Susie Xu, executive producer of CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront," and Dave Noone, a senior manager at Deloitte, recently welcomed Margaret Mei Noone, who joins older brothers Nolan and Nicholas. Pic … Another pic BIRTHWEEK (was Tuesday): DFC's Jake Levine … Ed McFadden … Kyle Anderson … Alan Fitts of JPMorgan Chase (43) HAPPY BIRTHDAY: NYT's Katie Rogers and Katie Glueck … Del. Aumua Amata Radewagen (R-American Samoa) … Reihan Salam of the Manhattan Institute … Jeremy Waldstreicher … Exelon's Andrew Malcolm … POLITICO's Holly Otterbein and Grace Goodman … Tom Dickens … Washington Examiner's Grant Addison … Laura Friedel of the Senate Approps Labor-HHS subcommittee …Purple Strategies' Jordan Langdon and Katie Pudwill … Tom Jarriel … Blair Lyman Watters of InterDigital Communications … Maddison Meeks … Mike Siegel … Scott Keyes … Rally's Leo Wallach … Kevin Griffis … Ashleigh Banfield … NBC News PR's Claudia Meyer-Samargia … Boris Medzhibovsky ... Rob Burgess … Gracie Brandsgard … Laura Clawson … Mike Woicekowski … IOC President Thomas Bach … Kaiser Health News' Rachel Bluth … Edelman's Alexander Romano … Maria Randazzo of Dewey Square Group Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@politico.com. Playbook couldn't happen without our editor Mike Zapler, deputy editor Zack Stanton and producers Allie Bice, Eli Okun and Garrett Ross. | | A message from Google: Google Year in Search 2021: Activities to do with kids. This year more than ever, the world searched for activities to do with their kids. The top trending search worldwide was "camping list with kids", as families packed their bags for the great outdoors. Explore Google Year in Search 2021. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Ottawa Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
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