Kucinich Has a Chance to Make a Historic Move and to Stand Out as a Presidential Hopeful

[babylonsister]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_dave_lin_070316_kucinich_has_a_chanc.htm

Kucinich Has a Chance to Make a Historic Move and to Stand Out as a Presidential Hopeful

by Dave Lindorff


If Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) is looking for a way to distinguish himself from the pack of candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for president in the 2008 election, he need look no further than impeachment.

While Kucinich can justifiably and proudly claim ownership of the anti-war position, having been there from the get-go, everyone else in the field has piled on—even Hillary Clinton—at least to the point that the average voter would have a hard time distinguishing their positions regarding the war in Iraq.

But calling for impeachment of the president is something else.

So far impeachment is a verboten word among Democrats in Congress, where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and the party leadership have made it clear that anyone who steps out of line and submits a bill of impeachment will be punished. The leadership has even gone so far as to attempt—with considerable success—to crush grassroots efforts to introduce impeachment resolutions in state legislatures (such pressure on key Democrats killed such a measure in New Mexico, and derailed another in the state of Washington, and is being used now to attempt to block a third effort in Vermont).

Pelosi’s unconscionable strong-arm tactics to keep impeachment “off the table” in the 110th Congress have even cowed House Judiciary Committee Chair John Conyers (D-MI), who in the 109th Congress had been leading calls for an investigation into impeachable crimes by the administration, and had submitted bills calling for formation of a special committee to investigate such crimes. Since Pelosi began her campaign to protect the president from impeachment, Conyers has been silent on the issue, though his discomfort has been obvious.

Enter Dennis Kucinich.

more...

[quinnox]

1. even of he did that

he still will be a bottom dweller in the primaries. IMHO

[rinsd]

2. Kucinich has obvious distinctions in his postitions from others

But to think impeachment will put him over the top is borderline ridiculous.

I expect Kucinich will introduce articles but I doubt they will have much of an effect on his campaign.

[TheConstantGardener]

20. If Conyers starts impeachment hearings it'll have a hell of an effect

But it all rides on him...

Because if he can show the entire world in his investigations that Bush has lied us into war, torture, wiretapping -- God be with the candidate who DOESN'T support impeachment.

[SharonRB]

69. I went to hear Conyers speak this morning

On one hand, he knows impeachment is the only way we can get rid of these guys, but on the other hand, we can't do it -- we don't have enough bipartisan support and it would take too long and distract Congress from other important business. He also said that impeachment would actually hurt us in the '08 election. For the record, he supports Kucinich -- he votes most closely with him all the time. After Kucinich, he next supports Obama and then Edwards. No mention of Hillary at all.

I had an interesting conversation with him about Gore. He first said he doesn't think he'll run. When I told him a few things I knew through my work on the Draft Gore movement, he really listened. He thinks it will be Clinton/Obama, but that if Gore enters the race, everything will change completely and all bets are off. He seemed very surprised when I told him how much support Gore has in the netroots -- here on DU, at FDL, at DailyKos, etc.

He really thinks all these early primaries are going to hurt the process and that those with the most money will have the best chance, as we all know.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. Yep

right now a lot of folks are really frustrated, and are saying nothing is happening. DK coming out for impeachment would show them that someone is listening.

[SaveElmer]

4. He doesn't have the gravitas...

Kucinich is a legislative lightweight...

In order for such a proposal to have any impact it has to come from someone who has a demonstrated ability to impact the passage of legislation...

Kucinich has never shown that ability...it will simply be another proposal that he throws out there that can never get anywhere...

[TheConstantGardener]

9. You're right that he certainly doesn't have the "gravitas" of the Political Class

But he has everything that a legitimately good leader needs to have.

He's not a Clinton or Bush or Reagan or JFK.

He's a Ghandhi, and King, and Zinn.

Maybe he's too good to win.

Maybe that's not a bad thing.

[SaveElmer]

13. He's a politician...

Capable of all the vices and virtues of that class of people...and he panders just like any other politician...

