Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev. walks to the Senate floor on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, June 27, 2013. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has a "heightened sense of smell" and combined with next to no verbal filter, that can lead to some fairly uncomfortable moments with the senator, according to a new book.
"This Town," by New York Times Magazine national political correspondent Mike Leibovich, is a character-by-oddball-character look at the incestuous culture of Washington, D.C. Incestuous, not in the sexual sense, but in the politically opportunistic sense. Everyone's out to make a name for themselves -- a few million bucks, too, if they can -- and there's little shame in how they wheel and deal their way to do it.
TheBlaze obtained an advance copy of the book, which devotes a fair amount of copy to the peculiarities of Reid. One account details a past TV interview Reid was scheduled to participate in:
Reid was once being wired up for a television interview in Las Vegas and was overcome by the need to tell the technician fastening his microphone that he had "terrible breath." When an aide asked Reid later why he would possibly say such a thing, Reid calmly explained that it was true.
Awkward.
Reid famously complained in 2008 of the "smelly" tourists who come out from the summer heat into the Capitol for tours.
Furthermore, Reid "can be harshly judgement of fat people and other ill-conditioned creatures," according to the book, a detail which has been written about in the past. On one occasion, in the twilight of the Bush (43) administration, President George W. Bush invited Reid to the Oval Office for coffee. When Bush's Scottish Terrier entered the scene, Reid told Bush, "Your dog is fat." (Reid admitted to saying this in a 2010 profile that noted his Senate staffers were "suspiciously thin.")
And one more: The rehashes the fact that Reid nearly never says "goodbye" when hanging up the phone at the end of a conversation. Why? Efficiency reasons.
"He hung up on me again," Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) is quoted as saying at the end of one such call with Reid. The two senators are described as having an indelibly contentious relationship.
"This Town" officially releases July 16.
