Giving Dennis Kucinich His Due

[G_j]

http://www.thenation.com/blog/166761/giving-dennis-kucinich-his-due

Giving Dennis Kucinich His Due

Katrina vanden Heuvel on March 13, 2012 - 1:21 PM ET

Editor’s Note: Each week we cross-post an excerpt from Katrina vanden Heuvel’s column at the WashingtonPost.com. Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.

A certain kind of politician is becoming a dwindling breed. I’m not thinking of the over-praised and frequently eulogized centrist, the kind who spends a career watering things down and gets lionized for having done so. I mean the bold, politically courageous people who make real the cliché, “Speak truth to power.” The ones who are, perhaps, a little too righteous, who don’t compromise easily, but who prove again and again a tendency to be correct. They are the ones who are harder to dismiss, no matter how much the pundits or corporate media try. They insert themselves into the national conversation, pushing their ideas and their vision into the debate.

Dennis Kucinich is one of those politicians. At least, he was. Last week, thanks in large part to Republican gerrymandering, he lost his bid for reelection. In his loss, the country loses something too. Whatever your view of Kucinich’s politics or style, he mattered a great deal.

Kucinich was never afraid to take the positions that should have been at the core of the Democratic party. He opposed the Patriot Act when few brave Democrats would join him. He was opposed to the Iraq war from the outset, whipping his colleagues against it, with the result that three-fifths of House Democrats voted against that immoral, illegal invasion. Once it began, he called on Congress to defund it, when few in his party were willing to go along. Despite almost no political support, he introduced articles of impeachment against Vice President Cheney, accusing him (rightly, I believe) of lying to the American people to get us into the war in Iraq.

[surfdog]

1. Yes I would like to thank him ...

For voting against a nationwide Amber alert system for kidnapped children and then refusing to explain his vote

Thanks Dennis

[G_j]

2. no comment on the content of the actual post? nt

[fascisthunter]

3. ok rightie

[dionysus]

4. ain't that a kick in the pants...

[surfdog]

6. "ain't that a kick in the pants"

You are right that's a real "kick in the pants" to the kids who are abducted by kidnappers and sex offenders

[dionysus]

7. more of a kick in the pant to dennis...

[surfdog]

8. Wtf ?

yeah it's all about Dennis forget about the kids who get kidnapped by sex offenders who needs an alert system to track them down

[dionysus]

9. cool your jets, buddy, i agree with your posts in this thread...

no idea why it's me you're going off on...

[surfdog]

10. Sorry my bad

That one issue sure scared off the Kucinich supporters

crickets

[dionysus]

11. lol, yeah it did... for now...

[Uncle Joe]

15. I agree, Dennis should have voted for the Amber Alert system, having said he was on the right side

of many critical issues when other Democrats were either too timid or compromised to follow suit.

No politician is on the correct side of every issue, not even Obama and when they're on the wrong side, it can most definitely cost lives, careers and/or create great suffering.

In the great scheme of things, thus far I believe Kucinich had a most honorable career in the Congress.

[G_j]

26. BTW: a provision from PATRIOT II was inserted into the Amber Alert bill nt

[surfdog]

5. Kucinich supporters only focus on the good

What's wrong with the bad ?

Should we pretend it doesn't exist ?

[sabrina 1]

12. What do you think about all the children who died in Afghanistan and Iraq and all

of our Representatives who are responsible for those deaths? Should the Amber Alert have applied to them also? Or are they not as valuable as our children? I guess not, since no one ever mentions them in DC, except people like Dennis.

He refused to sentence those children to death by not only NOT voting for the wars but refusing to vote to fund them also.

But hey, those are brown kids, so who cares, he would be still be in office, maybe even a Senator, if he was willing to vote for all that killing of children in foreign lands. He could just say it was for 'national security' and they were just 'collateral damage' like so many others do.

That's why the Right always hated him, he pointed out these things and refused to shut up about them and I guess when you want to be on the inside you don't want anyone pointing out that you are willing to kill tens of thousands of people just to keep your job.

