Dennis The Menace Kucinich

2003-12-29T22:11:00.000-08:00

Kucinich for President?
By Craig Cox, Utne magazine - July / Aug. 2003
Dennis Kucinich for president?

If you're looking for a word to describe your reaction to that announcement, you might try absurd. Or how about ludicrous? Here's a 56-year-old congressman from a Rust Belt state with virtually no name recognition, no money, and a political résumé that only his opponents could love (Cleveland went bankrupt while he was mayor).

He hangs out with New Age notables (Shirley MacLaine is his daughter's godmother, Marianne Williamson a political adviser), confounds liberals with his pro-life/pro-choice abortion stand (he's so serious about the sanctity of life that he eats a vegan diet, but does support Roe v. Wade), and believes the cornerstones of civilization consist of "polka, bowling, and kielbasa."

Meanwhile, the cries of "spoiler" are beginning to rise. In a recent column for the liberal Web site workingforchange.com, Alexander Cockburn lamented the arrival of influential leftists Barbara Ehrenreich and Marcus Raskin on the Kucinich bandwagon.

"Though he's hotly touted across the progressive spectrum, Kucinich hasn't a prayer of becoming a serious contender," Cockburn writes, "and I'm amazed to see people like Ehrenreich acting as the Pied Piper, calling all the erstwhile Greens, the Natural Law Party, and other exiles back under the Big Top."

2003-12-29T21:59:00.000-08:00

Kucinich's Incredible Lies About His District
Numbers trip up Kucinich at forum by Stephen Koff
Cleveland Plain Dealer Bureau Chief - 05/21/03

For a while yesterday, Cuyahoga County's western suburbs appeared to have taken a stunning political left turn, thanks to erroneous comments made by U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich. Speaking at a forum for Democratic presidential hopefuls, the congressman from Cleveland implied that he was responsible for a seismic political shift - from Republican to Democratic - in the 10th Congressional District.

"I represent a district in Cleveland, Ohio, that when I first ran was a 66 percent Republican district," Kucinich told supporters of Emily's List, a network of Democratic women who are for abortion rights. "And through working on progressive issues and running consistently a progressive-oriented campaign, I took that district from a 66 percent Republican district to a 74 percent Democratic district."

But Kucinich later acknowledged that he may have given the wrong impression. "It wasn't any intention" to mislead, Kucinich said. "I was attempting to demonstrate that I was able to take a district and turn it around." Democrats, however, have long had an advantage in the 10th District, Hoke's term not withstanding. It has more Democratic voters than Republican ones, so the odds favor a Democratic candidate.

"The congressional district that he won in where he beat Martin Hoke was a 54 percent Democrat district," Ohio Republican Chairman Robert Bennett said. "And it is a little bit more Democrat now" because the boundaries changed after the 2000 census. See: Kucinich's Incredible Lies About His District

2003-12-20T12:46:00.000-08:00

Kucinich Campaign's Unwarranted Optimism
The Kucinich campaign is sending around email claiming:

IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE KUCINICH
Dennis Kucinich's campaign has been catching fire ever since the December 9th debate in New Hampshire. [Screaming red headline in original.]

You have to admire their enthusiasm, but is it true? No, it isn't. Check the recent polls. Kucinich is at 1% to 2% in most. Kucinich is hardly "catching fire." He even lost ground according to the latest CBS News/New York Times Poll.

Kucinich fanatics claim the polls are biased against their candidate, and perhaps they are. Maybe they underrate his appeal by 400%. Still, no one expects Kucinich to crack 10% in Iowa, New Hampshire or anywhere else - including his home state. No one that is, except Kucinich and his fanatics.

But as long as Kucinich and his supporters continue to viciously, often dishonestly attack fellow Democrats rather than focus on Bush, he won't even garner 5% of the vote. So why do they do that? Only Kucinich and his misguided supporters know. Hopefully they'll stop soon, but in any case they'll have to stop when reality crashes down on their heads.

*CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll.* Dec. 15-16, 2003. Democrats and Democratic leaners nationwide who are to vote. "Next, I'm going to read a list of people who may be running in the Democratic primary for president in the next election. After I read all the names, please tell me which of those candidates you would be most likely to support for the Democratic nomination for president in the year 2004. . . ." Names rotated

		12/15-16	12/11-14	12/5-7	11/14-16	11/10-12
		%	%	%	%	%
	Howard Dean	27	31	25	17	17
	Joe Lieberman	12	13	10	13	15
	Wesley Clark	12	10	17	17	14
	Dick Gephardt	7	8	14	13	12
	John Kerry	7	10	7	9	10
	John Edwards	6	4	7	6	7
	Al Sharpton	6	5	3	5	3
	Carol Moseley Braun	3	3	5	4	4
	Dennis Kucinich	2	1	2	3	3
	Other/None/No opinion	18	15	10	13	15

*CBS News/New York Times* Poll**. Dec. 14-16, 2003. Likely Democratic primary voters nationwide. "Who would you like to see the Democratic Party nominate as its presidential candidate in 2004: [see below], or someone else?" Names rotated



		12/14-16	11/10-13
		%	%
	Howard Dean	23	14
	Wesley Clark	10	9
	Joe Lieberman	10	9
	Richard Gephardt	6	12
	Al Sharpton	5	3
	John Kerry	4	7
	John Edwards	2	2
	Carol Moseley Braun	1	4
	Dennis Kucinich	1	2
	Other (vol.)	10	15
	Don't know	28	23

2003-12-01T10:49:00.000-08:00

Why We Don't Support Kucinich
Keep in mind we are approaching this as progressive activists. We are more anti-Bush than anything else, and we can look at other candidates with clear vision if not objectivity. We should stipulate that Kucinich and the other candidates are all "playing politics." That's what politicians do.

We have been engaging Kucinich supporters about what we consider troubling conduct from the official Kucinich campaign and bizarre actions by some Kucinich supporters. To answer the attacks and complaints we've gotten from them, we worked up this response.

We support most of Kucinich's ideas and positions. Other than his radical anti-choice votes, we find few flaws in Kucinich's record. As ardent progressives, we should be natural Kucinich supporters. We're not, and we think that says a lot about the Kucinich campaign. So why don't we support Kucinich?

We researched the Kucinich record after receiving email from his campaign which claimed he was the most if not the only pro-choice candidate in the race. We had heard that Kucinich was anti choice, which surprised us. We also heard that he had changed his mind. Until we looked into it, we had no idea the degree of Kucinich's complete and long-standing hostility to the Constitutional Right to Choice.

The Constitutional Right to Choice is a huge issue for us. It goes to basic respect for basic Constitutional principles vs. religious dogma as a basis for our law and society. It measures respect for individual privacy and freedom against abusive, intrusive governmental authority. The refusal to respect the rights of women as human beings capable of determining their own life-choices is a personal failure no less serious than bigotry against African Americans, gays or any other segment of society.

Someone willing to favor theology, paternalism and other fundamental violations of Constitutional Rights on reproductive choice is willing to favor theology, paternalism and other fundamental violations of Constitutional Rights other issues. Willingness to trample the freedom and rights of women signals willingness to abuse anyone. After supporting these outrages throughout an entire career, claiming to change your mind a few months ago is no guarantee against support for similar outrages a few months from now.

We agree with Kucinich supporters that he may suffer unfairly from media disdain and disrespect. He has more to explain and less to go on than some others, and that might not all be Kucinich's fault. Still, some of it is his fault. In any case he - like any Democrat, especially a liberal - must rise above this unfairness to win the nomination and beat Bush. What matters more than that?

A Kucinich supporter complained, "With so many writing negative things about him or misrepresenting his policies or simply discounting him outright as a lunatic fringe, he leaps upon any article that paints him in a good way at all." We believe that concedes the Kucinich campaign hasn't made the same impact others' have, for whatever reason, and cannot justify self-defeating or deceptive practices by the Kucinich campaign.

We think it's obvious Kucinich has gotten almost no media attention, and much of the scant attention he gets focuses on his lack of support. While we don't think anyone in the mainstream media misrepresent him, much less call him a "lunatic," We welcome any examples his supporters may offer to send to me.

Efforts to excuse Kucinich's conduct - specifically misrepresenting his record such as pretending only he will defend Roe v. Wade and attacking other Democrats - raises a serious question. Does that mean he can't win the nomination? Let's look at this as objectively as we can.

About a year ago, Dean and Kucinich were in essentially the same position. Far from the limelight, relatively unknown, and without money or people-power. Since then, Dean pushed through the pack into front-runner status. This although Dean has even more people writing negative things about him than Kucinich. We would say Dean's success rests at least in part upon his ability to attract attention and overcome attacks.

Kucinich joined most of the other Democratic hopefuls, the Democratic Leadership Council, the Republicans and their allies in the media "misrepresenting [Dean's] policies." Many critics try to discount Dean outright as a far-left fringe candidate. Dean worked through that static to become the front-runner. Dean is not complaining about the media and others who are against him - even though many are. He is not making any excuses. He doesn't have to. He just keeps moving ahead.

Dean won every contest so far - the Wisconsin Democratic Convention, the Minnesota straw poll, the MoveOn primary - all by huge margins. Dean gets the biggest crowds in Texas, Arizona, New Hampshire, Iowa and elsewhere. He rose to the top of the polls among Democrats nationally and in the key states. He dismissed the charge he can't compete for contributions by raising the most money in tiny amounts without any corporate or PAC support.

Why can't Kucinich rise above similar obstacles and make a splash as Dean has? Is it because Kucinich is too far to the left? Perhaps, but if so, then things won't get any easier for him. In fact, if Kucinich ever pushes into the top tier, things will get much worse. Is it because Kucinich's message simply isn't resonating? If so, then he has to change that message and / or his approach, making his campaign more positive and uplifting. Can Kucinich withstand the nonstop attacks Dean has endured?

Primary politics - like all politics - remain largely media-driven. There's only room for two at the top: a front runner and a challenger. The media mock the rest - if they pay any attention to them at all. Is that fair? No. Is it so? Yes. So what if Kucinich squares off against Dean, or what if Kucinich rather than Dean confronts Clark, Edwards, Lieberman, Gephardt or Kerry for the nomination?

If the others fall by the wayside, the media will probe every flaw and quirk in Kucinich's life and record. If his supporters think the media unfairly treated Kucinich has up until now, just wait until they really focus on him. What will the media report?

Kucinich caused a fiscal crisis in Cleveland in his only attempt at executive leadership. No other major city went into default since the Great Depression. Kucinich says this is because he refused to sell the Cleveland-owner power company, Muny Light:

"The Muny Light issue came to a head on December 15, 1978, when Ohio's largest bank, Cleveland Trust, the 33rd largest bank in America at that time, told me that they would not renew the city's credit on 15 million dollars worth of loans taken out by the previous administration unless We would agreed to sell Cleveland's municipally owned utility to CEI." See: Power to the People by Rep. Dennis Kucinich: http://truthout.org/docs_03/082503C.shtml.

Kucinich conveniently starts his story on the eve of default, even though he became mayor several months earlier and served in city government for years. Why didn't he take the necessary steps to head off the crisis long before it was too late? He blames his failure to find a solution entirely on others, not on his youth or inexperience, not on any flaw in anything he did.

Typically, Kucinich blames others and excuses his role in this catastrophe by claiming a bank bankrupted Cleveland. But mayors of Cleveland both before and after Kucinich didn't sell Muny Light either. Somehow they all successfully avoided default. What was different about Kucinich that made this beyond his capacity? There may be a plausible explanation for this, but we have yet to read or hear it.

By contrast, after Bill Clinton failed in his first term as governor he admitted he tried to do too much too fast. He understands he stepped on peoples' toes. He doesn't say he was wrong on the merits, except for when he was, but accepts that he tried to do some good things the wrong way. We don't see that level of maturity, self-awareness or humility in Kucinich's explanation of his own failure. We see no sense of personal accountability, only finger-pointing and self-serving rationalizations.

Then there's choice. Kucinich's voting record has been 100% anti-choice, and 100% anti-family planning. Although he tries to hem and haw about this, he maintained his full-out opposition to choice and Roe v. Wade until he decided to run for president. This may not set off any alarm bells for some of his supporters, but he has yet to explain this to our satisfaction. When many Kucinich supporters learn about the depth of his opposition to choice, they choose another candidate. That may explain Kucinich's refusal to level with us about his snap decision.

We think Kucinich should explain his "campaign conversion" on choice honestly. We see Kucinich's political strategy as hiding behind a facile, false claim that other Democrats are less willing to defend choice than he is. We are not the only ones who see this as cynical and self-serving. When pro-choice Kucinich supporters we know learn of his life-long anti-family planning record and lack of leadership in the House on this issue to date, they get upset with Kucinich.

We cannot overrate the problems Kucinich is creating for himself by doing this. We see the (supposedly) popular Bush trying to evade responsibility for his failures and sinking. The media - heavily predisposed to cover for Bush - keep raising questions about this. We don't think you can assume Kucinich will have any more success dodging or dismissing the questions about his tenure in Cleveland, his long anti-choice record and abrupt change, or his campaign's misstatements about these and other matters

We understand the danger the Kucinich campaign has created for him by making outrageous claims. With his dismal record on the choice issue, why would he claim he is not merely the best on choice, but that he is the only real pro-choice candidate? It's ridiculous and wrong. It's also self-destructive.

If Kucinich ever does make any kind of move into the top tier, the first thing the media will do is rip into his flip-flop on choice. Can he explain that and maintain any support among the pro-choice Democrats? If we're any example, he can't.

Most troubling, we find an overarching consistent pattern of willful deception by the Kucinich campaign. This is even worse among "friends" of the campaign like "Feminists for Kucinich" and the reporter Bob Harris who we believe take their cues from the official campaign. Kucinich has the right to run any way he wants. However we wish he'd treat other candidates and voters with more respect than he's shown at times.

Kucinich supporters say he has to leap at any favorable half sentence in any article, and we agree that's true. Still, we wonder about a candidate who accepts he has to hope we'll ignore the rest of the sentence he's chosen as a headline. A serious and viable campaign faces all the facts in articles they hand-pick to distribute, not just the positive one-half-liners.

A quick click on links sent by the Kucinich campaign reveals even his top supporters admit he has less support than his rivals. Kucinich is relying on non-endorsements, misleading materials, and articles which show him as an also ran. This under headlines which claim he's been endorsed, proclaim he's the best on issues on which he's been horrible, and designate him a rising star.

Maybe it wouldn't bother us so much if Kucinich changed his mind on choice, if his views evolved slowly over the years. Maybe it wouldn't bother us if he would just admit this marks a 100% change from his past record. We don't know what to think about this total about face and his refusal to face up to it.

