Last week, The Courage Campaign sent out an e-mail announcing a screening of Robert Greenwald's Iraq For Sale. The screening was to be held in Culver City on Wednesday, would be hosted by Rep. Jane Harman (CA-36) and feature a Q&A panel that included Harman and our chair, Rick Jacobs, who is also a co-executive producer of the film. Moments after it went out I got an instant message from a friend:

Is Jane Harman part of the Courage Campaign?

I responded:

Not really. We're spreading the word about the screening because Rick's on the panel.

Pause.

Good.

The hostility that came through the IM screen was palpable and he is hardly alone in his contempt. After all, as ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, Harman oversaw the severe intelligence failure that led to the invasion of Iraq.

More over the flip…

Glenn Greenwald reminds us of some of her more egregious past statements:

"There's a strong intelligence case that Iraq has not destroyed its weapons of mass destruction and is building the capability to use them," said Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), ranking member of the House intelligence committee. "There's a growing al Qaeda presence in Iraq, and I think the case can be made that there is a growing affiliation" between Baghdad and terrorist groups.

Not only that, she was right there alongside her Republican colleagues in support of Bush's warrantless wiretapping program:

Some key Democrats even defend it. Says California's Jane Harman, ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee: "I believe the program is essential to U.S. national security and that its disclosure has damaged critical intelligence capabilities."

So it's no wonder that one of Nancy Pelosi's first decisions as Speaker-elect was to pass up Harman for chairmanship of the Intelligence Committee. It was announced today that her pick is Rep. Silvestre Reyes of Texas.

In the Q&A after the film, Harman was evasive on the question of whether she would win the chairmanship:

That's a decision of speaker-elect Pelosi. She'll be announcing her decision shortly.

But there was something in her face…you could tell she already knew the bad news. You could tell she was pained by her past decisions and actually wanted to make them right, and not just because Marcy Winograd's primary challenge may be fiercer next time around; it wasn't all about self-preservation. Harman was using this screening to confront her constituents face to face, to try to make amends. Considering the hostility that was present in that room that night, rivaling that of my friend's, it struck me as pretty brave actually.

After Harman half-addressed the issue of the chairmanship, the local assemblyman moderating the Q&A suggested that we "move on" and indeed tried to switch topics but the audience would have none of it, one gentleman in particular.

How can we move on, we have 140,000 of our kids over there, almost 3,000 have died. You expect their families to just move on!?

Harman looked pained. She spoke:

Look, the intelligence was wrong. I was wrong.

The gentleman, clearly moved by rage, no grand public speaker he, went on:

I knew the intelligence was cooked. I knew there was not reason to go to war. How did I know that and you didn't!?

Harman responded.

Well, my husband agreed with you. I was wrong, you were right. Congratulations.

Now on paper, that may look snarky but the way she delivered it, somehow it wasn't. It was sincere, not that the guy was looking for congratulations, but her apology, her admission that she was wrong and the humilty with which she admitted he was right seemed to go a long way to ease the tension in the room and to heal some of the anger toward Harman.

In addition to apologizing, Harman expressed her commitment to not making the same mistakes again.

I don't buy the intelligence on Iran and no one is going to be able to convince the Congress otherwise, as long as I'm there.

She also acknowledged she was wrong on the warrantless wiretapping program.

The world has changed since 9/11. That doesn't mean we have to change. Our challenge is to keep true to ourselves. It is our challenge to protect our citizens without abridging our laws and constitution. That may mean new laws consistent with our constitution and values.

And…

I will work to force the White House to bring the warrantless wiretapping program under FISA. If the government can't prove cause, then they can't listen. Period.

And as talk returned to the topic of Iraq For Sale, Harman called for accountability.

I agree about accountability and transparency in Congress…Democrats have been shut out from our oversight role for six years on party-line votes.

As for the specific issue the film raises about the Bush administration's privatization of the war in Iraq:

Congress can and should outlaw sole-source contracting; and criminal liabillity for the private contractors is not off the table at this point.

Ironically, of course, Pelosi's passing over of Harman for chair of the Intelligence committee was the first sign that she is serious about holding members of Congress accountable for their votes and actions too; Democrats as well as Republicans. I don't know that Harman had that in mind, necessarily, however.

At the end of the Q&A session, having heard a repentant Congresswoman Harman, Rick Jacobs captured the feel of the room in his closing remarks:

Yes, mistakes have been made and I appreciate what I'm hearing Congresswoman Harman say about accountability. Voters had their chance to hold her accountable in June and again in November and they chose to re-elect her overwhelmingly.

It was a more eloquent way of saying "move on" and it came at a point when the room was ready to hear it. Even Harman's most vocal detractor seemed on board.

It was really a pretty fascinating thing to witness, this mea culpa from a Congresswoman, clearly an attempt at redemption. And what's even more fascinating is the language she used: "accountability," "values," "oversight."

Sound familiar?

As someone said at an election protection event earlier this year as they introduced Marcy Winograd, Harman's people-powered primary challenger:

Winograd kept Jane Harman honest.

And so did we. And in the process we made her a better member of Congress, just in time to actually make a difference in the majority.

So after witnessing Harman squirm as she faced those she actually works for face to face, I came to realize that maybe a Congressman Harman put through the ringer, made to account for her decisions and made to face her constituents would ultimately be a positive. Sure it would be great to have Congresswoman Winograd added to the Progressive Caucus as opposed to Harman's membership in the New Democrat Coalition, but here we have an avowed moderate speaking to progressives using the language of progressives. Because she's seen what happens if she doesn't.

That's where our power lies.