Customer Reviews

The Good Fight

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

In response to the previous review, it is unfair to rate the book based on one's personal feeling about Reid. I have just begun reading the book and am moved by the very personal look at Reid and what has compelled him in this life. Reid does not present himself as perfect, but reveals the man he is - which is a man of honor, ethics, dedication, and love of country.

He has spoken out against George Bush's policies in a way that other members of Congress have failed to do. The passages that reveal insiders moments with George Bush offer personal snapshots of a President who is most probably the worst President so far that we've ever known. Reid shines a light on why that is true as he describes Bush's utter lack of interest during briefings and meetings - his inability to ask questions, a lack of curiousity that speaks of a lack of depth, of intelligence, of critical thinking skills, of leadership. It is frightening, nothing new, but frightening to have this nuanced understanding of what has been happening in the Bush White House.

Reid is eloquent and passionate and this book offers an inside look at the man and his politics. I recommend it to others who are feeling discouraged by the political system and its machinations - especially this election season - and who need a shot in the arm to energize them and help them roll their sleeves up and get back to work. Our country needs us!

Majority Leader Harry Reid has written his book with a rare degree of raw openness and honesty. It is am anazing portrait of his internal and external journey from the small railraod tie house in Searchlight, Nevada, through his hitchhike travels to attend high school in another town, to meeting his beloved, college education, cleaning the mob out of Las Vegas casinos, all the way to being Majority Leader in the U.S. Senate. Rarely has any man revealed his own experiences and feelings about them so thoroughly as Senator Reid has in this book. Along the way, he explains to the reader how and why his political views were developed. There are echoes of Harry Truman's loyalty to the man who supported him in the early days of his political life. Reid's is a fascinating and seldom told American story. His bottom line, that social security is the best thing to come along since the loaves and fishes, is a bottom line broadly shared across America. He's one of my heroes.

While I enjoyed Senator Reid's narrative of his life experiences (growing up in Searchlight, his education, his religious conversion, his career as a Las Vegas attorney, and his time spent on the Nevada Game Commission), I was disappointed with the events he shares during his time in the Senate. He repeatedly descends into partisan politics and hyperbole. For example, he writes that, "George W. Bush will rank among the worst presidents--if not the worst--in the history of our country." While I do not agree with much of President Bush's tenure, Reid's assessment is disrespectful, mean-spirited, and certainly over the top. I also read Clarence Thomas' biography, My Grandfather's Son, who admirably avoids this type of bashing. Reid spends 6 pages (a bit much) discussing Jim Jeffords change in party affiliation. He praises Jeffords for his "act of bravery". It seems it would have been braver for Senator Jeffords to resign his senate position since he felt he could no longer represent those who voted for him.

Reid is quite candid about some of his personal failings, but he does not mention how he has personally benefited from his powerful position. What about his land deal? Or how his son and son-in-law were generously paid as special interest lobbyists? Positions they would not have enjoyed had they not been related. What about his several other embarrassing missteps?

As someone who shares a religion with Senator Reid, I had hoped he would do a better job explaining why I should not doubt his honesty or integrity. It seems to me he merely represents why so many of the American public are dissatisfied with their elected officials.

Very much enjoyed this book. Quite inspiring. A lot of tenacity and love in that family!
Highly recommend! Wish them all well and hope his re-election is successful.

With the exception of 1 or 2 chapters early on, the book was a page turner. I couldn't put it down. The book is a worthwhile read whatever your political persuasion.

Jerry

I would first like to make it clear that I am not what you would call a political "animal". Though of course I knew that Harry Reid is a United States Senator, I did not buy this book for his political beliefs or stance on current issues. I had seen a couple of interviews with him on TV regarding this book that all centered on his "hard-scrabble" background and family issues, and that's what led to me to buy this book. I don't know of any American today who isn't sick and tired of this "ENDLESS- PRIMARY-ELECTION" with its continuous mud-slinging, back-stabbing, lies and innuendos. Maybe it's just the season, but Senator Reid's political chapters seem to be infected with the same diatribes. BUT...

The rest of the book which entails Reid's personal life is ABSOLUTELY FASCINATING! I think maybe the Senator didn't realize how interesting and entertaining his tales of his days as a lawyer and the CHAIRMANSHIP OF THE NEVADA GAMING COMMISSION are. Harry was born in a tiny mining town in Searchlight, Nevada. The leading industry in town when he was born wasn't mining, it was prostitution. Searchlight had thirteen whorehouses and no churches. As a child, Harry learned how to swim at a whorehouse. His parents had problems with alcohol and at times would have physical fights in front of their children. Harry's statement regarding this situation is what starts to endear the reader to this "man" rather than politics. "I AM NOT CONFESSIONAL BY NATURE, SO SOME OF THESE THINGS ARE SURPASSING HARD FOR ME TO SAY. I LOVED MY PARENTS VERY MUCH. THEY GAVE LIFE EVERYTHING THEY HAD. BUT NO CHILD SHOULD BE RAISED THE WAY I WAS RAISED." The house he was raised in was nothing more than a shack made out of railroad ties. His Father was fifty-seven-years-old when he committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. "The last year of his life, he had been sober-no more masking his demons with alcohol. Harry and his brothers still joke that it was being sober that killed him."