Kucinich's excuse - that the right wing has played politics with the issue - makes no sense to me. He voted in lock-step with the right wing for a decade or more while they were playing politics. Also, if Kucinich really believes life begins at conception, then how can someone else "playing politics" change that?

Either choice is a Constitutional Right (as we believe) or it's killing a human being - homicide - as Kucinich has steadfastly asserted, at least until very recently. Others' political motivations cannot make exercising choice one thing or the other. Kucinich's explanation seems like blaming someone else for his own dilemma - something Kucinich does all too often for our comfort.

Rather than accept he has a long way to go on this issue, Kucinich is bashing all the other Democrats who have a perfect record on choice. We got email directly from the Kucinich campaign - drafted by "Feminists for Kucinich" claiming he's the only one who will protect choice because he promises to apply a "litmus test" on judicial appointments. This although Kucinich is the least likely to do that, based on his record.

The right wing National Review reports: "During his first three terms in Congress, Kucinich compiled a consistently pro-life voting record, earning a 95-percent rating from the National Right to Life Committee in 2000. 'He absolutely believes in the sanctity of life and that life begins at conception,' Kucinich's spokeswoman explained last year."

"But the feisty 56-year-old Catholic, whose political career is littered with upset victories, has changed course. 'We support a woman's right to freedom of choice,' Kucinich says now. 'We do not believe that Roe v. Wade should be overturned.' He vowed last week to an Iowa audience that 'as president, I would protect that right [to choice], and I would also make sure that appointees to the Supreme Court protected that right.'"
See: http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-enrich022003.asp

These new positions represent a 100% reversal for Kucinich. Kucinich voted against the Constitutional Right to reproductive freedom over his whole career dating back to the Ohio state legislature, until he decided to run for President. He got a 0% from NARAL - the top pro-choice group. He received a 95% approval rather than a 100% grade from anti-choice groups like Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition and the extreme right wing Concerned Women for America because he voted for the Shays / Meehan campaign finance reform bill.

Kucinich claims he changed from the most anti-choice candidate imaginable to the most or only pro-choice candidate overnight. We hate to say this, but we think he's just claiming to be pro-choice to get votes in the primaries. Either that or his bedrock moral stands are "flexible" at the very least. This makes us really wonder about him as a candidate. Of course we'll support him if he gets the nomination, but we can't imagine why he thinks the media wouldn't hammer him to death on it?

Kucinich not only voted anti-choice every time for year after year, but also anti-choice, anti-family planning, and anti-contraception for 100,000s of women with federal health insurance. Just since Bush stole the White House, Kucinich backed Bush's bans and gag rules. He voted against what he claims he now believes every time until just a few months ago. He has never explained this with anything close to real personal accountability or sincerity, so it looks like a "campaign conversion" to me. We just can't see any other explanation.

Maybe Kucinich's most ardent supporters can dismiss this conduct and claims which fly in the face of the actual facts and quotes showing virtually no support for Kucinich even among Democrats who agree with his views. We cannot. Some Kucinich supporters rely on hopes that if people get to know Kucinich, they will flock to his banner. But the Kucinich his campaign is trying to introduce is not the real Kucinich. This conduct shows us Kucinich isn't running his campaign well, he isn't running honestly, or both.

It's not just Kucinich and his official campaign which keep misfiring and turning off potential supporters. We got a lot of thumbs-up emails about this site from other victims of vicious attacks from Kucinich fanatics. Although all candidates count rabid, rude and abusive people among their ranks, we see more hysterical behavior from the Kucinich Clique than from all the other Democrats combined.

Does all this mean Kucinich can't win the nomination? We think that's exactly what this means. That's our opinion, and people can disagree of course. That said, you should ask, if Kucinich is turning off a political activists like us by running this way, what is he gaining? Where can he hope to get support? What does this say about him as a leader?

We see no way Kucinich will escape the obscure lowest tier the way he's going. All he can do is make enemies on the left, help Bush, and hurt his own career. If anyone reading this has any influence on Kucinich or his campaign, please try to get them to focus on bashing Bush rather than badmouthing other Democrats. Otherwise he's just hurting Democrats, perhaps himself most of all.

2003-11-17T17:13:00.000-08:00

We get hate mail
From a Kucinich campaigner
From: Robin Rae Art4Peace@comcast.net
Sent: Monday, November 17, 2003 6:53 PM
Subject: Re: (ditto)

ARE YOU ARE COMPLETELY INSANE??!!!! Saying I am in a "blinding rage"?? you say you offered advice "in kindness"?? that I'm "creating an enemy", and that I "lash out rather than trying to be undersood"??? As I said in my last email....you obviously did NOT read all of my "nice" email a few days ago!!! You are the most rediculous, arrogant, screwed up idiot and Dean (should) be ashamed of YOU!!! And YES...after all the insaneness you've been sending to me, I am NOW very angry with YOU!!!

There are numerous other statements you've made in recent emails which are at least as rude & interrogating!! YOU are the one digging yourself in the hole with your rudeness and hatred!! The only hatred I have is the way you twist everything around and try to make the OTHER person seem like the angry, revengeful attacker. I don't care what you say because I KNOW what I've said, and I am open enough to read into what you've said!!
Ripple.....ripple.....ripple.....,',',',',',',',',',','

Just in case you might want to REALLY read my previous email: (but be careful...there's no meaness in it)

I would hope that you could understand WHY most of us Kucinich supporters "seem" so angry and/or defensive. It's the media's TOTAL ignorance, avoidance and unfairness of Kucinich. I'm sure you don't notice what goes on like we all do....but MANY times, EVERY day, we find television spots or newspaper articles where they are speaking about (say) which candidates are talking out 'against' the Iraq war, then they say "Howard Dean is the ONLY candidate who's been against the war all along" (THAT is a TOTAL lie!!)...or they may be speaking of which candidate has a plan to bring jobs back to the U.S., then they NEVER even mention that Kucinich is the ONLY candidate who promises to 'cancel' NAFTA & WTO....and so on & so on!!!! We see this SO MANY places EVERY DAY!!!

I personally contact media people (either by email or phone calls) at least TEN times each day in response to this type of bullshit!! And when we work so hard in trying to get the TRUTH out about where our candidate stands on important issues, only to have the mainstream, 'national' media churn out lies, then not ever give him any airtime to SPEAK his views....it makes us VERY angry!! (most of us are typically NOT 'angry' people) I happen to be quite a soft-spoken, peaceful, compassionate and very friendly person. I have NEVER been involved in politics in my entire life, until now....and I'm 39 yrs old!! I have only now become involved because I heard Dennis speak at an event about a year ago and EVERYTHING that Dennis passionately spoke of is what I've always wanted to see in our government!

Then I became one of over 30,000 people who constantly emailed to persuade him to run for President. I promised him that if he decided to run, I would help work the campaign in the Los Angeles area. When he finally came out with his decision to run in the end of February, I've been excitedly working my heart out ever since! I've now spent alot time with Dennis, on numberous occassions, and I KNOW how honest, intelligent, and deeply compassionate he REALLY is!

I have a VERY strong sense of intuition and am really good at 'reading into' people, or 'getting a feel' for them (hard to explain). Dennis IS the REAL DEAL. And I'm sorry for bringing this up again, but Howard Dean does NOT give me a good 'feeling', at all. This is by what I 'sense' about him, his actions, and what he says. (my 'gut' feelings)

I'm sorry to go on so long about this....but I think it is VERY important to make you understand that we Kucinich supporters are NOT angry, attacking, horrible people. I think it's important to point out the fact of what the media is doing. The media is against Kucinich because he speaks out strongly about the wrongs in the government, details of Pentagon spending, and the strong corporate control of our government (the media are controlled by big corporations, as well).

This lack of mainstream media coverage is the ONLY reason Dennis Kucinich is not at the top of the tier!! If he was on the airwaves, even as much as Clark, the general public would be able to hear his strong message and Kucinich would become the 'frontrunner'. Instead, the media has taken it upon themselves to 'choose' who THEY want as the frontrunners. THIS is one of the main reasons Kucinich is so low in the national polls (besides the fact that the polls are bias)...because they either don't know who he is or have not seen enough of him. This is going to begin to change as the debates progress....and once we can get a grip on this media conspiracy!!

I'm truly NOT ranting to you, I just NEEDED to clear up a few things that have bothered me from your emails. Yet, I will re-state to you that if Howard Dean wins the nomination, I would NOT vote for him in the election. That certainly doesn't mean I'm unpatriotic....just that I can only vote with my "conscience". (The thing I say to most people I initially speak to about Kucinich, since they usually say they LOVE everything that he stands for, but the media tells them he's "unelectable", is that "Kucinich IS electable if you vote for him...vote with your conscience!!)
That's ALL I will say. Thanks for your patience!!

PEACE & Many Blessings,
Robin Rae =^. .^=

Lucky this wasn't angry or mean. We can't even imagine what that would look like? Better Robin would show a "standoffish attitude" than this "rediculous" rant.

2003-11-16T12:06:00.000-08:00

Kucinich's Lies and Doubletalk About Choice
Dennis Kucinich: the real soul of the Democratic Party?
Interview and profile by Lydia Howell, November 16, 2003

Kucinich has an "Achilles heel: abortion. His first two terms in Congress, he voted anti-choice. Skeptics contend he 'flip-flopped' in order to seek the Democratic nomination. [Kucinich claims] 'I became increasingly disturbed about politicization by the Republican Party and moves toward the criminalization [of abortion].' [To explain this change] Kucinich cited extremist legislation proposed to ban contraceptives."

Yet Kucinich voted for that ban for women in federal employee insurance plans and other extremist legislation according to Kucinich's Planned Parenthood report card:

OH-10

Rep.

Dennis Kucinich (D)

Mixed

40%

Vote Description	Vote
Medicaid/Hyde Amendment	ANTI
Insurance Coverage For Contraceptives	ANTI
Global Gag Rule	ANTI
UNFPA Funding (Smith Amendment)	PRO
Confidential Access To Family Planning For Minors	PRO
Mifepristone (Formerly Known As RU-486)	ANTI
Minors' Access to Abortion 2002	ANTI
Abortion Access for Military Service Members 2003	PRO
Fetal Rights	ANTI
Funding For Family Planning	NIO
Bans on Abortion Procedures 2003	PRO

[Back to search]

[Contact Dennis Kucinich]

[See House Votes]

Scorecard Key
Pro-choice	100%	NIO	Not in Office
Mixed	99% - 40%	NV	No Vote (Did Not Vote)
Anti-choice	39% - 0%	NM	New Member

See http://www.plannedparenthoodvotes.org/cgi-bin/score_details.cgi?MemberId=1307

In other recent Kucinich votes:
He Opposed Insurance Coverage For Contraceptives
He Supported the Global Gag Rule
He Opposed International Family Planning
He Supported Confidential Access To Family Planning For Minors
He Opposed Mifepristone (Formerly Known As RU-486)
He Opposed Minors' Access To Abortion
He Opposed Abortion Access For Military Service Members
He Opposed Medicaid Choice (Was for the Hyde Amendment)
He Supported Bans On Abortion Procedures
He Supported so-called "Fetal Rights"

Who does Kucinich think he's kidding?

2003-11-16T11:44:00.000-08:00

Kucinich's Change on Choice
More Recent Than He Claims
Early Warnings on Abortion Enter 2004 Campaign - June 2, 2003
Allison Stevens, Women's Enews, National Organization for Women

Kucinich, meanwhile, announced he had changed his position to favor abortion rights last February on the day he kicked off his campaign, reversing the position he had held on the issue during seven years in Congress, when he has generally opposed abortion rights and consistently opposed federal funding of abortion for poor women.

2003-11-16T11:38:00.000-08:00

The Kucinich Abortion Flip Flop Part 2
Life Changes by W. James Antle III 2/26/2003

Kucinich ... decided to jettison his old views in favor of the Democratic Party orthodoxy. Rather unaccountably, Kucinich argues that he has done no such thing, that there is no discrepancy between his now-rabid pro-choice position and his voting record.

When confronted with the fact that this record earned him a 90 percent National Right to Life Committee rating in his first term and a 95 percent rating in his second -- with the imperfections attributable to his support of the Shays-Meehan campaign finance reform bill, not any directly abortion-related vote -- he responds that this shows he was pro-choice but opposed to taxpayer funding of abortion.

However, his votes for the partial-birth abortion ban and the Unborn Victims of Violence Act went beyond opposition to publicly funded abortion to support for legal protection of pre-born life. The main advantage Kucinich has in his efforts to bob and weave on the abortion issue is that during his time in Congress, the pro-life movement has focused on incremental reforms rather than sweeping changes like the human life amendment.

While he is on record affirming his belief in the sanctity of human life and that life begins at conception, he has never had to vote on whether Roe v. Wade should stand -- although according to the Katha Pollitt column that Sean Higgins credits in part for his shift, he did tell Planned Parenthood that he disagreed with the substance of the decision in 1996. [continued]

2003-11-16T11:30:00.000-08:00

Commentary du Jour: Kucinich- the enemy of Choice?
"If you're voting for Kucinich, can you trust him?" - Posted by jolene at August 19, 2003

I couldn't be more shocked. Honestly. Nathan put a bug in my ear, and with a little research, did I ever get the shock of my life.

Some facts for you about Dennis Kucinich:

*While in the Ohio state Senate, Kucinich voted to ban partial-birth abortions.

*the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy counted Kucinich as one of a handful of "anti-choice" Democratic newcomers when he was on his way to Washington.

*As a congressmen, he voted with the National Right to Life Committee on every single abortion vote in his first two years. That was more pro-life than three Ohio Republicans that year!

* Also while in congress, Kucinich voted twice on both banning partial-birth abortion and blocking aid to International Planned Parenthood (Last in 2001)

His decision that he suddenly respected a woman's right to choose? Boys and Girls, it came after he decided that he was running for President. Because let's face it: American Democrats, as a whole, would never support an anti-choice candidate.

If you're voting for Kucinich, can you trust him? Is he really pro-choice, or is this a wolf in sheep's clothing, out to steal our right to choose? Amazing how it just "hit him" that women deserve a right to choose after years of trying to take that right from us while in the state senate and congress.

2003-11-16T11:01:00.000-08:00

Kucinich Contradicts Self on Reproductive Rights

At his website, Kucinich claims: "I support Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to choose, and will select Supreme Court justices who affirm this Constitutional right. I've had a journey on this issue that a year ago, before I became a candidate for President, caused me to break from a voting record that had not been pro-choice."

