Sen. Tom Harkin speaks during a roundtable discussion focusing on rebuilding IowaÕs middle class on Monday, Aug. 22, 2011, at The Arc of East Central Iowa in Cedar Rapids. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

Sen. Tom Harkin, who referred to the Tea Party movement as a “cult fringe,” is “very encouraged” by the Occupy Wall Street movement that has spread to other cities across the nation.

“I think it’s about time we have some demonstrations on who really caused these problems and who’s making out the most and that’s Wall Street and the financial sector,” the Iowa Democrat said Oct. 13 during a weekly call with reporters.

The “occupy” demonstrations that have popped up in numerous cities, including Iowa City and Des Moines, “are giving the American people another look at what are the problems and really what we need to do to straighten out our financial mess,” Harkin said.

“So far, it’s just like Wall Street seems untouchable around here,” Harkin said. “Well, I don’t think it’s untouchable.”

The financial sector needs to be “brought into line,” he continued.

“We need to put more emphasis on manufacturing and less on financial services,” he said.

The movement is “getting some notice on the Hill,” said Harkin, who last week encouraged his colleagues to pay attention to the protesters, who he described as “rank-and-file Americans.”

“Now is the time to understand that there is a big movement going on in America and it’s not just on the tea party side,” Harkin told the Iowa Independent. “It’s on the side of people who are out of work, who understand the system is rigged against them in terms of taxes and who is paying their fair share. I think we need to pick that up and move as aggressively as possible on this.”

That’s a different tone than Harkin has taken with the tea party movement. At a Democratic news conference in June, he referred to “crazy tea party people” as “sort of a cult-fringe, as I refer to them out there … they’re dead-beat debtors.”

However, they have as much right to demonstrate as the “occupy” movement, he said.

“While I might disagree with some of the proposals of the Tea Party, I never wanted to shut down them down,” Harkin said. “They were exercising their constitutional rights, too.”