The ferocious partisanship and explosive language was revived on the Republican side long before Harry Reid.  I believe it started with Barry Goldwater as he began the resurrection of conservative "ideology" as apologist for conscienceless capitalism.  Sometimes you can only fight fire with fire and Reid does that.  If some of what he states isn't true far too much is, a sad commentary on the devolution of Republicans from a honorable opposition, agreeing in principle on common goals for the nation but differing in methods to achieve those goals, into the party that has the sole purpose of freeing greed from all moral and legal restraint (Reid's claim of establishing an oligarchy) and catering to the hateful and fearful as a base of power, the only people gullible enough to offer themselves up as unwitting sacrificial lambs to corporate rule.