"Goodbye Dennis": Paul Street slams Kucinich, "a pathetic jerk".

[denem]

Paul Street writes for Z Mag. An admirer of Leon Trotsky, and advocate of 'direct action', he is a trenchant critic of corporatism, and capitalism in general. But in a interesting twist, he turned on Dennis Kucinich, describing him as a "a pathetic jerk who helps make the Left look stupid". No, it was not Dennis' record that attracted his ire, nor his policy positions, but something more telling:

For some time now, I've been giving a quiet and indirect sort of tribute to Dennis Kucinich. I've been praising him for backing progressive policy proposals and initiatives that "mainstream" (corporate) Democrats refuse to embrace: single-payer health insurance, de-funding the illegal occupation of Iraq, investigating civilian Iraqi casualties, the impeachment of Cheney-Bush and so on. I've been mentioning him as the only truly Left candidate in the Democratic presidential race.

And all the while a little voice in the back of my mind has been saying, "but you know he's really kind of a pathetic jerk who helps make the Left look stupid."

I don't know when the voice started. Maybe it was when I heard about how he saw a UFO. Or when I heard him brag to a political audience that his vegan diet permitted him to be married to a woman half his age - a model he recruited through a truly bizarre public relations campaign.

At some point it started to sink in that Kucinich was a knucklehead who cares more about advancing his own goofy and grandiose personal agenda than about furthering the causes of peace, democracy, and justice. I also realized that Dennis helped corporate media discredit Left sentiments and values by associating them with clownish narcissism, cultish mysticism, and laughable irrelevance.

And now I feel freer than ever to say all this for a very simple reason. Dennis has done something truly and unforgivably pathetic, petty, and reactionary. He has told his admittedly small number of followers in Iowa to give their second-choice votes to the corporate media candidate and imperial war Democrat Barack Obama during the pivotal 2008 Democratic Party caucus to be held today.

He has essentially lent his support to the class- and race-accommodator Obama, Dennis' supposed fellow "change agent."

http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/16085

Paul Street loathes Obama. His is not garden variety hatred, so much so, that he had to explain his obsession to readers during the primaries: http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/16046. As an author on civil rights, he refers to Obama's "White Masters". As they shared the same neighborhood in Chicago, perhaps there was natural tension between a white academic and a black community organizer, or perhaps they met and fell out. Who knows? But it's personal.

You will not find one positive word about Obama in anything Mr Street writes. In my opinion, however fringe his ideology, his emotional investment in the personal makes him an unsound critic. Posters who present his work, like Flim-Flam Obama Man, should acknowledge, that whatever the validity of his individual points, they are mostly pointed in one direction: Recognition as United States Obama Hater No.1.

[cali]

1. zmag is truly a piece of shit.

and Street is a sick little fuck.

[denem]

2. 21 recs for his Flim-Flam screed.

Street is intellectually dishonest, and perhaps, so are some of his advocates.

[cali]

4. really, that thread is absurd

people denying that the article is a wholesale trashing are so fucking disingenous.

[TwilightZone]

19. 36 and counting

It's amazing what people are buying into of late.

[burning rain]

11. Have to agree...

I pegged another Trot, Alexander Cockburn, and his "Counterpunch" much the same way years ago.

[Karmadillo]

23. Aren't you and Street, the "sick little fuck," in agreement on Kucinich?

Sure sounds that way in what you wrote here:

I'm really beginning to find Kucinich just unbearable. I think his posturing, and puffing himself up about how he's the only one who recognized this or that, is well, unappealing. I think he panders. And I hated his little look Ma, no strings, performance.

[girl gone mad]

48. That's a nice bit of hypocrisy.

It's only okay when a DLCer criticizes Kucinich, I guess. When a fellow progressive does it, DLCers are conveniently "outraged".

[saltpoint]

3. Paul Street gets to sit down at his computer and tippy-tap whatever he

wants on his computer.

He's made some bad calls in his evaluation of the political scene, though, and they subvert his alleged leftist credentials. Politics here and elsewhere occurs on a continuum. It can run from staid establishmentarianism to fire-brand leftists to head-up-the-ass reactionaries on the Far Right. I'm assuming Street knows the ground rules and boundaries. Blaming Dennis Kucinich for Street's own brooding disenchantment doesn't work for me.