A voting record "that had not been pro-choice"? That doesn't pass the laugh test. Well after Bush stole into power, Kucinich kept voting for Bush's gag rules and bans on choice, contraception, family planning, and prenatal care. Kucinich voted "for" or "present" on key anti-choice legislation as recently as 2002!

Don't take our word for it. Please read about Kucinich's life-long extreme hostility to the Constitutional Rights of women to run their own lives. Please see other articles here and on the web about what Kucinich cleverly calls "a voting record that had not been pro-choice."

2003-11-16T08:02:00.000-08:00

The Bizarre Biography of Dennis Kucinich
Kucinich supporters question other Democrats' families and backgrounds.
Shouldn't they answer questions Kucinich raised in his official biography?

Rep. Kucinich touts his background, claiming it makes him "desire to be of service to humanity." His bio at his official House website explains: "Kucinich was born in Cleveland, Ohio on October 8, 1946. He is the eldest of 7 children of Frank and Virginia Kucinich. He and his family lived in twenty-one places, including a couple of cars, by the time Kucinich was 17 years old."

Since he brought up his bio as a reason for us to support him, we should consider all aspects of Kucinich's childhood. Some aspects are troubling. Why did Frank and Virginia Kucinich have to move their enormous family so often - more than once a year? Why were they homeless, living in "a couple of cars" some of the time between 1946 and 1963? Why did they have so many children - seven - when they couldn't maintain a stable, secure home life?

How have his first seventeen years continued to mark Kucinich's attitudes and actions as an adult? Has this rootlessness contributed to his willingness to discard lifelong fundamental beliefs and adopt irreconcilably contradictory positions? These questions are important because we much know now - before supporting Kucinich for President - how turmoil throughout his entire pre-adult life affects and directs Dennis Kucinich's current behavior.

Professor Melvin G. Holli, Ph.D., an expert on American History provides some insights: "Kucinich earned seventh place [among worst mayors in US history] the hard way: by his abrasive, intemperate, and confrontational populist political style, which led to a disorderly and chaotic administration." According to Dr. Holli, Kucinich's record shows little achievement but a lot of "Bad judgment, demagoguery, and default [which] spelled political failure."

Professor Holli reports, "[Kucinich] barely survived a recall vote just ten months into office, then disappeared for five weeks, reportedly recuperating from an ulcer. When he got back into the political fray, his demagogic rhetoric and slash-and-burn political style got him into serious trouble when he stubbornly refused to compromise and led Cleveland into financial default in late 1978 - the first major city to default since the Great Depression." See: Melvin G. Holli, The American Mayor: The Best & The Worst Big-City Leaders.

How did this chaotic childhood affect Dennis Kucinich? Did disruption during his formative years contribute to his inability to work with his peers and his reflexive resort to strife and confrontation rather than cooperation? Does this explain his total failure as mayor and lack of any demonstrable success in the Congress? Kucinich and his supporters often question other Democrats' families and backgrounds. Fair enough. But they should answer these questions raised buy Kucinich's own biography as well.

2003-11-16T07:53:00.000-08:00

Contact Kucinich

Kucinich says, "Dear Friends: I want to hear from you!" So please contact him and ask him to tell the truth about his life-long hostility to women's rights - especially reproductive freedom, family planning, and of course choice. Ask him to stop lying about other Democrats.

Kucinich says, "I look forward to hearing from you!" So please contact him and tell him to run a decent and honorable campaign, and to call off his hateful and abusive campaign staffers and supporters. Ask him to help us beat Bush rather than help Bush beat us.

Contact Kucinich:

Lakewood
14400 Detroit Avenue
Lakewood, OH 44107
Phone (216) 228-8850
Fax (216) 228-6465

Parma
5983 West 54th Street
Parma, OH 44129
Phone (440) 845-2707
Fax (440) 845-2743

Washington, DC
1730 Longworth
Washington, DC 20515 Phone (202) 225-5871
Fax (202) 225-5745

2003-11-13T21:40:00.000-08:00

Kucinich pimps himself
Despite having long-term, live-in lover
Kucinich lies about being a "bachelor"
"As a bachelor, I get a chance to fantasize about my first lady. And you know maybe Fox will want to sponsor it as a national contest or something. But in any event I would want definitely want someone who would not just be there by my side, but be a working partner because I think we're in a day in age when partnerships are imperative to making anything happening in the world. And I certainly want a dynamic, out-spoken woman who was fearless in her desire for peace in the world and for universal single-payer health care and a full employment economy. If you are out there call me." - Democratic Presidential candidate [sic] Dennis Kucinich, 11/05/03

This is not an important misrepresentation. It's pretty comical and silly. The point is, as a non-serious candidate, Kucinich gets a chance to fantasize about what he'd do as President and make up a goofy platform with bogus overpromising. The whole Kucinich campaign is based on fantasy and - sadly - dishonesty.

2003-11-12T00:59:00.000-08:00

CNN: Kucinich in Dead Last
CNN.com - Poll: Majority of voters would not re-elect Bush - Nov. 8, 2003

Among contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean edges out Gen. Wesley Clark in the poll. Sixteen percent of Democratic voters and those who lean Democratic said Dean would be their first choice, while 15 percent said Clark would be.

Rep. Dick Gephardt was third with 9 percent; followed by Sen. Joseph Lieberman at 8 percent; Sen. John Kerry and former Senator and Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun at 7 percent; Sen. John Edwards at 6 percent; the Rev. Al Sharpton at 4 percent; and Rep. Dennis Kucinich at 2 percent.

2003-11-11T06:31:00.000-08:00

Contact Kucinich about his lies and flip-flops.
Tell him to help beat Bush and stop bashing legitimate candidates.
Call Toll-Free: (866) 413-3664 or (866) 4-1-DENNIS. Fax: (216) 251-5974

Write: Kucinich for President Committee
11808 Lorain Ave. 1st floor
Cleveland, OH 44111

2003-11-10T18:47:00.000-08:00

Kucinich Lies Again

The Kucinich website claims: "Right-to-Choose, Privacy, and Civil Rights In a Kucinich administration, a woman's right-to-choose will be protected as essential to personal privacy and gender equality. Only those who agree to uphold Roe v. Wade will be nominated for the Supreme Court."

But look at Kucinich's life-long "pro-life" anti-choice record:

Kucinich's Recent Anti-Choice Votes

Kucinich's Extreme Anti-Choice Record

Kucinich's Tragic Flaw (Choice)

Kucinich's Radical Anti-Choice Record

Kucinich Supports Radical Anti-Choice Agenda

KUCINICH'S ABORTION FLIP-FLOP

Is anyone really falling for this "campaign conversion"?
Feminists for Kucinich are Making the Wrong Choice

2003-11-07T11:14:00.000-08:00

Kucinich "distancing himself from
his own conservative past"

Kucinich's platform is farthest to the left, but he has virtually no chance of winning the party’s nomination. And he has only recently undergone a 'personal journey' distancing himself from his own conservative past. In 1998, Kucinich voted for Clinton's 'Iraq Liberation Act,' promoting regime change in Iraq, and he still calls for a 'strong and efficient military.' His reversal of decades of staunch opposition to women’s right to choose roughly coincided with the launch of his presidential campaign. [complete article]

2003-11-07T10:57:00.000-08:00

Does a Democrat deserve your vote?
"Kucinich is an extreme long shot to win the Democratic nomination"
Kucinich's "long history as a supporter of the anti-abortionists"
"Kucinich's real role ... deliver [the left] to the eventual nominee."

Kucinich, in particular, is winning support from activists. Earlier this month, for example, a group of well-known women writers led by Barbara Ehrenreich issued a statement titled "Feminists for Kucinich." Oddly, the statement implies Kucinich's support for a woman’s right to choose abortion--without mentioning his long history as a supporter of the anti-abortionists, until he "changed his position" recently.

Nor does it come to terms with the fact that Kucinich is an extreme long shot to win the Democratic nomination--since the big-business interests that control the party’s purse strings despise his liberal politics. Anyone who doesn’t admit this is avoiding the key question--of what they would do when Kucinich fails to win.

The Feminists for Kucinich statement concedes that left wingers should "vote your head in November." Translation: Oppose a left-wing third party campaign, like Ralph Nader’s in 2000, and support whatever Democrat emerges with the nomination, no matter how conservative, in the name of defeating Bush.

This dynamic shows how--rhetoric aside--Kucinich’s real role in the Democratic Party is to round up the left and deliver it to the eventual nominee. Complete Article

2003-11-07T10:38:00.000-08:00

Why Kucinich is no answer

Letters to the editor
Dear Socialist Worker,

In their desperation to get rid of Bush, many antiwar activists are turning to the Democrats. Dennis Kucinich, a self-proclaimed 'peace candidate' for the Democratic presidential nomination, came to Seattle on July 19. The audience of more than 500 came largely from Sound Non-Violent Opponents of War, a Seattle pacifist antiwar group. They warmly applauded his calls for 'peace, prosperity and optimism' and to 'make nonviolence a principle.'

But Kucinich's concrete proposals didn't match his rhetoric. He is only asking for a 15 percent cut in the military budget--putting it back to where it was when Clinton left office. [continued]

2003-11-07T10:35:00.000-08:00

Kucinich is NOT an Anti-War Candidate
Kucinich is NOT the candidate of the antiwar
movement -- or even consistently antiwar.

In 1998, Kucinich voted for the 'Iraq Liberation Act,' Bill Clinton's call for regime change in Iraq. 'It should be the policy of the United States to support efforts to remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq and to promote the emergence of a democratic government to replace that regime,' reads the Iraq Liberation Act.

And before the invasion, in a February 23 interview on Meet the Press, Kucinich argued for the continuation of sanctions on Iraq as an alternative to war, despite the fact that sanctions killed more than 1 million Iraqis--and despite the fact that he opposed the sanctions in a Progressive magazine interview a few months earlier. [continued]

2003-11-06T19:19:00.000-08:00

Kucinich's "Blunder" Horrifies Detroit Mayor
Garance Franke-Ruta - The American Prospect - Web Exclusive: 10.29.03

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) incorrectly declared that the city had suffered 300 murders in September; actually, the number was 35, as [local TV newsperson Huel] Perkins pointed out later in the debate. "I think it's horrible," [Detroit Mayor] Kilpatrick later said of Kucinich's blunder, according to columnist Rochelle Riley of the Detroit Free Press. "I think not only was it grossly inaccurate, but he never really came back and cleaned it up, and then ended the debate with a message of despair." complete article

2003-11-06T18:26:00.000-08:00

Kucinich Flip Flops on Contribution
Kucinich now plans to return Hamas supporter's gift
Stephen Koff Cleveland Plain Dealer 10/03/03

Washington- After refusing for more than a year to reject a controversial campaign donation, Rep. Dennis Kucinich yesterday reversed his stance and said he would give back $500 to a man who has voiced support for groups linked to Middle East terrorists.

This came after a Plain Dealer reporter informed Kucinich, a Democratic presidential candidate from Cleveland, that the contributor was arrested on Sunday and accused by federal prosecutors of accepting payments from Libya and supporting terrorists. Continued

2003-11-06T18:17:00.000-08:00

A First Hand Account of a Former Kucinich Supporter
Just Say NO to Kucinich by Kurt GILLESPIE

I was a big fan of Dennis the Menace when he was Mayor. I was a lot more radical in my youth. Now I am a moderate independent who still takes radical positions on certain issues. My favorite Democrat is Senator Harry Reid of Nevada. My favorite Republican is Senator John McCain of Arizona.

I got Kucinich's phone number in 1989 from liberal columnist Roldo Bartimole. I liked Dennis at first. My dad, who went to Case Western Reserve, and I had dinner with Dennis in 1991 and had a good time. I thought in the old days that Dennis was a maverick in the mode of Jesse Ventura or Ross Perot.

I had a conversation with Dennis in 1994 that changed my mind about him forever. You see I am very good friends with Richard Hongisto from the bay area. I was upset with the way that Kucinich fired Hongisto on local TV on Good Friday. The national press asked why did the Jerry Brown of Ohio fire California's Lone Ranger as his police chief?

I just figured that it was a clash of 2 reform minded politicians that couldn't see eye to eye. Maybe it was like the modern day feud that happened between Rudy Giuliani and William Bratton when Bratton got fired as his police chief over personality issues.

Anyway largely because of me Hongisto and Kucinich talked again in 1991. They played down their differences and blamed the feud on Kucinich's 3 top aides, Bob Weissman and Betty and Tanya Grdina, for fueling their misunderstandings and disagreements that led to Hongisto's firing.

I did my own independent research. What Hongisto told me was right on the money and Kucinich can't sugar coat it anymore. The main reason why Dennis fired Richard was over a man named Ron Turner. Turner was a black police patrolman and the limo driver for Dennis and his mentor Bob Weissman in 1977 during the Mayors race. Because of his loyalty Dennis and Bob wanted him transferred to a first class Detective job.

Hongisto promised nothing but said he would look into it. What he found were reports of an officer out of control who was despised by the community and his fellow officers. Richard told Dennis that Turner had questionable moral values and was a suspected drug user in his off hours. He said in good conscience he couldn't promote him to Detective.

This all happened during Hongisto's first month as police chief. Kucinich and his keystone cop advisors never forgave Hongisto for this slight and felt he was not a team player. So Dennis ran against former Mayors who engaged in nepotism and favoritism for their friends but he felt it was ok for him to do the exact same thing!

I was in the car with Dennis in 1994. I had talked to media people and had done my own research. I asked him about this mess and told him what Richard told me. He shocked me when he said what Hongisto told you was essentially right.

A new administration has a right to make their own appointments and Bob Weissman felt Hongisto was wrong in blocking our recommendation of Ron Turner for this promotion. When Hongisto got fired that set off a recall that Kucinich won by less than 300 votes.

Kucinich is a total hypocrite. He claims he loves the Democratic Party but his actions say otherwise. In 1971 he headed up a group called Democrats for Perk. He got Ralph Perk, a right wing mental case, elected over a black progressive Democrat backed by former Mayor Carl Stokes.

Kucinich flip flopped all over the map on impeaching President Clinton. He didn't give a rat's ass about Monica Lewinski but he felt Clinton was bad because he bombed Serbia and removed the democratically elected Milosevic.

Milosevic was elected in a sham election. Besides Muslims the people that Serbian Milosevic killed were Croatians. Dennis Kucinich is Croatian and did not care about his own people being slaughtered in the former Yugoslavia. When it comes to electing Kucinich to anything here is some smart advice: Just Say NO!
- Kurt GILLESPIE

2003-11-06T17:56:00.000-08:00

Kucinich Craves Support Dean Won
Tom Diemer Plain Dealer Why not Dennis for president, supporters ask 09/21/03

Recent polls show Dean leading in Iowa and New Hampshire - states that host the first major Democratic contests in January. "Dean has the highly educated, highly liberal, suburban, liberal and progressive wing. And that's a group that's very intense for him," said New York-based pollster John Zogby.

