Rachel Maddow

And we talked about this a little bit at the top, but –

The subtitle of your book is How Harry Reid Remade the Rules and Showed Democrats How to Fight.

I, too, miss him.

I'm one of those people who used to get handwritten notes from him and the occasional phone call from him, except I wasn't a senator, so he wasn't flattering me or wishing me happy birthday.

It was always him taking issue with something that I'd gotten wrong or that I hadn't –

I had mentioned him in a way that he didn't think was exactly right to take an issue with me.

He wasn't mean, but he was really pushy.

And I miss that.

I do.

But I also miss the kind of advice –

Yeah.

What advice do you think he'd give Democrats right now about how to win what might be the most important political fight in the history of this country?

Yeah, and we think so much in terms of the...

You know, where various Democratic leaders are on the ideological number line, you know, and for Harry Reid, that was just never the most important thing about him.

The most important thing about him was what you just said in terms of knowing when moderation, not ideological moderation, but tactical moderation.

was inappropriate, and it was actually time to go for broke.

He could not only name those times, he could do it in a way that I think – well, that I'm missing now.

Harry Reid was raised in the tiny town of Searchlight, Nevada, with no running water, no indoor plumbing.

His mother did laundry for brothels.

He was –