Iowa Democrats voted for Barack Obama in their caucus a little over a year ago. That's how the system works. They set a date for the vote, people show up, the votes are counted. Obama won. I'm sorry Mr. Street didn't feel satisfied with the outcome but that's just tough shit. Gravel, who is arguably further left than Kucinich, did not fare very well in the primary cycle in 2007-08 either. Should Gravel be blamed for Street's dissatisfaction? Street ought to ask himself why left-leaning candidates do not prevail in elections in the United States before he blames Kucinich for trying to represent people who often go unrepresented.

I found the reference to 'clowns' especially repellent.

Street doesn't like Obama. Ok. But Obama is the President of the United States. Maybe it's time for Street to stop his bellyaching and grow up. He could move to goddam Ohio and volunteer/work for Kucinich instead of blaming Kucinich for his own disappointments. Kucinich rolled his sleeves up and went to work to advance worthy goals and ideas. All Street does is wail like an infant.

[radiclib]

5. Hey Street, jealous much?

So who's "pathetic" ?

[DainBramaged]

9. Do they look stoned?

:rofl:

[tbyg52]

6. Thank you for the information. nt

[G_j]

7. Street's "emotional investment in the personal, makes him an unsound critic"

absolutely, that "pathetic jerk" needs to do some yoga or something.

[stevedeshazer]

8. Loathsome bastard.

[DainBramaged]

10. But but elsewhere on DU, his criticism of Obama is celebrated....

what's a mother to do?


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5345470&mesg_id=5345470

[Metta]

12. Name calling is projected anger. Getting personal removes the ground from any argument.

... a clear case of seeing things as we are rather than as things are.

[Berry Cool]

13. Street can't even get his basic facts straight, so why believe him at all?

Kucinich's wife isn't a model, and he didn't "recruit" her. He does brag a lot about her, as if having won the love of a gorgeous younger woman validates every single damn thing he is and does, but Street's got that story wrong.

Street sounds like a far-left wacko to me, and I'm not even a Kuucinich fan.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

14. Didn't he write a whole book about how Obama ?

[LWolf]

15. I don't disagree, really,

with Street's assessment of Obama.

I do disagree, strongly, with his assessment of Kucinich.

Dennis Kucinich is obviously fallible. The man who is dead-on target on just about every issue on the planet was wrong, in my opinion, when he suggested that Obama be the 2nd choice for his followers in Iowa. I've never even been to Iowa. If I'd been caucusing, though, Obama would have been tied with HRC for last place. I would have fucking gone home before I lined up for either of them.

Still, he is right about more things on his worst day than those the Democratic Party chose to make front-runners, and, in the end, to run in the GE.

In my opinion, of course. Which is just as valid as any other voter's.

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Hello_Kitty]

26. I'm the opposite. I agree with him about Kucinich but not about Obama

Kucinich is a narcissistic buffoon who is a major contributor to the marginalization of the Left.

[LWolf]

27. Well, we've all got them.

Opinions, of course.

:shrug:

[mvd]

28. Yes, and Kucinich doesn't marginalize anything in mine

We need people to shake things up. Who else has spoken out like he has on things like the Bush crimes? It's not Kucinich who marginalizes the left - it's others that marginalize him because of what he stands for.

[LWolf]

29. You nailed that one.

I think the reason he is such a target for vicious derision and marginalization is that he is too clean, and too right, for safety.

[G_j]

33. well said

:applause:

[NashVegas]

30. I Agree With Him, Pretty Whole-Heartedly

Here's why:

This was the second time, in a row, Kucinich directed his Iowa supporters to back the candidate more palatable to the DCCC. If not for his direction in 2004, it's conceivable we all might have been addressing "President Dean," as of 2005. Who knows ... at any rate, I've believed for some time that in spite of Dennis's voting record, his *accomplishment* record in congress is another matter.

[LWolf]

32. It might ease your frustration to realize

that a great many DK supporters did not back Edwards in '04 or Obama in '08.

DK's 1.3 % of the votes in Iowa in '04 would not have bridged the gap between Edwards and Dean.