I hardly think it a coincidence that he want from an anti-choice to pro-choice position, and anti-stem cell to pro-stem cell position, and suddenly realized that amending the constitution to prohibit flag desecration was a bad thing, right before he was going to run for President...

The only difference is that he panders to the left...so it is overlooked in certain quarters!

[TheConstantGardener]

14. Do you know him personally, have you seen him speak?

There are a few differences between me and you on this.
He went to Lebanon with his wife after the Israeli siege there. He took 0 bodyguards.

He is a man with a heart who "walks with the wind" (John Lewis). He is on the "cutting edge of heroism" (Jimmy Carter).

[SaveElmer]

15. Gosh...

And I thought we had started a serious discussion...

Tell me, has Dennis Kucinich apologized for aiding and abetting a movement that seeks to deny women access to legal health care, a movement that harasses and intimidates young women as the enter clinics to seek such care, and driven doctors from that area of practice to the point where those services are not available in entire states.

Has he apologized for voting to deny poor women public subsidies to perform abortions where the woman was raped or the victim of incest?

Has he apologized for the delay his opposition to stem cell research has caused finding the cure for the many diseases that research could cure?

[TheConstantGardener]

16. He used to be pro-life? That's fine with me

So did I.

However he did not committ anything for which he could be sentenced to life in prison by the Hague. That's not the same case for some OTHER people.

[SaveElmer]

18. Anti Choice...

Anti woman, anti health care!

Kucinich is no Ghandi...

[TheConstantGardener]

19. And he is no mass murderer

He has a heart of solid gold, and maybe that's a bad thing in American Politics where the person with the biggest bucks, the biggest triangulator, the one who is ready to sell out people and start wars over political calculation (sound familiar?) is the person who wins.

But he's ahead of history. You don't blame the abolitionist politician in 1789. You say they were right, the rest were wrong.

He is right, (too many of the) rest are wrong.

[SaveElmer]

22. I wonder...

How many women endured the agony of a back alley abortion...while "DK" voted to keep them from the health care they deserved...

How many died of diseases that might have been cured by now with an earlier employment of stem cell technology...

How many babies thrown into orphanages and foster homes because "DK" voted to deny them government funding for the abortions they needed...

He was a poor mayor, is a lightweight congressman...who panders with the best of them

[TheConstantGardener]

24. How many Iraqis are dying right now for your lies and triangulating?

When are the war crimes trials? I know I want some Senators to be sent to the Hague, too. Hopefully she won't be our nominee and make us lose this election (the most unelectable among all of them she is) before that.

[SaveElmer]

27. None...actually...nt

[TheConstantGardener]

28. She still wants troops in Iraq after she's President too

I wonder how many more of our boys have to die for this shrill woman's political calculating.


I met some Iraqi union leaders who'd like to give her a piece of her mind, but unlike Kucinich, Conyers, Lee, Woolsey, she's refused to meet with Iraqi unionists.

[SaveElmer]

29. None have...George Bush is President...nt

[TheConstantGardener]

32. And she's been giving him every blank check he needs

to murder and butcher people.

I KNOW people hurt by this war. I'm not going PRAISE anyone who has helped enable to war criminal in the white house continue his slaughter. She has helped him ENORMOUSLY. And she's the most unelectable person I can think of (Kucinich is much more electable, he's much closer on the issues and would bring enormous new voters in, the Nader effect + the DNC machine = easily won election) who will hand the White House to even worse people on a silver platter.

I support Kucinich all the way; we don't need your slurs and praising of one very rich and murderous woman who has done nothing for common people while she's been in senate (she even ran away from debating her only primary opponent and only debated the Republican once).

[SaveElmer]

35. Wrong...nt

[TheConstantGardener]

37. You want to talk to Iraqis who have had their relatives buthchered?

I have, and I'm not letting that rich shrill woman take the White House after enabling that BS.

[SaveElmer]

39. Yoiu want to talk to women...

Who have been raped by their fathers and have had to have those babies?

