At the DNC in Denver last summer, Rep. Phil Hare recalled how, when he first arrived on Capitol Hill, House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-WI) greeted him this way: "Your labor's guy."  Hare responded, "Mr. Chairman, you can carve that on my tombstone."

In today's Washington Post, columnist Harold Meyerson profiles Hare and recalls his labor history through the prism of Hart Schaffner Marx, a struggling Illinois suit manufacturer:

Hart Schaffner Marx has a factory in Hare's district, but the congressman's ties to the firm run deeper. From 1969 through 1982, Hare worked in the factory's cutting room, part of an operation that turned out 600 suits a day. For 12 of those years, he headed the Amalgamated Clothing Workers local in the plant. In 1983, he went to work for Democratic Rep. Lane Evans, rising to the post of Evans's district director and then succeeding him when Evans chose not to run in 2006. [...]

Hare was understandably upset when he learned that Wells Fargo, to which the government had extended $25 billion in Troubled Assets Relief Program funds, wanted not only to put Hart Schaffner Marx into bankruptcy but also to liquidate the company -- throwing 4,000 people out of work and ending the existence of the last major high-end men's clothing manufacturer in America. With the help of House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, other members of Congress and the new administration, he prevailed upon Wells temporarily not to liquidate Hart, whose fate will soon be decided in bankruptcy court. 

Meyerson goes on to note Hare's misgivings about the Troubled Asset Recovery Program (TARP), which he supported last year, as well as his opinions on the decline of American manufacturing.  "We have the most productive work force in the world, but we don't make things anymore," Hare says. Read the whole thing.