Kucinich

I wrote earlier that the wackiest Democratic Presidential contender, Dennis Kucinich, introduced a House resolution calling for impeachment of the President.

A Moment of Truth has posted a copy of Kucinich’s resolution, and I couldn’t help but notice part of the reason he’s calling for Bush’s impeachment:

A Medicare Actuary who possessed information regarding the true cost of the plan, $539 billion, was instructed by the Medicare Administrator to deny Congressional requests for it. The Actuary was threatened with sanctions if the information was disclosed to Congress, which, unaware of the information, approved the bill. Despite the fact that official cost estimates far exceeded $400  billion, President Bush offered assurances to Congress that the cost was $400 billion, when his office had information to the contrary. In the House of Representatives, the bill passed by a single vote and the Conference Report passed by only 5 votes. The White House knew the actual cost of the drug benefit was high enough to prevent its passage. Yet the White House concealed the truth and impeded an investigation into its culpability.

In all of these actions and decisions, President George W. Bush has acted in a manner contrary to his  trust as President, and subversive of constitutional government, to the prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States. Wherefore, President George W. Bush, by such conduct, is guilty of an impeachable offense warranting removal from office.

Man, I did not expect to see an actuarial reference in that document.

Seriously, the document is interesting enough to merit a quick skim-through.  I seriously doubt that many of the points Kucinich raises really rise to the impeachment threshold of “high crimes and misdemeanors”, but the recitation is a decent, if somewhat biased, reminder of the antics that have transpired over the past 7½ years.

Oy vey.  Seen at Raw Story:

“Resolved,” Kucinich then began, “that President George W. Bush be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, and that the following articles of impeachment be exhibited to the United States Senate….

“In his conduct while President of the United States, George W. Bush, in violation of his constitutional oath to faithfully execute the office of president of the United States, and to the best of his ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has committed the following abuses of power…”

The first article Kucinich presented, and many that followed, regarded the war in Iraq: “Article 1 - Creating a secret propaganda campaign to manufacture a false case for war against Iraq.”

This, of course, will go nowhere.  Depending on how you look at it, Dems either:

• Are practical enough to realize that taking such a polarizing action against an impotent, lame-duck President is a really dumb idea in a hotly-contested election season; or
• Are realistic enough to realize that they lack the support to actually make the charges stick; or
• Lack the chutzpah to actually see the thing through; or
• Some combination of the above.

Seriously, if Kucinich were serious about seeing justice done, he’d be pushing for a way to ensure that pardons couldn’t be issued for Bush and his cronies.   And, even that sort of an act would seem to be doomed to failure by the political need of appearing inclusive to maximize the results of the November elections.

Seen at CNN, the South Carolina Dem primary results:

With 86% of the precincts in:

• Obama — 229,775 (54%)
• Clinton — 114,636 (27%)
• Edwards — 79,538 (19%)
• Kucinich — 462 (0%)

So, presumably, this is it for Edwards?

Hearing that Dennis Kucinich is returning home to Cleveland to announce that he’s realized he won’t get the Dems’ nod for the nomination triggered an interesting thought sequence in my head.

Consider:

• Kucinich claims to have seen a U.F.O.
• Kucinich is from Cleveland.
• Progressive’s home office is just outside Cleveland.
• Progressive’s advertising relied heavily on E.T. for a while.

Coincidence? I think not!

Cleveland is obviously overrun with aliens.

(This post is smiley-captioned for the humor impaired. )

It’s been inevitable for a while, but so much for the comic relief on the Democrats’ side.   From the Courant:

Democrat Dennis Kucinich is abandoning his second, long-shot bid for the White House as he faces a tough fight to hold onto his other job — U.S. congressman.

“I will be announcing that I’m transitioning out of the presidential campaign,” Kucinich said. “I’m making that announcement tomorrow about a new direction.”

I can’t help but wonder if Gravel is trying to scrounge up enough money to contact Kucinich’s few dozen supporters about coming over to his camp.

Seen on the newswire:

Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich filed a complaint with the FCC on Friday after ABC News excluded him, fellow Democrat Mike Gravel and Republican Duncan Hunter from its prime-time debates on Saturday.

Kucinich argued that ABC is violating equal-time provisions by keeping him out of the debate and noted that ABC’s parent Walt Disney Co. had contributed to campaigns involving the four Democrats who were invited.[...]

The network set rules to narrow the field. Candidates had to meet at least one of three criteria: place first through fourth in Iowa, poll 5 percent or higher in one of the last four major New Hampshire surveys, or poll 5 percent or higher in one of the last four major national surveys.

While I appreciate the argument raised by Kucinich…you have to ask yourself: can’t an argument be made that “equal time” shouldn’t necessarily apply to nonviable candidates, assuming (of course) an adequately broad definition of “viable”?

Given that the primary campaign has already been underway for about a year, and yet Kucinich barely registers in the polls…I’d have to say he’s not viable under any definition.

This blog entry at the Plain Dealer gives me a headache:

“I’m thinking about Ron Paul” as a running mate, Kucinich told a crowd of about 70 supporters at a house party here, one of numerous stops throughout New Hampshire over the Thanksgiving weekend. A Kucinich-Paul administration could bring people together “to balance the energies in this country,” Kucinich said.

