Gravel and Kucinich: "standing up to end that rotten war."

[Flabbergasted]

One-time titans are among the candidates

http://www.pahrumpvalleytimes.com/2007/Mar-07-Wed-2007/opinion/12997874.html

At the forum for Democratic presidential candidates in Carson City a few days ago, as the candidates finished the on-stage interviews with moderator George Stephanopoulos, most of them stepped into a different part of the building for a "media availability" - a press conference with waiting reporters.

As former U.S. Senator Mike Gravel was leaving his session with reporters, U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich was just entering. He stopped Gravel and offered his hand and his praise for Gravel's "standing up to end that rotten war."

It was a moment that went unseen by the reporters and probably would have meant little to most of them, anyway. But there was a poignancy and power to it. There they were - once fiery young leaders who now were in the winters of their careers, the least known of the Democratic presidential candidates making probably futile races for the presidency.

Dennis Kucinich once made a battle against corporate power that shook the state of Ohio and captured the nation's attention, a reminder of the kind of economic populism that defined the Democratic Party before it became bewitched by money and power. He was mayor of Cleveland when the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company (CIE) and the city's banks combined their formidable economic muscle to try to force the city to sell its publicly owned power company.

The city council supported the corporations, but Kucinich battled them week after week, month after month. By the time the corporations were finished they put Kucinich through a recall election, forced the city into default, and used tactics that damaged the municipal power utility - but the city's voters backed Kucinich's ballot measures on keeping public power. The mayor was competitive in his re-election fight until his opponent's daughter was run down by a van and killed, submerging issues under a wave of sympathy.

In the years that followed, information emerged on the predatory conduct of CIE and the banks and Kucinich's reputation, which had suffered severely because of the turbulence of his mayoralty, was rehabilitated. He was elected to the Ohio Senate and then to the U.S. House. The Cleveland city council in 1998 honored his "courage and foresight."

[AnOhioan]

1. K&R Good piece, thanks for posting