Harry Reid, the by-turns scrappy, mild-mannered and acid-tongued former Democratic Senate leader, has died of pancreatic cancer. Reid was 82.
Reid was a dominating figure in Democratic politics for decades, using his home base in Nevada to rise to the top of the Senate. As majority leader from 2007 to 2015, Reid proved a steady hand, guiding passage of the bank bailouts, the Recovery Act and the Dodd/Frank re-regulation of Wall Street. He also won the landmark passage of Obamacare in 2010. Serving in Congress for more than three decades, Reid left his mark by building a political machine that has turned the once-purple state dependably blue. His political clout also helped halt construction of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository outside sprawling Las Vegas.
For his many accomplishments, Reid’s leadership tenure was also defined by his Republican counterpart, Mitch…