Do you know why he voted against the bill that contained the Amber Alert btw?

[surfdog]

14. You are asking if...

The amber alert is for children in Iraq who got killed by our bombs ?

The answer is no , the Amber alert system is for our nation when a kid gets kidnapped

A foreign or dead child has nothing to do with the Amber alert system in the United States

I hope that helps

[sabrina 1]

20. A foreign and dead child is the result of so many Representatives voting for illegal wars

knowing full well that children would die. Their votes are responsible for those deaths. Just as Dennis is responsible for his votes. And if more of them had supported his anti-war votes, more children would be alive today.

How do you feel about all those war votes that sentenced so many people to death and what do you think of those who cast them? Which votes contributed to more deaths, since I think that is your point? His vote against the Amber Alert or theirs for wars that have killed innocent children in several countries? If the issue is dead children, then I think the answer is clear. Unless, as I said, dead brown children don't matter.

[surfdog]

21. I don't agree with those war votes

Is that supposed to excuse Dennis's vote on the Amber alert system ?

[sabrina 1]

22. He certainly gets credit for trying to save all those lives.

And their votes on the Amber Alert does not excuse all those who caved to pressure and voted for those illegal wars.

Either we care about children or we don't. You singled out one vote as if that is the only vote Kucinich ever cast. Just pointing out that if we did with every Rep, most of them look a whole lot worse than Kucinich including some of our best Democrats.

[surfdog]

25. You seem a bit confused

Let me help you understand the issue

The Iraq war debate was filled with lies , spin and half truths , and for some people it was a little hard to sort out exactly what the truth is and what was going on

Can you explain the confusion about the Amber alert system ?

Can you point out who was lying about the Amber alert system ?

It was a very clear-cut issue with no confusion , to compare the Iraq war vote to it is absurd

[sabrina 1]

13. There was so much good in his voting record, and so little bad which could be why

people have an easier time finding the good, unless they really want to make him look bad, for some reason. And why would Democrats want to make a good Democrat 'look bad'?

[Ikonoklast]

16. Please never mention that before he had a battlefield conversion, Dennis got a 0% from

NARAL for his voting record.

Never mention that as mayor of Cleveland he played racial politics to keep his opposition split, his DEMOCRATIC opposition.

Please don't mention that if Dennis' ego wasn't larger than his abilities, that maybe, just maybe he might still be in office.

[sabrina 1]

23. Please also don't mention, that unlike so many of our other Representatives, when he

felt he was wrong, he changed his mind and generally explained his reasons for doing so.

Or would you rather that when a Representative is wrong about something, like those who voted for the Patriot Act, the illegal wars, the FISA Bill eg, cling to being wrong rather than ever admit it??

I prefer someone in office who is capable of changing their minds once they realize they were wrong. Reps who are responsive to the people rather than Corporations.

You seem to be saying that it is a fault to change one's mind once they realize they are wrong? Or am I misunderstanding whatever point you are making?

[Ikonoklast]

24. He was an opportunist that would never have changed his mind about a great many things

if he had never decided to run for president.

He didn't "realize he was wrong", he saw that his positions would never let him anywhere near the Oval Office and were far outside current Democratic political thought, so he dropped his lifetime anti-abortion stance as a result.

You see Dennis as enlightened; I see Dennis as a life-time political carreerist who will do or say anything to remain in office.

People from outside NE Ohio only see Dennis in the current iteration; I have watched him for his entire political career.

He is not what you think he is.

[naughty nina]

17. Kucinich was the victim of Diebold.

It never ceases to amaze me how the decent politicians do not fight for paper ballots!

[Ikonoklast]

19. Total nonsense. In Ohio, outside his district, Dennis is just not that popular.

He lost because he campaigned BADLY.

[surfdog]

27. That is a lie

Nothing but a big fat lie

[Uncle Joe]

18. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, G_j.