[TheConstantGardener]

42. Abortion rights? Kucinich is pro-choice

And Clinton is still pro-war, pro torture the palestinians, pro everything horrible being done to the third world (Mexicans love NAFTA -- NOT).

Try to slander and slur your way through that. In the end you are becoming narcissistic without caring what your beloved candidate is going to do to the world (and God help us if it's anything like what she's done so far).

[SaveElmer]

46. If CLinton has to apologize for past "misdeeds"...

As defined by "progressives" then do does "DK"

Until then he is not to be taken seriously

[TheConstantGardener]

47. "Misdeeds" She thinks the war is a "Mistake" not a WAR CRIME

Not an immoral mass murder operation she gleefully supported.

And she continues to support these mass murder operations in the West Bank/Gaza, Colombia, Uzbekistan, and this place called IRAQ.

One candidate strongly opposes all this.

God help us (if there is one), the right will prevail over the woman drenched in blood.

[SaveElmer]

50. And "DK...

Thinks his position just evolved...he doesn't believe he did any harm to the many thousands of women harmed by "Pro-life" politicians...

[rinsd]

49. SE, Kucinich gets a 100% rating from NARAL

He is indeed pro-life in his personal life but he has not signed any anti-choice legislation in at least 6 years.

http://www.ontheissues.org/OH/Dennis_Kucinich.htm

[SaveElmer]

51. I didn't say he did...

It appears only on the IWR are politicians expected to "apologize" for the position they took...and only Hillary Clinton seems to be the one to which this demand is made...

It's a double standard...why has Kucinich not apologized for the harm his years supporting anti-choice groups has caused...why no demands from the left that he acknowledge his wrong doing...

Why no criticism on the stunning flip flop right before he was running for President...

The answer is that in certain sectors of the left, pandering is just fine...as long as it is the left they are pandering to!

[rinsd]

53. I understand your qualms.

And you know I have been there defending nearly every Democrat from slings ans wrrows from both sides.

I think this is a stretch though obviously you beg to differ.

Now get off the 'puter and begin celebrating St. Pat's!

:toast:

[SaveElmer]

54. Yeah you know...

I was just responding to this guy in the same way he was. He started in calling Hillary a war criminal blah blah...so just wanted to throw it back and see how he responded...

DK is clearly pro-choice now so won't criticize him on that basis...though the switch was pretty stunning...and suspiciously timed...

I know you are always in there defending Dems...

Man I wish I could go have a few beers...I'm gonna be workin all weekend....

[rinsd]

56. Trust me the Hillary grind is just that.

So make sure you take a break once in a awhile.

There are others around to help with the heavy lifting.

[MonkeyFunk]

63. 6 years?

His first positive ratings on choice began in 2003. In 2002, he got a 71% rating from the National Right to Life Committee. The next year, he got a 100% from NARAL.

It was a stunning turnaround.

[AnOhioan]

57. Keep on trolling against

DK and shilling for the Great Equivocator, I care not. Dennis is 10 times the human Hillary is.

[TheConstantGardener]

26. "Anti-choice" "Anti-woman"

Feminist slurs haha.

Jack Murtha is also "pro-life." That's fine with me, he has the right opinion on the issue where something will actually be changed (the war); abortion rights aren't going anywhere.

[SaveElmer]

31. So its ok withyou that women who have been raped...

Should be forced to take the pregnancy to term...


Ghandi indeed!!! :rofl:

[TheConstantGardener]

34. It's OK to you that 650,000+ Iraqis have been murdered

And you try to slur Kucinich with his old pro-life views that had NO impact on the situation.

Goebbols would approve of this style of argumentation. Slur-and-run.

[SaveElmer]

38. Its OK to you that women that are raped have to bear the child of t he rapist...

And "DK' won't take responsibility for his own action...

Coward!

[TheConstantGardener]

40. Slurring pro-life people

This has nothing to do with the current situation.

