Deeply good man from searchlight democratic leaders pay tribute ...

LAS VEGAS — President Biden and former president Barack Obama, speaking at former Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid’s memorial service Saturday, lavished praise on Reid’s pragmatic, dealmaking style, at times suggesting a pointed contrast with today’s all-or-nothing politics.

“At a time when so many Americans apply strict purity tests to politicians … Harry had a different view,” Obama said. “He didn’t believe in highfalutin’ theories or rigid ideologies.”

He added that “in the battle between perfection and progress, Harry always chose progress,” and that Reid had “qualities that at this particular moment in our history seem especially relevant.”

Biden, who served with Reid for decades in the Senate, portrayed him as someone who worked out agreements and stuck to them. “If he gave you his word, he kept it. You could bank on it,” Biden said. “That’s how we got so much done.”

Biden also noted: “None of it was easy. Not a lot of it was particularly popular when he was doing it.”

In recent months, Biden and his White House have made it clear they have felt burned by lawmakers whose commitments they felt were less reliable, notably Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.).

Leading Democrats and hundreds of former staffers descended on this desert city to honor Reid, who died in December. Saturday’s service came with the Democratic Party at a crossroads, as the second half of Biden’s agenda is in jeopardy and many in the party expect significant losses in the midterm elections.

Against that backdrop, several of the leaders appeared to feel nostalgic for Reid’s hard-hitting but often effective tactics.

The service, held in the Smith Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Las Vegas, was also attended by Vice President Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff, as well as the current Democratic leaders of the House and Senate.

Reid was first elected to Congress in 1982 but made his mark in the Senate, which he joined after winning a 1986 race and then rose to become Senate Minority leader in 2005. He went on to serve as Senate majority leader in 2007, after Democrats retook the majority through 2015, when they lost it again.

Obama described his unlikely bond with Reid.

“Given how different our backgrounds were, I did not know how well Harry and I would hit it off,” Obama said, recalling that an early sit-down in Reid’s office lasted a mere 10 minutes — which another senator reassured him was actually long for an audience with Reid.

Obama noted that Reid encouraged him to run for president in 2008, at a time when few thought he could win and many other Democrats were coalescing around Hillary Clinton. He also credited Reid with helping to enact many of the biggest accomplishments of his presidency, including a $787 billion stimulus package.

“Few people have done more for this state and this country than this driven, brilliant, sometimes irascible, deeply good man from Searchlight, Nevada,” Obama said.

Most dramatically, Reid was able to wrangle the Senate’s 58 Democrats and two independents to approve the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which came to be known as Obamacare.

Several speakers took note of Reid’s unlikely rise as a native of the tiny town of Searchlight who had to hitchhike to high school, had a stint as a boxer and lost several elections early in his career. “He never gave up,” Biden said.

Once he became the Senate Democratic leader, “like every great leader, he led the Democratic caucus not just by speaking but by listening,” Biden said.

The president also joked about the contrast between his own reputation for long-windedness and Reid’s laconic style. “Harry and I both liked to talk a lot,” Biden said, adding, “I’m just testing whether you’re asleep yet.”

On Capitol Hill, Reid had a reputation as a terse, sometimes pugnacious figure who was not afraid of political infighting.

But the speakers said that reflected a plain-spoken integrity rather than harshness. Obama spoke affectionately of Reid as “curmudgeonly” and noted that “Harry was not a schmoozer or a backslapper.”

And he referred to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who had spoken before him and described Reid as reluctant to criticize other senators.

“I heard Speaker Pelosi say she never heard him say anything bad about any of his colleagues,” Obama said, adding to laughter, “I don’t know about that, Nancy.”

Various speakers also described Reid’s habit of abruptly hanging up the phone when he felt a conversation was over, often to the surprise of the person on the other end. “Every time I hear a dial tone, I think of Harry,” Biden said.

Pelosi boasted jokingly that over the years, she had the honor of being hung up on by Reid more than anyone else. “Click,” Pelosi said, recounting the sound of a phone conversation with Reid ending.

“He was a man of few words — and he wanted everyone else to be a person of few words,” she added.

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) offered another picture of Reid, recounting a moment when he saw Reid engage in what he said was a passionate kiss with a woman other than his wife.

It was election night 2006, when Democrat Claire McCaskill won her race in Missouri, a victory that gave control of the Senate to Democrats, and Reid rushed over and kissed McCaskill through the television screen.

“His lips remained attached to the TV screen for a full 10 seconds,” Schumer said. “I had to get up and wipe the copious spittle off the TV screen.”

He also said that Reid was open to change, calling him a leader who knew “the Senate must adapt” — possibly a reference to an upcoming vote on changing the chamber’s rules to allow consideration of a voting rights measure.

“As we confront the challenges coming weeks and months ahead, I take comfort knowing that Harry is with us,” Schumer said.

But much of the talk revolved around Reid’s no-nonsense style, including those telephone hang-ups.

“One former colleague said, ‘To Harry, ‘Goodbye’ was an unnecessary word,’ ” Obama said. “It might not have been necessary for Harry, but it is for us. Goodbye, Harry. Thank you for everything.”