[NashVegas]

34. Yeah, I Know

It's just that it's the thought that counts.

David Sirota sends a small blast DK's way in The Uprising when he writes that DK pretends to run for president every four years. OW.

[flvegan]

17. That could have been written by a number of DUers, matter of fact.

[Odin2005]

25. That's because, sadly, a lot of DUers ARE Marxist ideologues, not Liberals.

[KoKo]

39. Do you have any evidence to support your RW Views on this?

:shrug: We'd LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU with the LINKS! :D

[FLAprogressive]

18. Well it's well past time we all put Mr. Street on "ignore"

[cali]

20. Mr. Street is the current darling of a certain segment of the DU population

so that though this may piss off and confuse some, they'll find a way to justify Street's smashmouth criticism of Obama.

[acmavm]

21. Hearing 'voices' is not necessarily a good thing. NT

[BuyingThyme]

22. Did something happen to make this relevant?

[denem]

35. Yep: 'Flim-Flam Obama Man' by Paul Street: 55 recs

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5345470&mesg_id=5345470

[BuyingThyme]

36. Thank you.

:hi:

[Odin2005]

24. "Lunatic" and "Trotskyite" go hand in hand. The Neo-Cons are all ex-Trotskyites

I have a great dislike for Marxist ideologues generally, but Trotskyites are the worst.

[denem]

37. Mr Street challenged John Edwards to call for mass rebellion

to cement his 'progressive' credentials. Enough said.

[Odin2005]

44. Ack, Yep, he's a lunatic.

:crazy:

[Sebastian Doyle]

31. I have no idea who this "Paul Street" character is.

But his attacks on Dennis Kucinich are way the fuck out of line.

If every person in both houses of Congress was more like Dennis Kucinich than Evan W. Bayh, this country would be a much better place right now.

And this "oh he saw a UFO" bullshit?? Yeah, well so did Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and a bunch of other famous names from all points in the political spectrum. Why do the Dennis haters always bring up that irrelevant bullshit?

[Name removed]

38. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[denem]

41. The crock of shit was Street's rant. eom

[lonestarnot]

40. What an idiot greedy, theiving, American hating, detestable fucking freak!

[Cleita]

42. Paul Street go away, your ad hominem attacks on a man who is

probably the only honest man in Washington aren't appreciated. He reminds me of a male Tammy Bruce. You know she started out claiming she was a Democrat and a feminist and all good things liberal while she trashed the Hell out of them and praised Ann Coulter as an honest woman. Now she has evolved into a raving lunatic and I'm sure this person will as well.

[ArchieStone1]

43. Never heard of Paul Street in my life

Very obscure guy indeed.

[denem]

45. Flim-Flam Obama Man by Paul Street

It's on the DU front page with 64 recs.

[Mind_your_head]

46. Never heard of "Paul Street" until just now.

And "now I know" - straight away - that he's a dumb*ss (if paul street is even his/her real name).

Sorry that my response even gives this loser's story a kick.

[Truth2Tell]

47. Uh Oh! Paul Street said some critical things about Obama

that happen to ring true to most progressives. Quick! Dig up that piece from last year where he criticized Kucinich! Maybe that will distract some people from the truth of his words. Ohh, and toss in some unfounded accusations of Trotsky-ism to boot. Maybe toss in Nazism too. Why not. Anything to deflect when you're desperate.

I am a fan of both Street and Kucinich and none of this changes any of that. They are both imperfect humans. But they are both right a hell of a lot more than most of our pathetic political and pundit class.

[girl gone mad]

49. Distract, divide and conquer.

Street and Kucinich are both right sometimes and wrong sometimes. As progressives, they are right more often than they are wrong on the issues that matter.

[cali]

50. No, he didn't. He went in for wholesale trashing and

lies and misrepresentation, scattered amidst legitimate criticsm. Street and his ilk and zmag and counterpunch are the mirror image of human events and worldnut daily.

[ninety lives]

51. Who cares

This is pretty mild compared to some of the attitudes voiced in more mainstream publications.

Better to be knocked down by Z than some bigger rag that thinks nothing of kicking the little guy.