You tried to drag the debate away from the remarkably pro-choice antiwar Kucinich of today.

You have failed and it makes the whole process look pathetic. You haven't dissuaded one person to jump from the peacenik to the war criminal.

Goodday.

[SaveElmer]

43. Anti-choice.

Anti-woman...

I don't believe "DK"...his switch was a stunning example of political wind-sockery...

When he apologizes we can take him seriously

Goodday

[TheConstantGardener]

48. You see now why the Right would easily take the white house vs HRC?

Anti-choice. That's laughable screed that will run away independents and republicans from voting for us, and we need some of them to win 2008.

[Bjorn Against]

59. And I am sure you won't be able to take Hillary seriously until she apologizes either right?

She did support the war, and in many ways she still does. She may have toned down her support, but she certainly has yet to issue an outright condemnation much less apologize.

I am glad to know you don't take politicians seriously until they apologize for being wrong in the past, because now I know you will not be voting for a politician like Hillary who never apologized for a position that has resulted in over 650,000 dead Iraqis.

[SaveElmer]

60. Merely calling some members of the left on their hypocrisy...

Neither Hillary or Kucinich owes an apology...

[TheConstantGardener]

17. And there will never be a day where anyone with the name "Clinton"

Can peacefully walk the streets of Iraq. There will be a day when peacemakers like Kucinich can. Or Lewis. Or Lee. Or Conyers.

[rinsd]

21. And here is where most Kucinich supporters lose people

Its not enough that he is a decent fellow.

He must be amongst the greats which frankly is absurd for a 10 year Congressman and former mayor.

[TheConstantGardener]

23. He has the thinking of the greats

This is obvious to those who have met him. Read Matt Taibbi's "Spanking the Donkey"; there's a reason he was the only Congressman to visit Lebanon by himself (well with his wife) to survey the damage; he's a peacemaker. He recieved the Ghandi award (do Westerners even know that exists? I'm Desi don't tell me I can't recognize these things).

And to say we're "losing people" is ridiculous. He's becoming widly popular even in a red state here of Georgia among people looking for real solutions. Because, like one astute reporter said in the 2004 primaries, "If it was a battle of position papers, Kucinich would easily win." He has the right policies, which is what SHOULD matter. It's a long battle, that it is.

[rinsd]

30. The hero worhsip is a big turn off.

There are plenty of positive and worhtwhile things to discuss about Kucinich without comparing him to giants like King or Ghandi.

"He's becoming widly popular even in a red state here of Georgia among people looking for real solutions."

Wildly popular? On what kind of scale? How can even the most diehard of Kucincih fans believe that?

You wouldn't happen to be a member of the Patrick Henry Democratic Club by any chance would you?

[TheConstantGardener]

36. I'm from the country that Ghandi helped liberate

He has recieved the official Ghandhi Peace Award.

Stop trying to slander me here, dude.

[rinsd]

41. How am I slandering you?

Unless you are aware of who the PHDC are?

Which is likely the case.

[TheConstantGardener]

44. Is it bad to bring up Ghandhi

When he recieves the Ghandi peace award?

I guess I'm just another person who is a tremendous fan of him for no reason, right? I am rolling my eyes right now.

[rinsd]

52. So what? douchebag genocide defender Ramsey Clark has won that award.

And winning an award named after someone does not mean they equal that person in stature.

Its fine to be a tremendous fan of Kucinich. Indeed say so.

But to elevate him to the stature of Ghandi or King is still ridiculous and basically turns people off.

[LWolf]

68. His experience isn't enough,

yet others with less are the posterboys?

There's something wrong with this argument.

[happydreams]

66. He hasn't found his voice yet. When he does the gravitas will follow.

[onenote]

5. rotfl

Sorry, but the opednews.com piece is pretty funny. First, I'd be very curious to hear from someone exactly how Pelosi has "cowed" Conyers. What exactly is she holding over his head?