Early on, Dean posted his positions on a campaign Web site and solicited donations. He also established a blog - or Web log - offering a campaign diary and an opportunity for supporters to share their views. He linked his online operation with moveon.org, a popular liberal-oriented Web site, and meetup.com, one that helps candidates organize meetings electronically.

As Dean gains momentum, he increasingly refers to himself as a moderate, pointing to his 10 years as governor of Vermont, during which he balanced the state budget and delivered a health insurance plan for children and the poor. 'You have Dean also leading on self-identified centrists,' said Zogby.

Former Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, who endorsed Kucinich in his successful 1977 mayoral campaign, is backing Dean for president. complete article

2003-11-06T17:38:00.000-08:00

Kucinich's Recent Anti-Choice Votes

Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich's key votes against choice within the past few years. Note: the National "Right to Life" Committee uses clever euphemisms like "Mexico City Policy." That Bush policy which Kucinich voted for banned US support for organizations providing pre- and post-natal care, family planning and other medical and humanitarian treatment. None of these programs involved choice, but some of the groups had some ties to pro-choice organizations. The ban Kucinich supported increased infant mortality and deaths among pregnant women. In this case, the so-called "pro-life" position condemned people to death.

Outcome	Legislation - Date	Vote	Kucinich's Position
Failed	Abortion in military facilities 09/25/2001	N	AGAINST Choice
Passed	Human cloning ban: passage 07/31/2001	Y	AGAINST Choice
Failed	Human cloning ban: hostile motion 07/31/2001	N	AGAINST Choice
Failed	Human cloning ban: hostile substitute 07/31/2001	N	AGAINST Choice
Failed	Abortion funding in federal prisons 07/17/2001	N	AGAINST Choice
Agreed To	Bush's pro-life "Mexico City Policy" 05/16/2001	Y	AGAINST Choice
Passed	Unborn Victims of Violence: passage 04/26/2001	Y	AGAINST Choice
Failed	Unborn Victims of Violence: substitute 04/26/2001	N	AGAINST Choice

Kucinich's Key votes, table from National "Right to Life" Committee.

2003-11-06T16:20:00.000-08:00

Kucinich Tied for Dead Last in Most Recent Poll

"Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich and former Illinois Senator Carol Mosley Braun are tied with 2% each," according to the latest Zobgy Poll.

Candidate	Nov 3-5, 2003	Sept 22-24, 2003	July 16-17, 2003	Mar 5-7, 2003
Dean	15	12	12	4
Clark	10	12	--	--
Gephardt	9	6	12	11
Lieberman	9	7	12	18
Kerry	7	7	9	9
Sharpton	4	4	4	4
Edwards	3	2	4	4
Kucinich	2	1	1	1
Mosley Braun	2	4	1	1
Someone Else	6	3
Not Sure	34	43	39	37

See: Zogby News.

2003-11-06T16:15:00.000-08:00

Mock Turtleneck Clad Kucinich Mugs Reporter
General Wesley Clark and Rep. Dennis Kucinich appeared in identical all-black suits with mock turtlenecks, as if channeling the otherworldly spirits of 1992 candidate Jerry Brown and his bereted guru Jacques Barzaghi. Coleen Elstermeyer, a 21-year-old volunteer from Braintree, Mass., gagged later at the image. "Mock turtlenecks do not identify with our generation," she fumed.

[T]he Kucinich spin team ... managed to corner [CNN reporter Joe] Klein once he climbed down from his perch. "I have absolutely no say on who gets on that podium," he sputtered to a visibly annoyed Kucinich, as if his earlier comment was only about denying him a shot on CNN. The excuse didn't fly, and soon I watched in wonder as the journalist wrenched himself away from the candidate, the opposite of the usual dance.

2003-10-12T23:55:00.000-07:00

Kucinich Claims He's Catching Fire. He Isn't.
Kucinich had 2% support among likely voters in Iowa - site of the caucuses which kick off the campaign - according to the latest polls, DOWN from 3% in April. See: Zogby International Poll

Kucinich remains "Unfamiliar" to 65% of "likely primary voters in New Hampshire" the home of the first primary. This is the same mark Kucinich had in August. See: Zogby International Poll

2003-09-25T01:39:00.000-07:00

Kucinich Challenges Separation of Church and State
"But while the Founders wanted to provide religious freedom, this nation was also founded on profoundly spiritual values."
- Kucinich February 2003, shortly before announcing his candidacy.

2003-09-23T14:39:00.000-07:00

The Flip-Flops of Dennis Kucinich
What he said then. What he says now continued
Flip: During a July 1998 Hardball appearance, Kucinich rejected efforts to impeach President Clinton. 'To flat out call for an impeachment without the evidence takes us back to Alice in Wonderland,' said Kucinich.

Flop: In October 1998, Kucinich was one of 31 House Democrats who broke ranks and voted for the unlimited impeachment hearings sought by the GOP.

2003-09-23T09:39:00.000-07:00

The Flip-Flops of Dennis Kucinich
What he said then. What he says now. What happened.
By William Saletan and Avi Zenilman: September 18, 2003
Flip: In Congress, Kucinich voted against the RU-486 pill, "partial-birth" abortion, and funding for international family-planning programs that support abortion. In 1996, he said, "Life begins at conception." In 2000, his voting record earned a zero rating from the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League.

Flop: On May 17, 2003, Kucinich leapfrogged his Democratic rivals, declaring, "It's going to be important for the next president of the United States to tell the American people that he or she will cause any appointee to have to answer on the question of Roe v. Wade, that there must be a litmus test on this question, and that no one should be appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States unless they are ready to keep Roe v. Wade in place and protect a woman's right to choose." Continued

2003-09-10T05:32:00.000-07:00

"Feminist for Kucinich" Would Vote for Dean
"Feminists for Kucinich" organizers say the group wants a candidate committed to working for peace, helping the poor, eliminating discrimination based on sexual orientation, defending abortion rights, promoting universal health care, and fighting "the Republican Party's use of stereotypes to spread division and fear," among other things.

While these are all Dean positions as well, the petition noted that Kucinich has proposed establishing a cabinet-level Department of Peace, cutting the Department of Defense budget and abolishing the death penalty. [Vermont State poet Grace] Paley said Dean was the only other Democratic candidate for whom she was willing to vote.

2003-09-10T04:59:00.000-07:00

Who Owns Kucinich?
Dennis Kucinich may talk about being a populist and bringing 'power to the people', but the truth is he's in the pocket of special interest groups and big contributors. Public records for the 1998 election show that Kucinich raised over $700 thousand dollars (3½ times more than his opponent) and that 79% of these contributions came from PAC's and big donors. Only 20% of his funds came from small contributors - the people he says he represents.

Click here to see the full report from the Center for Responsive Politics Source of Funds
1997-98 Total Receipts: $704,370
PAC contributions $366,678 (52.1%)
Large Individual contributions ($200+) $189,664 (26.9%)
Small Individual contributions (<$200) $142,965 (20.3%)
Candidate self-financing $0 (0.0%)
Other $5,063 (0.7%)

Business/Labor/Ideological Split

Business $181,557 (39.2%)
Labor $231,500 (49.9%)
Ideological/Single Issue $50,645 (10.9%)

2003-09-10T04:43:00.000-07:00

Kucinich "creates annoying static"
Marie Cocco, "Democratic Leaders Abdicate On War Policy," Newsday, 9/26/02
Key Quotes:

Kucinich is no political powerhouse. He is the type of quirky congressman who tends to be loved at home but commands little notice in Washington. His official Web site notes proudly that he is "one of the few vegans in Congress." Nonetheless, it provides a helpful link to The Sausage Shoppe in Cleveland (Current special: 8 brats, 8 buns, 8 bucks).

The nation came to know Kucinich as the "boy mayor" of Cleveland, but forgot his name after he was forced from office after one controversial term.

Few listened then, or hear Kucinich now. He creates annoying static, best tuned out.

2003-09-10T04:30:00.000-07:00

GOP Calls Kucinich A Flip-Flopping Liberal Extremist
We don't care that they call him liberal - that's good. But he is a flip-flopper.
Kucinich Voted For Iraq Liberation Act Of 1998, But Against 2002 Resolution Authorizing Use Of Force In Iraq.

KUCINICH'S ABORTION FLIP-FLOP: A Formerly Pro-Life Congressman, Kucinich Now Stands With Pro-Abortion Lobby, Conveniently Timed For His White House Run.

If even the right wing Republicans can figure out there's something wrong with chucking life-long life-and-death moral commitments to pander for votes, can't progressive Democrats? What moral imperatives will Kucinich sacrifice next?

2003-09-10T00:41:00.000-07:00

Kucinich Among the Worst Mayors in History
"Bad judgment, demagoguery, and default also spelled political failure in the eyes of twenty-five of our experts, who ranked Dennis, whom the press called 'the Menace,' as seventh-worst."

Next, and seventh, is Cleveland's Dennis Kucinich (1977-79). Only thirty-one years old when elected, Cleveland's 'boy' mayor had failings that were not the sins of venality or graft for personal gain, but rather matters of style, temperament, and bad judgment in office. Kucinich earned seventh place the hard way: by his abrasive, intemperate, and confrontational populist political style, which led to a disorderly and chaotic administration.

He barely survived a recall vote just ten months into office, then disappeared for five weeks, reportedly recuperating from an ulcer. When he got back into the political fray, his demagogic rhetoric and slash-and-burn political style got him into serious trouble when he stubbornly refused to compromise and led Cleveland into financial default in late 1978 - the first major city to default since the Great Depression. That led also to Kucinich's defeat and exit from executive office.

Out of office, he dabbled in a Hollywoodesque spirit world and once believed he had met actress Shirley MacLaine in a previous life, seemingly confirming his critics' charges that he was a 'nut-cake.' After that, he experienced downward mobility, losing races for several other offices and finally ending up with a council seat; but more recently, he climbed back up to a seat in Congress. Bad judgment, demagoguery, and default also spelled political failure in the eyes of twenty-five of our experts, who ranked Dennis, whom the press called 'the Menace,' as seventh-worst.

The American Mayor: The Best & The Worst Big-City Leaders
By Melvin G. Holli
The Pennsylvania State University Press

2003-09-10T00:36:00.000-07:00

Kucinich Did Nothing for Cleveland
Excuse me, but Dennis Kucinich as a presidential hopeful? How outrageous a notion. This is the man, the mayor, who brought Cleveland to its knees financially. Under his 'leadership,' the city went into default. We were broke by the time George Voinovich took over.

Voinovich brought the city back by working with corporate CEOs and visionaries in a consortium that helped bring renewed vibrancy to the city in terms of companies investing in real-estate development and manufacturing, revitalizing downtown after years of decline under Kucinich.

I can't believe Kucinich's constituents have been so gullible as to elect him for four terms as a congressman. What has he done for them - in Congress or as mayor? Think back. The city had no money. Standard & Poors downgraded Cleveland's bond rating during Kucinich's outgoing year.

This man is to be considered to lead our great country? Get a grip, all you blue-collar workers and voters who cling to the hope that Kucinich is the answer. Forget it. He doesn't know how to lead or to bolster an economy.

- Laura Carrabine
Cleveland, Ohio

2003-09-10T00:23:00.000-07:00

AlterNet: Kucinich's Ego Trip has No Chance
Anti-Choicer Kucinich: "Life Begins at Conception"
With no name recognition, almost no money and no real chance at winning.... To say Kucinich hopes for a miracle is an understatement. Positioned squarely at the bottom of a field of nine Democratic candidates for the party’s nomination, many wonder what reason he could have for doing it. As it turns out, there is a reason. It has to do with guts and ego....

Some are troubled by his changed position on abortion. After decades of voting anti-choice, Kucinich now has come around to saying that abortions should be "legal and rare" and that Roe v. Wade should be defended. He still says he believes on a spiritual level that life begins at conception....

2003-09-09T23:31:00.000-07:00

Kucinich's Extreme Anti-Choice Record
Planned Parenthood ranks Kucinich 10% among
the worst in Congress on reproductive freedom.

OH-10

Rep.

Dennis Kucinich (D)

Anti

10%

Vote Description	Vote
He Opposed Insurance Coverage For Contraceptives	ANTI
He Supported the Global Gag Rule	ANTI
He Opposed International Family Planning	ANTI
He Supported Confidential Access To Family Planning For Minors	PRO
He Opposed Mifepristone (Formerly Known As RU-486)	ANTI
He Opposed Minors' Access To Abortion	ANTI
He Opposed Abortion Access For Military Service Members	ANTI
He Opposed Medicaid Choice (Was for Hyde Amendment)	ANTI
He Supported Bans On Abortion Procedures	ANTI
He Supported so-called "Fetal Rights"	ANTI

Scorecard Key
Pro-choice	100%
Mixed	99% - 40%
*Anti-choice*	*39% - 0%*

Email or call Dennis Kucinich 202-225-5871. Tell him to stop
lying about other Democrats and his extreme anti-choice record.

2003-09-09T23:25:00.000-07:00

Kucinich's Tragic Flaw

Thank you, Katha by Laura Flanders
Single Voice Points Out Democrat Darling's Tragic Flaw
WorkingforChange.com May 16, 2002
It took Katha Pollitt to point out the obvious: Kucinich is a valiant progressive on many fronts, but he doesn't have a prayer when it comes to running for President because Kucinich is anti-choice. And choice, for those in the ether who've forgotten, is a decisive issue for a massive mainstream — let alone progressive — voting block.

'I haven't been a leader on this,' the Ohio Congressman told columnist Pollitt. But it's worse than that—he's pulled the wrong way. Check out the record compiled by the Planned Parenthood Federation: his anti-choice history has earned him a 95-percent position rating from the National Right to Life Committee, versus 10-percent from Planned Parenthood and 0-percent from NARAL.

But it's a small matter to Pollitt's Nation pals: 'There's one thing I'd like to you change your mind on,' Terkel added parenthetically in the column titled 'He's the One.' David Corn casually counted Kucinich's pro-life stance among several positions the Ohioan's adopted that are 'not widely shared by his fellow elected Democrats,' also helpfully pointing out that Kucinich has never supported overturning Roe v. Wade or prosecuting people for abortion.

But it's not quite true: Kucinich voted for a ban on dilation and extraction abortions (so-called 'partial birth' abortions) that included fines and up to two years in jail for doctors who perform them (except in cases to save the woman's life). That's criminalization....

