By Neil W. McCabe

Somerville residents attended a Jan. 27 neighborhood forum at the John M. Tobin School in West Cambridge, where the city’s former mayor and congressman led a frank discussion of current events.

After thanking the more than 100 citizens attending, Rep. Michael E. Capuano, D-Somerville, said he wanted to keep the evening informal. “Then, let’s open it up and keep it fun.”

The congressman said he the best predictor of the country’s direction over the next four years is the last four years, which was nearly all bad.

The president is taking the country in the wrong direction, Capuano said. “I will fight him at every step.”

Despite his disagreements with the current administration, Capuano said it was important to respect President Bush as a politician. “I prefer a politician who actually believes in what he says.”

It is also important to recognize that the Democratic Party lost the presidential election and lost seats in the House and Senate, he said. 

The election results mean that the president does have some form of mandate and new political capital to push his agenda, he said.

This political capital played into what the congressman said was deliberate scheme to run up the federal budget deficit. “The deficit is not an accident.”

Because the shortfall at the federal treasury, it is more difficult to expand social programs, he said. “You can’t cut defense, so you have to cut social programs.”

The first question to Capuano was from Malena Mayorga from Centro Presente, a Cambridge-based Central American advocacy group. Mayorga asked the congressman if he was going to fight against the Central American Free Trade Agreement.

Capuano said “There is the idea that if you are not for free trade that you are un-American. I am for fair trade, not free trade and there is a difference.”

When the North American Free Trade Agreement came to the House, most members were willing to give it the benefit of the doubt and hope it worked, he said.

Now it is clear that NAFTA hurt the country’s economy, so CAFTA does not have the same support on either side aisle, he said.

On trade matters, Capuano said he was confounded that the congressional districts, which have suffered the most from free trade agreements, send the some of the most conservative members to Congress.

Later another member of Centro Presente asked Capuano about the president’s proposal to register foreign workers who are not in the country legally.

The plan was one step up from slavery, he said. “You have a job, tell us who you are and give up hope of ever being a citizen.”

Many of the questions and comments from the floor involved the war in Iraq. Capuano said he fought against giving the president the green light to go in Iraq, and the whole time he was hoping that he was wrong and President Bush was right.

But, it is now clear that we went to war for the wrong reasons, he said.

However, we are in a difficult position, he said. “We broke it, now we have to fix it.”

If our military leaves before stabilizing the country, the result could well be a civil war that expands to a regional war, he said.

The minute we leave, Iran, Turkey and Syria would enter Iraq to grab whatever they could, he said.

Repeatedly, questioners from the floor, including Ann Froines of Somerville, asked why Capuano would not at least support a timetable for getting out of Iraq.

Finally, Capuano gestured as if he was holding a Tommy gun pointed at the audience. He then said if he had a gun pointed at the crowd and told them not to move, nobody would move. 

But, if he than said he was leaving the room in one hour, everyone would behave only until he left the room. This is the problem with timetables, nobody has an incentive to compromise or work things out if they know the Americans will be pulling out.

Eventually, Iraq will be broken up into three distinct nations, Shiite, Sunni and Kurd, he said. Whether it was three free regions under the Iraqi flag or three independent countries would have to be worked out.

There was also tremendous interest in

Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. But, to every proposal to punish Israel or punish American companies, such as Caterpillar, makers of the bulldozers used to knock down Palestinian homes, Capuano said it was pointless to debate the issue.

“It will never, ever, ever pass Congress,” he said to one questioner. “It won’t even get out of committee.”

When he was asked for his own feelings on Middle East peace, the congressman said he had visited the Israel recently and met with players on all sides.

Ariel Sharon, the Israeli premier deserves credit for risking his whole political career to make with the Palestinians, he said.

Capuano said based on his conservations and observations during his trip, he believes that in the next few months there could be significant progress.

At one level, it was Professor Capuano delivering a lecture on realism.

“I don’t live in a philosophical world, I live in a political world,” he said.

If the Democratic Party is ever going to succeed again, it has to find a way to more practical and less concerned with political purity, he said.

“I like that in our party we are always beating each other up. But, we don’t know how to turn it off,” he said.

“Guys like L.B.J. or Tip O’Neill were not pure on every issue, but they knew how to make a deal,” he said.

During the last campaign things were getting better, he said. “Four years ago, I had to explain to Democrats that Gore was not horrendous—and he was—but, not as horrendous as George Bush.”

This was not the case with Kerry, he said.

Capuano deflected questions about who should be the next chairman of the party, but he said it was important that the next chairman do three things well.

First, he has to raise a ton of money. Second, he has to be able to appear on the national news programs and go toe-to-toe with the Republicans. Finally, he has to be put together a coherent and substantial agenda, he said.

As his wife Barbara crossed her arms, Capuano seemed torn between continuing to engage his constituents and having a nice ride home.

At one point he weaved a mention of his 30-year marriage into a response, betraying what was really on his mind.

After Barbara walked from the back of the auditorium to the doorway and put on her gloves, it was clear that the forum, which ran more than 30 minutes over schedule, was over.