Second, maybe DK will introduce an impeachment resolution; maybe he won't. My bet is that he won't. If he does, don't expect anything to come of it. Heck, in 1991, a resolution calling for the impeachment of Bush I was introduced; at the time, the House was solidly Democratic -- 61 percent to 39 percent. But the only thing that happened with that resolution was that it was referred to the Judiciary Committee to die.

[TheConstantGardener]

25. "What exactly is she holding over his head?"

Blocking him from being head of the Judiciary, for one.

[rinsd]

33. Um Conyers is the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee

http://judiciary.house.gov/

But I must know where you got that piece of info.

[TheConstantGardener]

45. And Pelosi could've blocked that

Had he not dropped his impeachment and palestinian rights statements.

[rinsd]

55. Do you have any proof of that whatsoever?

Or is that a scoop from Inner Rectum News?

Because Conyers has been the designated Chairman since mid-December and he hasn't exactly stopped investigating Bush.

[Eric J in MN]

6. Kucinich said on the floor of the House yesterday that they may need to impeach.

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/19689

Remarks on the floor of the U.S. House, March 15, 2007

Since war with Iran is an option of this Administration and since such war is patently illegal, then impeachment may well be the only remedy which remains to stop a war of aggression against Iran.

[TwilightGardener]

7. God bless him--but even if by some miracle he were to be the nominee

we might as well just skip the general and give McCain or Rudy the keys to the WH front door.

[TheConstantGardener]

10. He'd win the General easily

It's the Primary that's hard for him.

[cali]

11. That makes absolutely no sense

If he can't win among dems, what makes you think he can win with repukes and indies?

Kucinich impresses me not at all. He's never been an effective legislator, and he's never even tried to be.

[TheConstantGardener]

12. He can't win among dems becaues of money

With the DNC machine behind him he'd have enough money to get his voice out -- and it's a voice that would have maybe half of registered Republicans voting FOR him.

Why? He agrees with them on all core issues. It's the Nader effect (about half of people who voted for Nader were Republicans or people who wouldn't have voted at all) but on a much larger scale with the Democratic machine behind it.

Study politics a bit and come back here my mate.

[cali]

58. LOL

That weak retort. What makes you think I haven't studied politics? Kucinich, for a myriad of reasons, is a weak candidate nationally. And oh yeah, I totally stand by my contention that he's an ineffective legislator. Compare him, for example, to Bernie Sanders, who is every bit as lefty as Kucinich, and was enormously effective, despite his independent status. Kucinich is in danger of becoming the Harold Stassen of the 21st century.

[Flabbergasted]

8. How "surprsing" that none of the other candidates are making any substantial statement concerning

how to get our country out of this mess. Can you say $$$$$$$.

[goodhue]

61. !

[man4allcats]

62. Kucinich is now The Man.

I wouldn't want Pelosi out of the kitchen, but if she can't handle the heat she needs to take her clothes off. Actually, I think I'd rather see Barbara Boxer without her clothes, but the point is it's well past time to get rid of Bush and Cheney.

[TheConstantGardener]

64. Haha; bravo to Kucinich!

Brave to a fighter the Beltway can go to hell.

[happydreams]

65. K&R! I totally agree. The American people want it!!

[dfgrbac]

67. Is anyone wondering why the Democratic leadership is blocking impeachment?

I am! All of us should be wondering.

It seems the Empire is in control of more than just Republicans.

CNN and local media in New Hampshire in planning their debate show for Democratic Presidential candidates have decided to exclude former Senator Mike Gravel from taking part. Gee, I wonder why about this also! Could it be the other Democratic candidates don't want to have to debate Senator Gravel? Or is it simply the Imperial media protecting itself?

I don't know how all of you feel about this, but this is all very scary to me!

[LWolf]

70. Personally, I don't think the Democrat Party

deserves Dennis Kucinich. He gets no respect from his own party. The party is willing to use him to hold on to the remaining leftists still voting "D," but not willing to support him in any real way. Kinda like they treat the left wing of their voting block, come to think of it.

I think he should dump the party and become an independent, myself.