The author shares a number of his legal cases that ranged from "Martinez v. Safeway. This was one of many cases that Harry's firm did not want him to handle, since the client had no money. Harry defended Joyce Martinez a cocktail waitress who was arrested at her place of work for supposedly writing bad checks. She not only didn't write the checks but Safeway thinking it was above the law, skipped steps that needed to be taken during the legal process. Harry won the case and Joyce's award was the largest in history in a case of malicious prosecution. Another case he defended against was entitled: "United States of America vs. Four Machine Guns and One Silencer.

In 1972 Howard Hughes owned five hotels in Las Vegas and no one in Vegas had seen him. As Chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission Harry was ordered by the Governor to get Howard Hughes to appear at a meeting, or Hughes's gaming licenses would be revoked. Harry's reaction was: "He had not granted an interview in twenty years. HE HAS NOT BEEN SEEN IN TWENTY YEARS, and you want me to arrange a meeting with a man who had refused to see ANYONE for decades. Okay, I would do it." Harry had to track down the "Mormon Mafia", who were a group of loyal employees that Hughes had surrounded himself with. "Hughes felt that because of their devout faith, they were the only people he could trust." They tracked Hughes down in Europe and arranged a one hour meeting in London. The Governor and the Chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board flew to London and met with Hughes for one hour. Reid never got to meet him face to face but the Governor told him that Hughes "looked emaciated, with sunken eyes, free-range fingernails, and a mop of long, stringy hair." After the meeting Hughes's gaming license was renewed.

There was an incident while Harry was gaming commissioner when he was approached by an underworld character and offered a bribe. Harry became part of a sting operation and when the FBI burst into the room to arrest the mob guy, Harry lost his temper and thought "How could they think they could do this to me? I was so angry I went up to the gangster and said: You SOB, you tried to bribe me! I lunged at the gangster and got him in a choke hold. I was in a rage. The FBI agents had to pull me off of the criminal." Harry and his family started to get death threats and they even tried to bomb his cars. Harry decided then to get into politics.

As I said in the opening of my review, Senator Reid might not fully appreciate how fascinating and engaging his stories are. He says he has many more of them. I would wholeheartedly recommend the Senator write another book fully dedicated to the non-political parts of his life. Near the very end of the book, Harry receives a request from his sixteen-year-old granddaughter, as part of a project in her school to have a family member write about an experience that helped shape their testimony about faith. One part of his response touched me deeply, and I couldn't think of a better way to end my review.

"MY OUTLOOK ON LIFE -MY-FAITH- IS BEST SUMMARIZED BY AN INSCRIPTION FOUND IN A COLOGNE, GERMANY, CELLAR WHERE JEWS HID FROM THE NAZIS WHICH READ, "I BELIEVE IN THE SUN EVEN WHEN IT IS NOT SHINING. I BELIEVE IN LOVE EVEN WHEN NOT FEELING IT. I BELIEVE IN G-D EVEN WHEN HE IS SILENT."

The book was in good shaape. The book itself reflected Senator's Reid's politcal perceptions and hopes during the time he has been in office.

This book is such a good read. I loved it! It gives you a real portrait of the type of person Senator Reid is. The life stories he includes in this book are the kind of stories only those who read the book will have the privilege of knowing.

Highly recommended!

I would venture to say that most of the other reviewers of this book
(so far) haven't bothered to read it, but are instead just teeing off on
Harry Reid because they don't like his politics. I know, reading can be hard,
but do yourself a favor and ignore those other reviews. Read this book.
Like Harry Reid, don't like Harry Reid, whatever. Read this book. It's kind
of an unbelievable American story, shockingly candid, and well told. The odds
of anyone emerging from Searchlight, Nevada, when Reid came up there, and
to then go on to do anything of note, are infinitesimal. But the man we
only know as the soft-spoken, kind of opaque leader of the senate, has
actually lived an astonishing life. To be where he is, an impossible life.
Raised in a broken-down town with 13 whorehouses and no churches, taught honesty
by a "whoremonger" because his parents were too drunk to bother, hitchhikes
across the desert to high school, fist fights with his future father-in-law,
defends a murderer in a case right out of In Cold Blood, take on the mob in
Vegas (blacklists Lefty Rosenthal!) and gets a bomb planted in his car
for his troubles, and now faces his biggest problem - Bush. Unlike many
books by politicians, which are full of falsity and pomposity, The Good Fight
doesn't is told plainly and doesn't prettify anything, isn't pompous, and
doesn't read like a collection of tired speeches. This is a surprising book,
and a good story. Highly recommended.

Let me begin by saying the book is not well written. It is rambling, repetitive, and frequently sounds like an unedited transcript of Harry speaking. For this, I blame the co-author, who is supposed to know something about writing.

Having said that, I found the story engaging and thought provoking. Senator Reid makes no attempt to hide his disdain for Bush Jr., nor does he exempt himself from the extreme partisanship we have seen over the last decade. Even as he presents what is obviously his biased side of the story, I find myself understanding and even agreeing with him.

Modern politics casts everything as black and white (red and blue really), and the media representation IMHO accentuates rather than mitigates this absolute approach. As one who has usually leaned red, I like this guy and admire his accomplishments.