I can’t think of two candidates who are more diametrically opposed among the official pack of candidates for both parties’ nominations. Imagining them attempting a viable candidacy on the same ticket just seems….incomprehensible.

Now, if they were running for the White House as a protest campaign, in an effort to gain publicity for the notion that there are ideas beyond those codified in the Donkeys’ and Elephants’ platforms, and seeking to instill a little diversity in viewpoints into American politics, I could see an argument being made for them to run together. (I think it’d be slightly more effective if all the “major” third parties temporarily pooled resources to run a semi-viable, non-nutty fusion candidate, however.)

However, such a stance would presumably almost instantly boot them from the ranks viability in the eyes of the media.

Geez; did Reuters think it was a slow news day or something? First, we have this Reuters story:

Democratic U.S. presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich may have been ridiculed for saying he had seen a UFO, but for some former military pilots and other observers, unidentified flying objects are no laughing matter.

An international panel of two dozen former pilots and government officials called on the U.S. government on Monday to reopen its generation-old UFO investigation as a matter of safety and security given continuing reports about flying discs, glowing spheres and other strange sightings.

“Especially after the attacks of 9/11, it is no longer satisfactory to ignore radar returns … which cannot be associated with performances of existing aircraft and helicopters,” they said in a statement released at a news conference.

While I don’t discount all things UFO-related as nuttery…I can think of a few more tangible things that taxpayer money could be spent on (if it must be spent to begin with…).

And then, over in the sidebar of the article, I saw a link to a different article that I just couldn’t resist checking out (and sharing), due to the “Eh?” factor:

More Australian voters would like to see Labor Opposition leader Kevin Rudd naked than their current prime minister, John Howard, a poll showed on Sunday just two weeks out from a hard-fought general election. [...]

The survey found 34 percent of respondents wanted to see Rudd, 50, with his gear off, more than double the 16 percent who said the same thing about Howard, 68.[...]

“No one wants a prime minister who doesn’t look good naked,” Zoo editor Paul Merrill was quoted as saying.

Naked politicians? Ewww!

Sometimes, reality is far more entertaining (or disturbing) than anything striking script writers could have come up with. As seen at the Miami Herald:

The impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney was the last thing that House Democratic leaders wanted to confront Tuesday, even though a determined band of antiwar House Democrats was eager to force the issue.

Then, in a vote that stunned even the antiwar forces, the House of Representatives—helped in no small part by Republicans eager to debate the issue and portray Democrats as radical—voted 251-162 to keep the Cheney impeachment measure alive. The majority was formed by 165 Republicans and 86 Democrats.

Over at RedState, Shaggy Dog observed:

Apparently Rep. John Shaddeg (R-AZ)came up with the idea of throwing Republican votes in favor of bringing the measure in order to embarrass Pelosi & Co. by 1) letting the American people actually see the unvarnished nuttiness of the House Democrat back-benchers and 2) forcing Pelosi to then have to (presumably) go on record voting against the impeachment of Vice President Cheney and deal with the ensuing wrath of the nutroots.

I say three cheers for Rep. Shaddeg. If we can do more of this type of thing- holding the Democratic leadership accountable for the lunacy of their base, we will have a good shot of regaining a majority vote from the American people in 2008.

Meanwhile, the militant doves are peeved at the Democratic leadership’s attempt to squash the measure. For example, Bob Cesca noted at HuffPo:

It was yesterday, on the one year anniversary of the collapse of Karl Rove’s thousand-year Reich, when the Democrats subjected themselves to both public embarrassment and public disgrace, and each within a few hours of the other.

The public disgrace was naturally Senator Schumer’s and Senator Feinstein’s votes to endorse the Bush administration’s pro-torture policy. Make no mistake, despite their wet-bread excuses, that’s what they did, say nothing of their endorsement of the regime’s unitary executive theory. The reality of the committee vote—the Democrats’ failure to hold their voter-mandated high ground—is what history will remember. Not the excuses.

If some of what has been alleged about Cheney is correct, I think a very strong case could be made for impeachment. For example, the notion that intelligence workers in the Middle East may have been sacrificed due to nasty political games is an offense of the same order of magnitude as obstruction of justice when investigating a hotel break-in.

However, I also think that the moment for acting on that is long since passed. If such allegations are true, the call for impeachment should have been issued once sufficient proof had been amassed to support those allegations.

To have waited this long…well, Kucinich’s resolution would seem to be pretty far down in the depths of the political circus abyss, even before considering the strategery being demonstrated by the right wing to embarrass the left.

And the circusness being demonstrated by the right? Well, I’ll admit that I always appreciate such clever tactics in the name of good entertainment….but it reeks of childishness and irresponsibility. For the good of the country (and not because it’s embarrassing to Dems) the measure should have been tabled, absent some new revelation about Darth Cheney’s antics.

Are centrists/realists ready to defect from the nuts and sleazy politicians in both wings yet?

Some comments as I listen in to tonight’s debate:

Read the rest of this page →