2003-09-09T23:18:00.000-07:00

Kucinich Fan Admits He's Still Anti-Choice

The Dirty Rag - On Dennis Kucinich in the Fray - Josh Frank: "Dennis isn't perfect. He only recently announced that he is pro-choice, this after years of voting with the pro-life cartel. His turnaround, and his lingering anti-choice votes yield much criticism...."

2003-09-09T14:36:00.000-07:00

Kucinich's Radical Anti-Choice Record

[Dennis] Kucinich also possesses one of the most anti-abortion voting records of any Democrat in Congress. During his eight years in the House, Kucinich voted with abortion-rights advocates barely 10 percent of the time. Twice in the past three years, the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, now known as NARAL Pro-Choice America, gave him a rating of 'zero.'

On the stump this past week, and in an interview with The Chronicle, Kucinich now describes himself as 'pro-choice.' He said he has undergone a slow evolution that has led him to the conclusion that legal abortions are not only constitutionally sound, but also fundamental to a woman's equality.

Yet his candidacy poses a test for the Democratic Party that has made abortion rights a top-tier issue that it believes will be instrumental in its quest to unseat President Bush, a longtime abortion foe.

Can liberals embrace a candidate who as recently as 2001 voted to support Bush's decision to withhold international family-planning money from organizations that perform, or even discuss, abortions?

Will the Democratic Party, let alone the Bay Area, open its arms and wallets to a presidential candidate who, during 1999 and 2000, sided with the National Right to Life Committee on 19 of 20 votes?

2003-09-09T14:25:00.000-07:00

Kucinich Supports Radical Anti-Choice Agenda

Human cloning ban: passage 02/27/2003 Kucinich voted with National Right to Life Committe

Human cloning ban: hostile substitute (clone and kill) 02/27/2003 Kucinich voted with National Right to Life Committe

Abortion Non-Discrimination Act: hostile motion 09/25/2002 Kucinich voted with National Right to Life Committe

Child Custody Protection Act: passage 04/17/2002 Kucinich voted with National Right to Life Committe

Abortion in military medical facilities 09/25/2001 Kucinich voted with National Right to Life Committe

Human cloning ban: passage 07/31/2001 Kucinich voted with National Right to Life Committe

Human cloning ban: hostile motion 07/31/2001 Kucinich voted with National Right to Life Committe

Human cloning ban: hostile substitute (clone and kill) 07/31/2001 Kucinich voted with National Right to Life Committe

Abortion funding in federal prisons 07/17/2001 Kucinich voted with National Right to Life Committe

To President Bush's pro-life 'Mexico City Policy' 05/16/2001 Kucinich voted with National Right to Life Committe

Unborn Victims of Violence Act: passage 04/26/2001 Kucinich voted with National Right to Life Committe

Unborn Victims of Violence Act: hostile substitute 04/26/2001 Kucinich voted with National Right to Life Committe

2003-09-08T07:42:00.000-07:00

We get hatemail

A friend forwarded this "thoughtful critique" of our humble blog from Robin Rae:

(www.dennisthemenace.blogspot.com), this is obviously a 'bash Kucinich' site. These people like to take information and twist it around to make it have a negative effect on the person. I think you get great joy over making people angry over your rediculous, harrassing stupidity!! What angers me the most about you is how you try to base your brainless comments on unreliable information!

By the way......Mr (supposedly unelectable) Kucinich is in FIRST place in the Univision Channel poll, which was the network that hosted the debate on Thursday night!! He was at 75% at last check!!

He is also in FIRST place in the Newsday poll, which at last check he was almost 2,000 votes above Dean!! Kucinich also continues to lead in the poll at Democrats.us, as well as many others!!

We all know those Gallup polls are totally biased! I, nor anyone I know, have EVER been called for one of those polls!!

END OF "DEBATE"

Robin Rae =^. .^=

Talk about grasping at straws. No doubt Kucinich is also "in FIRST place" in a poll of his campaign staff?

Not one refutation of anything we wrote, just personal attacks. This from a "peaceful" Kucinich supporter too. Insult anyone who doesn't agree with you. Ignore all the information you don't like and all the polls that don't say Kucinich is winning, and you don't have much to choose from. Wow! That's some "debate!" Is there any wonder the Kucinich Kampaign is going nowhere fast?

2003-09-06T22:25:00.000-07:00

KUCINICH'S ABORTION FLIP-FLOP

The National Right To Life Committee (NRLC) Gave Kucinich High Marks: a 90% and a 95% (with 100 being perfect) from the NRLC for his voting record in the 105th and 106th Congresses, respectively.

In 2000, The Columbus Dispatch Described Kucinich As "Pro-Life." "Kucinich, despite his liberal bombast and the baggage of a bankrupt Cleveland, can solidly articulate what he believes is a true 'pro-life' position...." ("Democrats On Other Side Of Abortion Issue Pushed Aside Darrel Rowland," The Columbus Dispatch, 8/15/00)

In A May 2002 Article In The Nation, Kucinich Is Referred To As "Solidly Anti-Choice." "In his two terms in Congress, he has quietly amassed an anti-choice voting record of Henry Hyde-like proportions. . . . That a solidly anti-choice politician could become a standard-bearer for progressivism, the subject of hagiographic profiles in The Nation and elsewhere, speaks volumes about the low priority of women's rights to the self-described economic left, forever chasing the white male working-class vote. Supporting an anti-choice Congressman may have seemed pragmatic; trying to make him President would be political suicide." (Columnist Katha Pollitt, "Regressive Progressive?" The Nation, 5/20/02)

On Late-Term Abortion Kucinich Disagrees With Kerry, Lieberman And Edwards On Late-Term Abortion. Kucinich voted in favor of banning Late-Term abortion, but Kerry, Lieberman and Edwards voted for women and against the ban. (H.R. 1122, Senate Vote #71, Passed 64-36: R 51-4; D 13-32, 5/20/97; H.R. 1122, House Vote #65, Passed 295-136: R 218-8; D 77-127; I 0-1, 3/20/97; S. 1692, Roll Call Vote #340: Passed 63-34: R 48-3; D 14-31; I 1-0, 10/21/99)

Kucinich Disagreed With Lieberman And Kerry On Overriding President Clinton's Veto Of A Ban On Late-Term Abortions. In 1998, Kucinich voted to override President Clinton's veto of a ban on Late-Term abortions but Kerry and Lieberman voted with women and Clinton against overriding the veto. (H.R. 1122, House Vote #325: Passed Over Clinton Veto 296-132: R 219-8; D 77-123; I 0-1, 7/23/98; H.R. 1122, Senate Vote #277: Veto Override Rejected 64-36: R 51-4; D 13-32, 9/18/98)

2003-09-05T08:10:00.000-07:00

Kucinich Concedes Backing Clinton Impeachment

Kucinich admits he was "one of the few Democrats" who voted for the U.S. House to proceed with the procedural steps needed to impeach President Bill Clinton. However, he excuses his craven vote to help the Republican dirty tricks campaign by protesting that he eventually flip-flopped and voted against impeachment.

Of course by then, thanks in part to Kucinich, the right wing attack undermining our system was under way. The flip-flop was was too little too late to stop the Gingrich / DeLay impeachment from passing. The Senate refused to convict President Clinton, but only after Kucinich helped the Republicans tie up our government in knots, preventing progress on health care, education, the environment and other priorities.

"I thought, as a member of Congress, that there was enough reason to go forward," Kucinich says about his decision to back the Republican drive that wasted the President's and Congress' time and attention while Al Qaeda terrorists were plotting to attack us, millions lacked health coverage and other critical needs languished.

By enabling this right wing effort to disrupt government, Kucinich hurt millions of Americans, helped the Republicans keep control of the House, and handed Bush a critical wedge issue: "honor and dignity." Thanks Dennis! As noted, Kucinich opposes any effort to investigate grounds for impeaching Bush.

2003-09-05T08:01:00.000-07:00

Kucinich calls for impeachment inquiry
Against Clinton - not Bush!

Leading the fight to impeach William Jefferson Clinton on October 8, 1998, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) said, "Let the president make his case."

How odd that Kucinich won't make the same demand of serial liar, illegitimate, unelected criminal Bush?

2003-09-05T07:53:00.000-07:00

Politics Over Principle:
Run for the White House Keeps Kucinich
from Backing Bush Impeachment
"The evidence of an imperial presidency almost grows daily," said another Democratic lawmaker, who said he would vote to impeach Bush. But some of the war opposition's usual suspects have rejected entreaties to join the impeachment campaign.

"I'm not interested. I think it would be destructive for this country. This country needs healing, and that's why I'm running for president," said Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio, the Progressive Caucus chairman. [Impeachment leader, Professor Francis] Boyle said Kucinich's refusal to be involved in the impeachment planning was politically motivated.

"I think Kucinich might have done it if he had not decided to run for president," Boyle said. "I guess he concluded that might hurt his run for president.'"

2003-08-28T04:30:00.000-07:00

Profile: Dennis Kucinich
Not much achievement for all those years in politics
William Saletan and Avi Zenilman - Slate June 10, 2003

Political experience: councilman, Cleveland (1969-1973, 1983); clerk of courts, Cleveland (1975); mayor, Cleveland (1977-1979); state senator, Ohio (1995-1996); congressman, Ohio (1997-present).

Asserted achievements: Refused to sell off Cleveland's city-run power plant while mayor; co-chair of Congressional Progressive Caucus; saved a provision of Clean Air Act.

Previous jobs: Has been a politician since age 21.

2003-08-28T04:17:00.000-07:00

The Best of Dennis Kucinich?
Historians ranked him the seventh-
worst mayor in American history.

"The bravest thing he ever did." William Saletan and Ben Jacobs
Slate Magazine - August 21, 2003

Reality check: Banks expect borrowers to show responsibility. Muny Light was one of Cleveland's few remaining assets and had been losing money for a decade. The banks wanted the city to sell it to cover previous loans. As one bank director put it to Kucinich (in the Cleveland Magazine article Kucinich selectively quotes), 'You have the opportunity to straighten up some of your house by selling your losing Muny Light plant. If you're going to ask us to roll over these notes, you've got to show some financial responsibility.' In exchange, the banks offered to throw in an extra $50 million loan.

Kucinich rejected the offer. He asked the banks to wait a few months to let him hold a special election on an income tax increase to pay off the loans. The banks said no. Kucinich then tried to force the tax increase in a last-minute city council session and was rebuffed. Cleveland Magazine concluded, 'It was [Kucinich's] love of confrontation that eventually forced him into this ultimate confrontation.' The default made Cleveland a national laughingstock and led to Kucinich's overwhelming re-election defeat. In 1995, a panel of 25 historians ranked him the seventh-worst mayor in American history.

2003-08-28T02:09:00.000-07:00

U.S. Representative Dennis J. Kucinich
Praxis Peace Institute Conference
Dubrovnik, Croatia
Sunday, June 9, 2002

Spirit and Stardust

As one studies the images of the Eagle Nebula, brought back by the Hubble Telescope from that place in deep space where stars are born, one can imagine the interplay of cosmic forces across space and time, of matter and spirit dancing to the music of the spheres, atop an infinite sea of numbers.

Spirit merges with matter to sanctify the universe. Matter transcends to return to spirit. The interchangeability of matter and spirit means the starlit magic of the outermost life of our universe becomes the soul-light magic of the innermost life of our self. Continued....

Say What? Kucinich's quotes are so much "Stardust."

2003-08-28T01:35:00.000-07:00

Kucinich Not A Progressive? Not A Peace Candidate?
from the Liberation News

Dennis Kucinich is also portraying himself as an anti-war candidate in the Democrat Party. Yet on his web site the Kucinich campaign states that Kucinich, "Supports a strong and efficient military. He believes that the current practice of procuring ever more costly weapons has the effect of weakening military readiness. As the cost of new weapons systems rise, the cost of merely replacing aging weapons with new ones becomes prohibitively expensive. As a result, U.S. military forces shrink, while they become at the same time more expensive to maintain and more prone to failure."

This is the same position taken recently by two U.S. generals waging the war in Iraq. During the U.S. invasion in the ongoing Iraq war General Stanley McCrystal complained, "It was enough for the enemy to show a little resistance and some creative thinking as our technological superiority begun to quickly lose all its meaning. Our expenses are not justified by the obtained results. The enemy is using an order of magnitude cheaper weapons to reach the same goals for which we spend billions on technological whims of the defense industry!"

Similarly General Richard Mayers commented on precision-guided munitions, "The rate of their use is incompatible with the obtained results. We are literally dropping gold into the mud!"

Kucinich's position on military funding is not one that calls for an end to U.S. imperialist wars, but instead calls for a more cost effective and deadly military to terrorize and keep in line the semi-colonial people of the world. The contradiction here is limited to the difference between the pure profiteering of the military industrial complex and the desire for actual cost effective results for imperialist victory on the battlefield.

Dennis Kucinich spoke to a gathering of the Southern California Americans for Democratic Action claiming, "We [he and the congress] did not authorize an eye for an eye. Nor did we ask that the blood of innocent people, who perished on September 11, be avenged with the blood of innocent villagers in Afghanistan. We did not authorize the Administration to wage war anytime, anywhere, anyhow it pleases. We did not authorize war without end. We did not authorize a permanent war economy. Yet we are upon the threshold of a permanent war economy."

Yet that is exactly what Kucinich and the rest of the congress, with the exception of California Democrat Barbara Lee, agreed to with their votes authorizing Bush's endless war on the world. The entire Democrat Party in both the Senate and Congress, with only one exception, voted for war.

Since votes have since been taken authorizing the US war in Iraq, the most practical application of this vote by Kucinich was to authorize the US war on Afghanistan. In stark contrast to Kucinich's vote for war this author wrote on September 12, 2001, "Americans watched in horror as the World Trade Center collapsed. Yet it was a horror no different from what the U.S. government has done with it's bombing of civilian populations in Iraq, Yugoslavia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Panama, and Korea. The U.S. bombings of these countries killed millions of civilians. Terror against civilians is never justified. Now the U.S. government is preparing to terror bomb Afghanistan."

The U.S. war in Afghanistan has in fact killed well over 3,000 civilians and brought the Afghan nation to back to the chaos of fragmented warlord rule last seen after the various U.S. trained and financed Mujahideen forces defeated the Soviet backed PDPA government. Now those same Mujahideen forces have defeated the Taliban, once again with U.S. backing, and they are just as incapable of bringing a decent life, or even political stability to Afghanistan.

The same 9-12 writing also pointed out: "Today the clerical fascists of the Taliban rule Afghanistan. The CIA put them in power with billions of dollars in U.S. military aid. This massive U.S. intervention in Afghanistan was in opposition to the revolutionary PDPA government that came to power in 1978 on issues of promoting women's rights and land reform. Literacy campaigns began teaching the poor and women how to read and write.

