Does People Do It?: A Memoir Volume 5

Although he served less than two terms in the U.S. Senate, Fred Harris was a prominent presidential candidate in 1976 better known than many senior senators, and he made his mark on the watershed 1960's and early 70's. In this genuine, warm, informative and fascinating (at least if you love politics) memoir, Harris looks back on a life story worth telling, and reading. Harris talks of growing up poor but proud in Dust Bowl Oklahoma, where, even as a young boy, he worked on harvest crews throughout the Midwest. In high school he met and fell in love with a Comanche Indian, LaDonna, who would be his first wife, mother of his children, and a respected political activist in her own right. Harris recalls his entry into oil dominated Oklahoma politics in the 1950s, and his challenge to keep his liberal view modified in a conservative state. After a losing race for Governor, he won a special U.S. Senate race to succeed the powerful Robert Kerr, who died suddenly of a heart attack on New Years Day, 1963. Harris would become friends with, and tells many tales about, some of the 60s' most powerful political figures; the great rivals Lyndon B. Johnson and Robert F. Kennedy, and, perhaps Harris' favorite politician of all, LBJ's Vice president, Hubert H. Humphrey. It was a tough balancing act, and Harris said that one of his toughest decisions of all was to serve as Humphrey's national campaign co-chair (with Walter Mondale) in 1968, even as RFK had entered the race. Equally challenging for Harris was the Vietnam War. Although opposed to the war, loyalty to the Johnson-Humphrey administration caused Harris to delay his public opposition to the war after many other liberals had broken with LBJ, a decision that Harris regrets. A pro peace plank championed by Harris at that year's convention was torpedoed by pro-Johnson hawks. Harris warmly recalls his many visits to Hyannis Port, where he saw first hand both the fun loving and ultra competitive tendencies of the Kennedys. On one occasion, the non sailing Harris had the bad misfortune to be assigned to Ted Kennedy's crew, and found the angry and yelling younger brother to take the sailing race somewhat more seriously than even his hard charging brother, Bobby. Dealing with LBJ on many occasions was similar to Teddy on his sailboat, especially when the president was unhappy with the stark "white racist" findings of the Kerner commission that Harris co-chaired with New York Mayor John Lindsay in 1967. Still, Harris saw Johnson's warm, witty and compassionate side, and saw the great legislative leader as one of our greatest presidents. Harris' liberal views and brief chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee made him ripe for re-election in 1972, and he decided to run for president. Fundraising troubles derailed that effort, but he soon set out for a long grassroots effort for the '76 nomination. One of a dozen candidates, Harris recalls the frustrating of being labeled a radical who coul