Former U.S. rep discusses state of Democrats

MARBLEHEAD – Former U.S. Rep. Michael J. Harrington, who represented the Salem area from 1969-1978, had some advice for Marblehead’s Democratic Town Committee and Democrats in general in the wake of last Tuesday’s special election.That election generated national headlines when Massachusetts elected Scott Brown, its first Republican U.S. Senator since 1978.As far as Harrington is concerned, that so-called upset has been coming for a long time.Harrington created national headlines himself in 1969 when he was elected in a special election match-up that became a referendum on the Vietnam War, a war he opposed. During his tenure Congress forced the 1974 resignation of President Richard Nixon over Watergate and in 1975 Harrington accused the CIA of maintaining a secret operation to overthrow a leftist government in Chile and replace it with a right-wing dictatorship. Some members of the House attempted to censure him for his role in this public disclosure, but the censure motion was dismissed on a technicality. In 1978 he stepped down to seek a higher-paying job.In a farewell interview in the Wall Street Journal that fall, Harrington questioned the relevance of Congress, criticized the “gray and uninspired” new breed of House members and even found a good word for Nixon – “at least his policies took chances.” He accused his colleagues of practicing “collective avoidance” and immersing themselves in trivia and routine instead of practicing leadership.Harrington’s views seem to have changed very little, if at all. He told the Democrats Monday evening that Washington seems “immunized from the vagaries of the real world.”In the face of what he called “Republican hypocrisy,” Harrington said Democrats need to develop “people with courage.”He blamed the intensified war in Afghanistan to the Democratic Party’s historic fear of looking weak – of being the party that “lost China (to the Communists in the 1940s).”Asked about the 2009 focus on Health Care Reform, Harrington said, “They made a hash of it – turning it over to Congress and expecting some enlightened risk-taking defies reality.”The Tea Party groups, with their rhetoric about taking back America, resonate with people who have lost ground in the current economy, people who feel threatened.Although he admires the factiousness that he sees as America’s backbone, today’s lack of civility – a congressman telling President Obama “You lie” during a speech – could never have happened to President Nixon, who appears to have stretched the truth on more than one occasion. “With district lines redrawn so that many seats are out of play we’re likely to get more of that kind of person,” he said.He urged Democrats to find “relevance, timeliness and a sense of reality and candor.””People will accept a great deal of straight talk if they think you’re trying to do more than avoid the issues,” he said.