"Foreign religious fanatics and wealthy defenders of the old feudal system came together in a terrorist organization called the Mujahideen (from which the Taliban were later formed). With billions of dollars in assistance from the U.S. [starting under the Jimmy Carter presidency] these fanatical cutthroats waged a holy war that included killing woman for teaching little girls how to read and write and throwing acid into the faces of women who had become liberated from the veil. The Taliban came to power as a result of this U.S. intervention.

"Will a U.S. war now against the Taliban and former CIA aid recipient Osama Bin Laden set things straight? No. It will be the people of Afghanistan who suffer death and destruction from war as the U.S. attempts to install a puppet government friendly to U.S. corporate (oil) interests."

Kucinich, the "peace candidate", as much as he may now want to deny it, voted for the war on Afghanistan and played his part in making it happen.

Some may argue that Kucinich is not perfect, but he'd make a better president than Bush. Yet it is unlikely that Kucinich has any intention of winning the presidency. His role is one of bringing the anti-war movement and others who are breaking from the establishment and the twin parties of war back into the fold of the pro-war Democrat Party. Kucinich makes this point clear when he states, "The Democratic Party created third parties by running to the middle. What I'm trying to do is to go back to the big tent so that everyone who felt alienated could come back through my candidacy" (Counter Punch, April 2003).

Yet that tent Kucinich speaks of is one that despite its name, is not Democratic. It is a tent dominated by big capital and the politicians subservient to it. It is under this tent that the ruling class would like to swallow up the legitimate opposition of the people towards war and turn us into the water boys for "responsible" politicians.

On the third parties who are trying to build a real alternative to the pro-war Democrat Party Kucinich states, "I have no interest in a third party candidacy. None, I want to do it the other way -- bring third party candidates into the [Democratic] Party" (The Progressive, April 2003).

2003-08-21T14:09:00.000-07:00

This rather silly article confirms views that Kucinich is a flip-flopper....

Cleveland Free Times: The Nose
Cleveland Leads Nation in Political Hair Debate

Political Shaves … and Haircuts, oh my. As an astute observer of 'Political Hair,' The Nose must confess that we are a bit miffed about the conventional wisdom spinning around about Dennis Kucinich’s new hairdo. As Our Readers recall, The PD recently showed some pix -- almost as scary as Uday and Qusay -- of Dennis’s new political ‘do.

The local journalistas said it was Dennis buffing up since he’s so hot on the presidential circuit in Hollywood and Mason City, Iowa. … Anyway, The Nose thinks all of that presidential hair talk is a bunch of hooey.

We know the real reason that Dennis has lost his bangs and ‘70s hair is because he will be squaring off against one of the best heads of political hair in Greater Cleveland.

The Hair that The Nose speaks of is on the scalp of Tom Coyne, former long-time Brook Park Mayor, current County Elections Commission member, and owner of some of the best kept Irish locks in County Cuyahoga.

Continued....

2003-08-21T14:03:00.000-07:00

COYNE TO CHALLENGE KUCINICH
FOR CONGRESS NEXT YEAR

Posted by Tom Vanek on 8/9/2003, 4:59 pm

Former Brookpark Mayor Thomas J. Coyne has decided to challenge U.S. Rep Dennis Kucinich for the District 10 congressional seat next year.

Coyne said 'Kucinich has been alarming a lot of people in his district with his campaign for the presidency and has flip-flopped on some issues....

[W]hen Kucinich declared his interest in the presidency, he started taking stands he never would have taken before, including reversing his position on abortion and his recently declared support for same-sex marriages'.

'He's clearly out of touch with this district and now he's pandering to any audience to gather support,' Coyne said. [While] 'employment, health care and issues related to the airport are not being addressed....

He's (Kucinich) off on some Don Quixote quest, supposedly expressing what his true feelings have been all along....'

2003-08-21T13:56:00.000-07:00

More Serious Charges - Credible?
We're Looking for Confirmation.

The Truth About Dennis Kucinich:

Posted by Kurt Gillespie on 8/10/2003, 3:21 am

Democrats should not be fooled by Kucinichs attempts at revisionist history. Dennis claims to be a good, loyal Democrat and a team player. Thats 1 reason he flip flopped on abortion and now supports it.

Look at the mans history: In 1971 Kucinich headed up a group called Democrats for Perk. Ralph Perk was a right wing Republican nut who got elected Mayor of Cleveland over a black progressive Democrat backed by Carl Stokes. Dennis screwed the party he claims to have loved.

Dennis screwed the party again when he was the only prominent Democrat nationwide to endorse the impeachment of President Clinton.....

2003-08-21T13:34:00.000-07:00

Kucinich Style - Confrontation and
Failure Not Teamwork and Success

Case Studies | Cleveland:

Conflict and confrontation ruled in the late 1970s. Solution wars broke out all over. Mayor Dennis Kucinich battled the business barons for two divisive years. The resulting fiscal default woke the sleeping business giant and mobilized Cleveland's CEOs. They recruited Ohio's Republican Lieutenant Governor George V. Voinovich to take on Democratic Mayor Kucinich.

Voinovich won decisively with a cooperation theme of 'Together We Can Do It.' After ten successful years of revitalizing the city through the work of numerous public-private partnerships, Voinovich was elected governor of Ohio in 1990. Cleveland had learned its lesson - confrontation doesn't work for a city in decline. The white, ethnic, Republican's successor was an African-American Democrat named Michael R. White, who maintained Voinovich's approach: 'This is a town of partnerships.'

The Cleveland turn-around has been heralded across the country and around the world. Two decades after the default and the resulting national ridicule, Cleveland has become, well, almost hip. More than three billion dollars have been invested in changing the public face of the city by rebuilding much of its downtown.

Office towers have been renovated and new ones constructed. The theater district has been restored. On the lakefront sit a brand new Science Center and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The huge, stodgy Municipal Stadium has come down, and in 1997 the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball All-Star games were played in sleek new facilities right in Cleveland's downtown.

2003-08-21T12:40:00.000-07:00

Kucinich's performance as Mayor

Not sure how reputable this is, it seems authentic.
Do your own research. Make up your own mind.

[What] Kucinich did when he was Mayor 25 years ago.... I think it was a mixed bag. He did save Muny Light. However he had a reactionary thug named Bob Weissman that really called the shots in his administration.

I hope all of you in Cleveland can go to the Main Libray and look up old copies of Point of View. Read all of 1979. Left wing progressive journalist Roldo Bartimole warned his readers that for all the good the Kucinich administration did it was still run by fascists like Bob Weissman and Betty and Tonya Grdina.

1 of their briliant ideas was to racially polarize the city to get Dennis re-elected. Near election day in 1979 2 different flyers were passed all over Cleveland. The black east side got a flyer with black City Council President George Forbes in a suit and tie telling blacks to re-elect Dennis over the bad Republican George Voinovich.

However on the white west side the flyer had George Forbes in a funky get up telling whites that he was working to elect George Voinovich. This racial polarization would have made George Wallace and KKK leader David Duke green with envy! How do you so called progressives stand by a candidate that would do such a thing?!

Also do you feel it was right for Dennis to go on local tv on Good Friday and fire former San Francisco Sheriff and than Cleveland Police Chief Richard Hongisto? This was 3 months after he called Hongisto the best law enforcement officer Cleveland had ever seen since Eliot Ness!

Dennis is not 1 of the 10 worst Mayors in the Countrys history but he is no savior either. Being charitable and because its late I would give him a D plus.

2003-08-21T07:37:00.000-07:00

Kucinich's horrible record on choice

Kucinich's horrible record on choice is of great concern to me. He hasn't been pro-choice for the past year and a half, although he and others try to claim he's now the most pro-choice candidate. Look at the crafty wording here. He says, 'I withheld my support on a number of bills in the last year,' but he doesn't say he opposed them. He didn't.

According to the voting records I've seen, he's voted 'present' rather to defend choice. He hasn't been upfront about his recent votes or his prior voting record which was close to the most anti-reproductive rights possible. He hasn't explained his supposed change of heart or his statement against Roe v. Wade to my satisfaction. I doubt his sincerity because he's still not telling the truth about this.

Kucinich not only misrepresented his positions, but he also circulated a statement bashing the other Democrats running as unwilling to defend choice, the deceptive 'Feminists for Kucinich' endorsement. " [see Feminists for Kucinich Making the Wrong Choice]

2003-08-16T02:32:00.000-07:00

We're getting a little bit of attention. Please tell all your friends about our blog - especially those who don't know Kucinich's fake flip-flop on family planning and women's rights over their own bodies. Google Search

We've seen a lot of message boards online where Kucinich fans are claiming Kucinich really did support choice, family planning, etc. Sure he did. Just not with anything like a vote in Congress or a public statement. He virulently opposed choice, family planning, and freedom in those.

The things some people believe when they won't face facts!

2003-08-05T10:43:00.000-07:00

MeetUps: Democracy in Action or Drunk Driving Factory
The Kucinich Campaign and its Supporters Can't Decide

The official Kucinich Campaign touts MeetUp:

From: Kucinich Campaign [mailto:info@kucinich.us]
Sent: Friday, July 25, 2003 12:19 PM
Subject: MeetUp with Kucinich Supporters! (please circulate)

A NEW WAY TO MOBILIZE FOR KUCINICH... AND MEET YOUR LIKE-MINDED NEIGHBORS

The Kucinich for President campaign is launching a new effort, urging all volunteers to use the MeetUp website to organize with their friends and neighbors. MeetUp is a website that allows you to plan monthly meetings at restaurants in your city. Planning for the August 7 Kucinich meetings is already underway.

------------------------------------

But Kucinich supporters express sour grapes:

From: Robin Rae
Date: 2003/07/29 Tue AM 05:00:54 EDT
Subject: FW: Meetup

Dear Friends,
Please keep in mind that we are not in a contest with any candidate to win the Meetup sign-up race. While I have not attended a meetup, I imagine it would be hard to get much work done for Dennis at such an event. Please remember Meetup is no substitution for a volunteer group meeting.

If you have attended a meetup please share with us. How did it go? Did you get any work done at a meetup? Did you drink too much at a meetup? How many people did you reach heart to heart? Are they going to work on the campaign? Was it a waste of time? Was it hard to hear people talk?

How much did Meetup make because you met at a registered bar? Was anyone injured driving home?

2003-07-30T11:24:00.000-07:00

Dean v. Kucinich

Full disclosure: we supported Kucinich for a while, especially around October 2002, until some of us decided to support Kerry, then some of us switched to Dean after the good doctor electrified the Winter Democratic meeting. Some of us don't think it's a good idea to pick anyone this early. Make of that whatever you will.

We saw Bob Harris' compare / contrast chart and found it pretty biased and laughable. We found Mike Hersh's reply which he wrote as tongue in cheek, but we think he was actually pretty accurate. A lot more accurate than Harris. We added to that and put our own special touch on it.

We also took the Feminists for Kucinich article from Hersh. We hope he won't sue us! We're also gonna borrow from Bob and Mike here by saying Kucinich "is basically a good guy, and if he's nominated we'll vote for him in a heartbeat. It's just that it's simply not accurate to refer to him as a progressive candidate."

Not when right wing groups give Kucinich up to 100% favorable grades. We didn't believe this ourselves when we first read it, so we did the responsible thing and looked it up ourselves. (All ratings reported by vote-smart.org). "On the votes that the Family Research Council considered to be the most important in 2000, Representative Kucinich voted their preferred position 100 percent of the time."

That's right (wing). Kucinich got a 100% grade from the rabidly anti-gay right wing Family Research Council. Kucinich won high marks from the anti-choice Right to Life Committee: "On the votes that the National Right to Life Committee considered to be the most important in 2001-2002, Representative Kucinich voted their preferred position 71 percent of the time."

That's an improvement on his recent record when, "On the votes that the National Right to Life Committee considered to be the most important in 1999-2000, Representative Kucinich voted their preferred position 95 percent of the time."

Kucinich even won stunning grades from the fringe right wingers just this year: "On the votes that the Conservative Index - The John Birch Society considered to be the most important in 2003, Representative Kucinich voted their preferred position 40 percent of the time." A fluke? Nope.

"On the votes that the Conservative Index - The John Birch Society considered to be the most important in 2002, Representative Kucinich voted their preferred position 42 percent of the time."

This goes back a long ways with Kucinich. The right wing "Liberty Lobby" - which vote-smart.org says supports "less government spending, and protective immigration laws" - supported Kucinich according to vote-smart.org: "On the votes that the Liberty Lobby considered to be the most important in 1999, Representative Kucinich voted their preferred position 70 percent of the time."

We found all this: here verifying what Mike Hersh and the Nation magazine reported. Kucinich is extremely regressive on issues including women's rights and family planning. See: Regressive Progressive? by Katha Pollitt, The Nation magazine, May 9, 2002.

To borrow from Bob again, we're also not saying Dean's positions are the 'right' ones on every issue; we just personally agree with him on most of them, and we think other progressives will, too. We've tried to present all this information as accurately as possible. Do your own research and thinking.

