"He was raised in almost Dickensian circumstances in tiny Searchlight, Nev.: 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.... [H]e wielded an irreverent sense of humor, but could be brusque, often not even saying goodbye to colleagues at the end of a phone call.... He deemed President George W. Bush 'a loser' while addressing a group of high school juniors in Nevada in 2005, mused about the body odor of Washington’s tourists a few years later and, when Mr. Obama first ran for president, in 2008, said the country’s first Black president could be elected because he spoke 'with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.'... It was Mr. Reid who saw Mr. Obama’s potential for a successful run at the White House when many Democrats were rallying behind Hillary Clinton.... [H]e sought to undermine Mitt Romney’s presidential candidacy in 2012 by repeatedly, and without evidence, claiming that Mr. Romney had gone a decade without paying income tax. Mr. Reid was even more contemptuous of former President Donald J. Trump, calling him 'a racist' and 'sexual predator' who achieved prominence only because of the fortune he had inherited. Being born into wealth was, of course, alien to Mr. Reid. At the end of his career — after great financial and political success and raising five children, one of whom became an elected official in Las Vegas — he relished showing visitors his dusty hometown.... '[B]e proud of who you are, you can’t escape who you are,' Mr. Reid said in his Senate farewell speech, adding... 'Harry Reid, the guy from Searchlight.'"

From the NYT obituary for Harry Reid.