Issue	Dennis Kucinich	Howard Dean
Health Care Plan	Pushes plan Dean tried in Vermont which didn't pass. A plan that can't pass Vermont can't pass nationally and can't cover anyone. Grandstanding fails by making the perfect the enemy of the good.	Medical doctor with expertise on health issues. Tried single-payer plan which didn't pass, then got a proven, successful plan passed to help people in Vermont. Will do the same for US.
Gag Rules	Voted for Bush's gag rules on health clinics to deny women the right to choice.	Pro-free speech. Opposes gag rules on choice and other issues. Always has.
Family Planning Prenatal Heath Care Child Health Care	Voted for Bush's ban on funds for international agencies like UNFPA which provides prenatal care in developing nations. Babies died in this attack on choice. Voted to ban family planning for millions of federal employees.	Supports Family Planning and freedom for women in the US and internationally. Provided prenatal and early child health care visits in Vermont - saved lives by promoting health. Unmatched commitment to health care.
Roe v. Wade	Told Planned Parenthood he can't support Roe, brags he "witheld support" from right wing bill, but won't vote to defend Roe.	Supports Roe. Always has. No flip flops.
Choice	Voted against choice for poor women in DC, women in prison, women at military bases - even if they or their local taxes paid. Voted to ban medically necessary abortions for women facing late-term health risks.	Supports Choice and always has. Served on the Planned Parenthood board. Unsurpassed Pro-choice record due to respect for freedom and for women.
Kyoto Treaty	Attacks Dean's efforts to fix treaty which failed to get one vote in the Senate.	Supports closing loopholes and getting treaty passed to fix global warming.
Invasion of Afghanistan	Voted for it. Now flip flopping on it.	Supported it as reasonable use of force only as a last resort. Demands US "act as a moral force in world affairs."
Iraq Exit Strategy	Full, immediate withdrawal, leading to chaos, death of innocent Iraqis.	Demands international peacekeeping to avoid making bad situation worse.
National Security	Advocates stripping defense, would lose 50 states to Bush. Ridicules Dean's call for multinational solutions with use of force as last resort. Has questionable, shifting positions and vague "New Age" rhetoric.	Will "restore the best traditions of American leadership ... in which our power is multiplied by the appeal of democratic ideals and by the knowledge that our country is a force for law around the world not a law unto itself."
Defense Policy	Apparently thinks military is "waste." Wants "Dept. of Peace" instead, a nice dream but unfortunately also a sure way to lose 50 states to Bush. Blames Pentagon for all problems including the "digital divide."	Pro-Peace policy actually makes sense to voters. Can win and fulfill promise to rip up bellicose "Bush Doctrine" on "Day One of a Dean Presidency." Demands accountability, cutting programs that don't work.
Fiscal Responsibility	Doesn't concern him that social programs get cut first in budget crisis. Caused Cleveland default by rejecting compromise. Refuses to own up, even though other mayors avoided default while keeping Muny light.	Understands fiscal / social policy link: "We cannot have social justice without a sound fiscal foundation." Balanced every budget as governor while expanding health care, improving education, protecting environment.
Gun Control	Supports legislation that antagonizes millions of law abiding gun owners.	Supports common sense federal gun safety legislation, respects gun owners.
Drug War	Scorns medical findings on drug issues. No accomplishments, original ideas or practical experience on issue, as far as we can tell.	Respects science. Understands addiction is medical problem. Knows War on Drugs is a "failure." Will lead nation to rational policies.
Nonpolitical Experience	Almost none. Became politician while in college, failed mayor at 31. Failed at advertising, in talk radio like Limbaugh and Hannity. "Consultant" returned to politics.	Investment banking, explains fiscal success in public service. Saved lives as a medical doctor. Kept practicing medicine as Lt. Governor until Gov. Snelling's death in 1991.
Gay Rights	Won 100% favorable rating from gay-bashing Family Research Council according to vote-smart.org. Now pandering and promising.	Signed first-in-the-nation civil union bill, risking career. Outspoken courage makes him a hero to many equal rights / GLBT activists.
Energy	Supports alternative energy, but has no accomplishments, original ideas or practical experience on issue, as far as we can tell.	Supports alternative energy and conservation. Successfully balanced energy and jobs with environmental concerns in Vermont.
Political Experience	Cleveland "Boy Mayor." Blames others for fiscal disaster in only try at executive leadership. Claims he failed because he wouldn't sell power facility. Other mayors avoided disaster without selling, so excuse makes no sense. Says he wins in a GOP district but it's Democratic. Accomplished little during 17 years in office. Grandstands but passes almost no legislation. Main achievement: holding office 17 years.	Won 10 of 10 elections. Vermont House; Lt Governor; most successful Governor in Vermont history. Chaired National Governors Association. Saved and made lives better. Increased services. Balanced every budget. Cleaned up toxic sites. Helped create more than 41,000 jobs, increased minimum wage twice, helped urban areas attract new jobs. Found state in deficit, left state among top in education and health care with surplus.
Iraq War	Opposed but failed to block resolution.	Only major candidate who opposed war.
Personal	Says he's a vegan but praises kielbasa. Ralph Nader's pal who can't get Nader's endorsement but pretends he did. Flip-flop promises favoring "litmus test" on things he opposes. Hides record to impose personal religious views to control people. Anti-freedom on several issues.	Down to earth straight shooter. Stands up for what he believes, no pandering or convenient campaign conversions. Progress not posturing. Won't make the perfect the enemy of the good. Most pro-liberty candidate. Too busy driving toward victory for vegan kielbasa, flip-flop "litmus tests" or grandstanding.
Wellstone Connections	Supports those who ran against Wellstone in last campaign. Never won "Wellstone Award."	Won the "Wellstone Award" for public service. Emulates courage of "his hero" Wellstone.
Political Ambition	Always only wanted to be in politics. Career pol. Mayor at 31 but failed, and career collapsed. Failing to make impact in race, official campaign and supporters try Karl Rove dirty tricks. Naked ambition and flip-flopping show Kucinich can't and won't catch on.	Got involved in local politics working for bike path to help environment and health. Refused to run for governor, stayed Lt. Governor to keep practicing medicine. Became Governor after former Governor died. Liked it. People liked him. Running to fix mess pols caused.
Home state	Born and lives in Ohio: 21 electoral votes.	Born in New York: 33 electoral votes. Lives in Vermont: 3 electoral votes. Total: 36 electoral votes.
Support outside home state	Not much. Most don't know who he is. Many supporters can't pronounce his name, don't know he's radically anti-choice. People who know his record doubt "litmus test" flip-flop, don't trust him to appoint Supreme Court justices. Last in polls. Far behind Dean in every contest. "Spoiled" MoveOn primary with distant 2nd place. Bashes Dean more than he says what he'd do for America.	First or tied for first in polls nationally and in key states Iowa and New Hampshire. Exciting, dynamic and energized. Overflow crowds in every region. National support from Democrats, Greens, Independents and even Republicans and Libertarians. Refuses PAC / corporate money, lacks Congressional votes to sell, but out-fundraised career pols. Best chance to beat Bush.
Chance to Win	None. Not a state-wide or regional candidate, much less a national candidate. Can only spoil race and help Bush beat Dean.	Wide margin wins in Minnesota, MoveOn primary, Wisconsin etc. Stands up to media. Will beat Bush.

2003-07-30T05:35:00.000-07:00

Feminists for Kucinich
Making the Wrong Choice?

We believe Kucinich supporters are free to support any candidate they want for any reason they want. They should not make claims which completely contradict the record, however. They can support Kucinich or they can support a pro-choice candidate, but they can't do both.

A group called "Feminists for Kucinich" endorsed the Ohio Representative for President. The Kucinich Campaign quickly began circulating a statement in which they argue:

"We want a candidate who will defend the separation of church and state.... We want a candidate who ... stands for women's reproductive rights." And "The right to choose means women are entitled to abortion, if that is their choice...."

If this is what they really want, then Kucinich is not the candidate for them. The "feminists for Kucinich" conclude, "Dennis Kucinich is the only candidate who not only agrees with all these points but has developed policies to support them...."

Sadly, the record contradicts this. In fact, Kucinich is the only Democratic candidate who does not agree with any of these positions on women's reproductive rights. Check the record. Rep. Dennis Kucinich voted with the National Right to Life Committee on every anti-choice issue for several years. He opposes not only the right to choose but also voted against helping women obtain birth control.

Kucinich voted to support Bush's "gag rule" and Bush's ban on US aid to international family planning agencies and to block federal insurance plans from paying for birth control. Kucinich votes against choice and reproductive rights include:

For the ban on dilation and extraction procedures and to override President Clinton's veto of the ban, for a "gag" rule to prevent health care professionals from discussing abortion, for banning funds for family planning, for the so-called "Child Custody Protection Act" to hinder non-parents from helping girls exercise the right to choose, for the most extreme bill criminalizing causing the death of a fetus.

Against research funds for the "abortion pill" RU-486, against contraception for federal workers' insurance plans, against letting women exercise the right to choose on military bases even if they pay for a procedure themselves, against allowing DC to provide funding for choice even using non-federal money. Kucinich also co-sponsored a bill to criminalize all cloning research. (Vote details at end of this message.)

Regressive Progressive? SUBJECT TO DEBATE
by Katha Pollitt The Nation magazine, May 9, 2002

Key Quotes:

"One thing you won't find on Kucinich's website, though, is any mention of his opposition to abortion rights. In his two terms in Congress, he has quietly amassed an anti-choice voting record of Henry Hyde-like proportions."
"He supported Bush's reinstatement of the gag rule for recipients of US family planning funds abroad. He supported the Child Custody Protection Act, which prohibits anyone but a parent from taking a teenage girl across state lines for an abortion. He voted for the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which makes it a crime, distinct from assault on a pregnant woman, to cause the injury or death of a fetus."
"He voted against funding research on RU-486. He voted for a ban on dilation and extraction (so-called partial-birth) abortions without a maternal health exception. He even voted against contraception coverage in health insurance plans for federal workers - a huge work force of some 2.6 million people (and yes, for many of them, Viagra is covered)."
"Where reasonable constitutional objections could be raised - the lack of a health exception in partial-birth bans clearly violates Roe v. Wade, as the Supreme Court ruled in Stenberg v. Carhart - Kucinich did not raise them; where competing principles could be invoked - freedom of speech for foreign health organizations - he did not bring them up."
"He was a co-sponsor of the House bill outlawing all forms of human cloning, even for research purposes, and he opposes embryonic stem cell research. His anti-choice dedication has earned him a 95 percent position rating from the National Right to Life Committee, versus 10 percent from Planned Parenthood and 0 percent from NARAL."
"When I spoke with Kucinich by phone, he seemed to be looking for a way to put some space between himself and his record. 'I believe life begins at conception' [he said.]"
"[W]hen asked by Planned Parenthood in 1996 whether he supported the substance of Roe, however, he told them he did not...."
"He presented his votes as votes not against abortion per se but against federal funding of the procedure. Unfortunately, his record does not easily lend itself to this reading: He voted specifically against allowing Washington, DC, to fund abortions for poor women with nonfederal dollars and against permitting female soldiers and military dependents to have an abortion in overseas military facilities even if they paid for it themselves."
"Similarly, although Kucinich told me he was not in favor of 'criminalizing' abortion, he voted for a partial-birth-abortion ban that included fines and up to two years in jail for doctors who performed them...."
"'I haven't been a leader on this,' Kucinich said. 'These are issues I would not have chosen to bring up.' But if he plans to run for President, Kucinich will have to change his stance...."
"OK, but shouldn't he have started his education before he cast a vote barring funds for abortions for women in prison? (When I told him the inhumanity of this particular vote made me feel like throwing up - you're not only in jail, you have to have a baby too? - he interjected, 'but there's a rape exception!')"
"Kucinich has to understand that denying abortion funding to poor women is as much a class issue as denying them any other kind of healthcare."
"That a solidly anti-choice politician could become a standard-bearer for progressivism, the subject of hagiographic profiles in The Nation and elsewhere, speaks volumes about the low priority of women's rights to the self-described economic left, forever chasing the white male working-class vote."
"Supporting an anti-choice Congressman may have seemed pragmatic; trying to make him President would be political suicide. Pregnant prisoners may not vote, but millions of pro-choice women do."

Link: http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020527&s=pollitt

As Katha Pollitt predicted, Kucinich is claiming he's changed his mind on the right to choose in order to run for the Democratic nomination.

Kucinich opens campaign with change on abortion
by Tom Diemer The Cleveland Plain Dealer, February 17, 2003

Key Quotes:

"U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich opened a long-shot bid for the White House yesterday by altering one of his long-standing positions, promising Iowa Democrats he would be 'pro-choice' on the question of abortion."
"In Congress, Kucinich, who represents Cleveland's West Side and western suburbs, has generally voted against abortion rights and has consistently opposed federal funding of abortion for poor women, a record he acknowledged at a later stop in Iowa City."
"He was met in that college town by three women holding abortion-rights placards. 'He has a very poor record with Planned Parenthood,' said Gina Shatteman, holding a sign that read 'No Forced Motherhood.'"

Link: http://www.cleveland.com/world/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1045488643215370.xml

Even publications and writers who support Kucinich concede he has an abysmal record on reproductive freedom.

The Word from Washington
By Ruth Conniff The Progressive April 2003 Key Quotes:

"Kucinich has one big problem with a grassroots, progressive base: His position on abortion. Until last year, he maintained a nearly perfect voting record according to National Right to Life, and scored an absolute zero in the vote tally kept by the National Abortion Rights Action League."
"'I withheld my support on a number of bills in the last year,' he says, adding that the aggressive Republican effort to overturn Roe v. Wade persuaded him to help protect women's fundamental constitutional right to abortion."
"'I don't believe in abortion, but I do believe in choice,' he says."

Link: http://www.progressive.org/april03/conn0403.html

Kucinich claims he believes in choice, but is that true? We know he opposes abortion but does he really "believe in choice?" Let's examine his rationale for changing his life-long position against choice.

There's been a sustained "aggressive Republican effort to overturn Roe v. Wade" since Kucinich entered Congress. What other than his decision to run for President changed "in the last year" that "persuaded" him to reconsider his 100% anti-choice position? Has he really "help[ed] protect women's fundamental constitutional right to abortion" since his conversion? Not really.

The strange journey of Dennis Kucinich
by Timothy P. Carney National Review Online , November 1, 2002 Key quotes:

"In the Ohio state Senate, Kucinich voted to ban partial-birth abortions. In 1996, while running for U.S. House, the former 'boy-mayor' of Cleveland said, 'I believe that life begins at conception.' When Kucinich was coming to Washington, the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy counted the former mayor as one of a handful of 'anti-choice' Democratic newcomers."
"In the 105th Congress, Kucinich - no conservative - earned a 90 percent rating from the National Right to Life Committee. His only heresies in the eyes of these abortion foes being his support of the Shays-Meehan campaign-finance bill."
"[Kucinich] voted with the National Right to Life Committee on every single abortion vote in his first two years. That was more pro-life than three Ohio Republicans that year. The votes included sticking up for a ban on partial-birth abortion and voting to thwart President Clinton's plan to give foreign aid to overseas agencies that perform and counsel abortion."
"Kucinich voted again to ban partial-birth abortion, block aid to International Planned Parenthood, and prevent taxpayer dollars from funding abortions in federal prisons. His score in the 106th Congress with the National Right to Life Committee was 95 percent - again, only voting against them on Shays-Meehan."
"In April [2001], Kucinich supported the 'Unborn Victims of Violence Act,' which criminalized harming a fetus in a crime, and he opposed the Democratic substitute that would have defused the fetus-is-a-life parts of the bill."
"In May, 2001, Kucinich again voted against funding International Planned Parenthood. Two months later he voted to block federal funding of prison abortions. On the cloning ban, the congressman voted the straight pro-life line, supporting the bill and opposing his party's efforts to soften the ban."
"On September 25, 2001, Kucinich helped kill a measure by California Democrat Loretta Sanchez that would have allowed for federal funding of abortions in overseas U.S. military bases."

Link: http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-carney110102.asp

Kucinich's Choice, Does the presidential
contender mean what he says on abortion?
By David Enrich, February 20, 2003. Key Quotes:

"Kucinich compiled a consistently pro-life voting record, earning a 95-percent rating from the National Right to Life Committee in 2000. 'He absolutely believes in the sanctity of life and that life begins at conception,' Kucinich's spokeswoman explained last year."

Link: http://www.nationalreview.com/script/printpage.asp?ref=/comment/comment-enrich022003.asp

The Kucinich record is not merely anti-abortion, he is fundamentally anti-choice and against reproductive rights. Kucinich refused to defend choice, women's health, Roe v. Wade, or freedom of speech for health workers and organizations. Now, he is trying to cover up if not lie about all of this.

Kucinich's anti-choice orthodoxy earned him a 95 percent grade from Pat Robertson but 10 percent from Planned Parenthood and 0 percent from the defenders of choice NARAL. Now, he can't explain his verbal flip-flop or reconcile his pandering with his lack of action to protect women's rights - especially poor women and those under the thumb of the federal government.

As Katha Pollitt predicted, Kucinich is claiming he's changed his mind on the right to choose in order to garner support for the Democratic nomination. Has he really changed his mind? No. Despite claims he is defending the right to choose, he hasn't voted even once to favor it.

Kucinich is not merely anti-abortion. He is vehemently anti-choice and radically opposed to Separation of Church and State on reproduction issues. He consistently voted against choice, and cannot bring himself to support it when it counts.

Kucinich opposes choice for women in federal prisons. He even voted against choice for women in DC and in the US armed forces or married to servicemen seeking to pay for abortions with their own money! He is so anti-choice he voted to deny help for women around the world who rely on agencies like International Planned Parenthood and voted to punish any agency which performs or even counsels on abortion.

Recently, even after his "campaign conversion," Kucinich refused to protect the right to choose when he voted "present" rather than take a stand on key issues including Republican efforts to ban D&E procedures pejoratively called "partial birth abortions." In this, Kucinich repudiates the principled stance supporting separation of Church and State as articulated by Mario Cuomo and Ted Kennedy.

Kucinich admitted he does not support Roe v. Wade, making his claims he would use that as a litmus test when nominating Supreme Court Justices questionable at best. This is more than troubling. It shows Kucinich is a chameleon on choice, changing superficially to blend in with his Democratic rivals and camouflage his real position.

Kucinich, despite his denials, imposes his religious biases on women in the US and around the world. Those who support freedom of religion, Roe v. Wade and constitutional reproductive rights should realize Kucinich has been on the wrong side of these issues his entire career.

Although he has changed his rhetoric in contemplation of his run for the White House, he only slightly shaded his votes. In the House of Representatives, when it counts, Kucinich refuses to defend choice even in symbolic votes.

Talk is cheap. Kucinich's actions prove he remains anti-choice, anti-Roe, and he supports fundamentalist religious interference in your life. If these positions run counter to your priorities, you can't support Dennis Kucinich.

The Kucinich voting record on Reproductive
Rights from http://www.vote-smart.org/

Abortion Service Refusals-Passage

Bill Number: HR4691 Issue: Abortion Date: 09/25/2002 Sponsor: Bill sponsored by Bilirakis, R-FL

Roll Call Number: 0412 Bill passed Full Member List

Representative Dennis J. Kucinich was present but had no stand.

Vote to pass a bill that would prohibit the federal, state and local governments that receive federal funding from discriminating against health care providers, health insurers, health maintenance organizations, and "any other kind of health care facility, organization or plan," that decline to refer patients for, pay for or provide abortion services

HR4691 Abortion Non-Discrimination Act of 2002

Family Planning Funds

Bill Number: HR 2159 Issue: Abortion Date: 09/04/1997 Sponsor: Paul, R-TX

Roll Call Number: 0358 Amendment rejected Full Member List

Representative Dennis J. Kucinich voted YES.

Vote on an amendment to prohibit the use of funds for population control or population programs; family planning activities; or abortion procedures.

HR 2159: FY 1998 Foreign Operations Appropriations

Vote on an amendment to prohibit the use of funds for population control or population programs; family planning activities; or abortion procedures. Amendment offered by Paul, R-TX. (Amendment rejected 147-278 on 9/4/97).

Late-Term Abortion - Final Passage

Bill Number: HR 1122 Issue: Abortion Date: 10/07/1997 Sponsor: Motion introduced by Canady, R-FL; Bill introduced by Solomon, R-NY.

Roll Call Number: 0500 Motion agreed to Full Member List

Representative Dennis J. Kucinich voted YES.

Motion to agree to the Senate amendments on a bill that would ban certain late-term abortions, except when necessary to save the life of the mother.

HR 1122: Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act

International Family Planning - Smith Amendment

Bill Number: HR 2159 Issue: Abortion Date: 09/04/1997 Sponsor: Smith, R-NJ

Roll Call Number: 0363 Amendment adopted Full Member List

Representative Dennis J. Kucinich voted YES.

Vote on an amendment that would prohibit U.S. foreign aid to foreign organizations that perform abortions, and would ban contributions to the U.N. Fund for Population Activities, unless it is no longer active in China or China ends coercive abortions, among other provisions.

HR 2159: FY 1998 Foreign Operations Appropriations

International Family Planning - Gilman Amendment

Bill Number: HR 2159 Issue: Abortion Date: 09/04/1997 Sponsor: Gilman, R-NY

Roll Call Number: 0362 Substitute amendment rejected; the original Smith Full Member List

Representative Dennis J. Kucinich voted NO.

Vote on a substitute amendment that would allow organizations that do not promote abortion as a method of family planning and that use funds to prevent abortion as a method of family planning to remain eligible for funding, among other provisions.

HR 2159: FY 1998 Foreign Operations Appropriations

Abortions at Overseas Military Facilities

Bill Number: HR 1119 Issue: Abortion Date: 06/19/1997 Sponsor: Harman, D-CA

Roll Call Number: 0217 Amendment rejected Full Member List

Representative Dennis J. Kucinich voted NO.

Vote on an amendment to allow privately-funded abortions for military women and dependents at overseas military hospitals.

HR 1119: The Department of Defense Authorization Act

Vote on an amendment to allow privately-funded abortions for military women and dependents at overseas military hospitals, reversing the ban implemented in 1995. Amendment offered by Harman, D-CA. (Amendment rejected 196-224 on 6/19/97)

Fiscal 2001 Defense Auth.-Military Base Abortions

Bill Number: HR 4205 Issue: Abortion Date: 05/18/2000 Sponsor: Amendment sponsored by Sanchez, D-CA; Bill sponsored by Spence, R-SC

Roll Call Number: 0203 Amendment rejected Full Member List

Representative Dennis J. Kucinich voted NO.

Vote on an amendment that would repeal the ban on privately funded abortions at overseas military facilities.

HR 4205: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001 State Department Authorization-Family Planning Funding

Bill Number: HR 1646 Issue: Abortion Date: 05/16/2001 Sponsor: Amendment sponsored by Hyde, R-IL; Bill sponsored by Hyde, R-IL

Roll Call Number: 0115 Amendment adopted Full Member List

Representative Dennis J. Kucinich voted YES.

Vote to adopt an amendment that would remove language reversing President Bush's restrictions on funding to family planning groups that provide abortion services, counseling or advocacy.

HR 1646 Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 2002 and 2003

United Nations Population Fund - 'Mexico City Policy'

Bill Number: HR 1757 Issue: Abortion Date: 06/05/1997 Sponsor: Smith, R-NJ

Roll Call Number: 0194 Amendment adopted Full Member List

Representative Dennis J. Kucinich voted YES.

Vote on an amendment to ban population planning funds from any foreign group that performs or actively promotes abortions, and prohibit U.S. funding of the U.N. Population Fund unless the president certifies that it has ended its activities in China, or no coercive abortions associated with China's family planning policies are being performed.

HR 1757: The Foreign Relations Reauthorization Act

FY 1999 DC Appropriations - Local Funds for Abortions

Bill Number: HR 4380 Issue: Abortion Date: 08/06/1998 Sponsor: Amendment introduced by Norton, D-DC; bill introduced by Taylor, R-NC.

Roll Call Number: 0408 Amendment rejected Full Member List

Representative Dennis J. Kucinich voted NO.

Vote to allow funds other than federal funds to be used to pay for abortions for low-income women.

HR 4380: District of Columbia Appropriations Act, 1999

FY 1999 Commerce, Justice, State - Prison Abortions

Bill Number: HR 4276 Issue: Abortion Date: 08/04/1998 Sponsor: Amendment introduced by DeGette, D-CO; bill introduced by Rogers, R-KY.

Roll Call Number: 0387 Amendment rejected Full Member List

Representative Dennis J. Kucinich voted NO.

Vote to strike language in the bill that prohibits the use of federal funds to be used for abortion for women in prison.

HR 4276: Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, and Judiciary, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1999

FY 1999 Treasury-Postal Approp - Abortion Coverage

Bill Number: HR 4104 Issue: Abortion Date: 07/16/1998 Sponsor: Amendment introduced by DeLauro, D-CT; bill introduced by Kolbe, R-AZ.

Roll Call Number: 0288 Amendment rejected Full Member List

Representative Dennis J. Kucinich voted NO.

Vote to strike the provisions in the bill prohibiting the use of funds to pay for abortions under the program to cover abortions under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.

HR 4104: Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act, 1999

FY 1999 Treasury-Postal Approp - Ban Abortion Coverage

Bill Number: HR 4104 Issue: Abortion Date: 07/16/1998 Sponsor: Amendment introduced by Smith, R-NJ; bill introduced by Kolbe, R-AZ.

Roll Call Number: 0292 Amendment rejected Full Member List

Representative Dennis J. Kucinich voted YES.

Vote to prohibit the use of funds to require health care plans for federal employees to cover contraceptives that chemically induce abortion.

HR 4104: Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act, 1999

FY 2001 Treasury Approps.-Abortion Funding

Bill Number: HR 4871 Issue: Abortion Date: 07/20/2000 Sponsor: Amendment sponsored by DeLauro, D-CT; Bill sponsored by Kolbe, R-AZ

Roll Call Number: 0422 Amendment rejected Full Member List

Representative Dennis J. Kucinich voted NO.

Vote on an amendment that would strike a provision in the bill that would ban the use of funds to pay for abortions or the administrative costs associated with them through the federal employees health benefit program.

HR 4871: Treasury-Postal Appropriation Bill for fiscal 2001

Transporting Minors for an Abortion - Passage

Bill Number: HR 3682 Issue: Abortion Date: 07/15/1998 Sponsor: Bill introduced by Ros-Lehtinen, R-FL.

Roll Call Number: 0280 Bill passed Full Member List

Representative Dennis J. Kucinich voted YES.

Vote to prohibit the transportation of a minor across state lines to obtain an abortion in order to circumvent parental consent laws.

HR 3682: Child Custody Protection Act

FY 1999 Defense Authorization - Overseas Abortions

Bill Number: HR 3616 Issue: Abortion Date: 05/20/1998 Sponsor: Amendment introduced by Lowey, D-NY; bill introduced by Spence, R-SC.

Roll Call Number: 0171 Amendment rejected Full Member List

Representative Dennis J. Kucinich voted NO.

Vote to allow privately-funded abortions for military women and dependents at overseas military hospitals.

HR 3616: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1999

Vote on an amendment to allow privately-funded abortions for military women and dependents at overseas military hospitals, reversing a ban implemented in 1995.

Criminal Penalties for Fetus Harm-Lofgren Substitute

Bill Number: HR 2436 Issue: Abortion Date: 09/30/1999 Sponsor: Substitute amendment sponsored by Lofgren, D-CA, Bill Sponsored by Graham, R-SC

Roll Call Number: 0464 Substitute amendment failed Full Member List

Representative Dennis J. Kucinich voted NO.

Vote on a substitute amendment regarding assault of a pregnant woman.

HR 2436: Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 1999

Vote on a substitute amendment that would set federal penalties for assault on a pregnant woman. It sets a specific punishment of 20 years for a perpetrator who causes harm to a fetus through an assault, and up to life in person if the assault results in termination of the pregnancy. These punishments would apply regardless of the perpetrator's knowledge of the pregnancy or specific desire to harm the fetus.

Defense Auth.--Abortions at Overseas Military Hospitals

Bill Number: HR 1401 Issue: Abortion Date: 06/09/1999 Sponsor: Amendment introduced by Meek, D-FL, Bill introduced by Spence, R-SC

Roll Call Number: 0184 Amendment failed Full Member List

Representative Dennis J. Kucinich voted NO.

Vote on an amendment to allow privately funded abortions at overseas military hospitals.

HR 1401: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 2000 and 2001

Vote on an amendment to allow privately funded abortions at overseas military hospitals for military personnel and dependents. Amendment introduced by Meek, D-FL, Bill introduced by Spence, R-SC (Amendment failed 203-225 on 6/9/99)

Drugs Chemically Inducing Abortion

Bill Number: HR 1906 Issue: Abortion Date: 06/08/1999 Sponsor: Amendment introduced by Coburn, R-OK, Bill introduced by Skeen, R-NM

Roll Call Number: 0173 Amendment passed Full Member List

Representative Dennis J. Kucinich voted YES.

Vote to pass an amendment prohibiting the FDA from using any funds appropriated in this bill for use with drugs inducing abortion.

HR 1906: Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2000

Vote pass an amendment prohibiting the FDA from using any funds appropriated in this bill for development, testing, or approval of any drug for the chemical inducement of abortion.

All of these votes directly contradict the statement circulated by the Kucinich Campaign [info@kucinich.us]

Sent: Monday, July 07, 2003 8:07 PM
Subject: Feminists for Kucinich (please circulate)

The Kucinich for President Campaign takes a big step forward today with the announcement of "Feminists for Kucinich." Eight diverse feminist writers and organizers have initiated a statement in support of Kucinich, which will be widely circulated to attract new supporters.
* * * *
3) We want a candidate who will defend the separation of church and state, and the individual rights guaranteed us by the Constitution.
4) We want a candidate who opposes discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, and who stands for women's reproductive rights....
* * * *
Dennis Kucinich is the only candidate who not only agrees with all these points but has developed policies to support them ... upholding Roe v. Wade....
Because we feel that he comes closest to representing our priorities, we have decided to support Dennis Kucinich for President....

Like anyone else, these Kucinich supporters are free to support any candidate they want for any reasons they want. They should not make claims which completely contradict the record, however. They can support Kucinich or they can support a pro-choice candidate, but they can't do both.

2003-07-30T04:56:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our little blog. We're mainly former Kucinich supporters who no longer feel he's the right person for the Democratic nomination.