Dennis Kucinich's Media Fight

Ohio voters head to the polls for a primary election Tuesday, and that can mean only one thing: The Cleveland Plain Dealer is griping about Congressman Dennis Kucinich.

There is nothing new, nor anything wrong, with newspapers holding members of Congress to account.

In fact, it would be good if more did so.

But the Plain Dealer, the uber-dominant daily newspaper in the city and its suburbs since the folding a quarter century ago of the feisty Cleveland Press, is not exactly holding the congressman to account. Rather, it is looking for every opportunity to put a former mayor, with whom it has sparred for decades, in his place.

The Plain Dealer's penchant for pounding on Kucinich has little to do with the congressman's failed presidential bids or his current advocacy on behalf of changing U.S. foreign policy, restoring a measure of balance to our trade policies or impeaching members of the Bush-Cheney administration for high crimes and misdemeanors.

While there is no question that Kucinich has put himself at odds with party leaders and pundits in Washington and Ohio – some of whom disagree with him ideologically and many of whom think his Democratic presidential campaigns of 2004 and 2008 gave new meaning to the word "quixotic" -- Kucinich is hardly the only Cleveland-area House member who stretches the boundaries of the political etiquette. (Stephanie Tubbs Jones, who represents a neighboring district, mounted an necessary but controversial challenge to Congressional approval of the results of the 2004 presidential election because of unresolved issues with the vote count in her state.)

Nor is the newspaper's gripe a personal one rooted in bad blood between individuals on the staff and a particularly-independent local official. While a few old timers remain from the days when Kucinich and the paper clashed on an almost daily basis, the penchant of the paper's writers to pound on Kucinich knows no generational limitation.

The Plain Dealer's distaste for Kucinich is institutional. Since the 1970s, when he was the 31-year-old "boy mayor" of Cleveland, Kucinich has rubbed the city's economic elites – for whom the Plain Dealer has often served as a friendly newspaper of record – wrong. Kucinich never behaved as the Plain Dealer's editors expected a mayor to behave. He refused to bend to the demands of the downtown bankers and the corporate CEOs who had gotten used to local officials – Democrats and Republicans – making populist noises but doing as they were told when it came time to choose between the boardrooms of the city's office towers and the ethnic neighborhoods of the city and its working-class suburbs.

Kucinich's refusal to permit the privatization of Cleveland's municipal power plant was a classic battle between a city's economic, political and media elites on one side and an almost unimaginably principled official on the other. The business community and its media mouthpieces tossed every charge they could at the mayor and most of them stuck. He was ultimately driven from office with a reputation so smeared that, when I arrived in Ohio as a young newspaper reporter in the 1980s, one of the first things I "learned" was that Kucinich was probably a bit unbalanced and certainly "finished forever" in politics.

Only after meeting and interviewing the former mayor did I come to the conclusion that what the Plain Dealer and many other Ohio media outlets saw as instability was a rare commodity in that state's stilted politics: a principled determination to stand against entrenched power, even at great political expense.

As a political writer and later an editor for The Toledo Blade, I became a regular reader of the Plain Dealer. I came to respect much about the newspaper, and I retain high regard for many of its writers. (Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Connie Schultz's latest column on the media's mistreatment of Hillary Clinton is smarter and deeper than anything else I've read on what is rapidly emerging as a serious issue in this campaign.)

But I was always struck by the energy Ohio's largest newspaper -- and other media outlets that followed its lead – always expended when it came to going after Kucinich.

To be sure, the congressman's brought scrutiny and criticism on himself; even when he's right, he can be more rigid and righteous than is politically smart. But, the thing is, Kucinich does have a tendency to be right – on the war in Iraq, on civil liberties, on trade policy, on health care reform and even the media-ownership issues that most unsettle the managers of chain newspapers.

Unfortunately, being proven right scores an Ohio politico few points from the state's major media outlets. In fact, the most consistently correct political players in the state – folks like Senator Sherrod Brown and Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur – have for years taken media hits for their steady criticism of trade pacts and economic policies that have turned out to be disasters for Ohio.

Kucinich's successful battle to preserve municipal power in Cleveland may have protected working families from spikes in their utility rates. The former mayor's warnings that the bankers and the CEOs would abandon Cleveland in its hours of need may have proven to be prescient. But, still, the savaging by the Plain Dealer has continued.

Even when the voters of Cleveland and neighboring communities restored the former mayor to public life in the 1990s, first as a state senator and then as their representative to Congress – in each case, choosing him over Republican incumbents in "Reagan Democrat" swing districts – there would be no forgiveness and no forgetting by the local newspaper.

Kucinich, it is said in Cleveland, could walk on the waters of Lake Erie and still the Plain Dealer headline would read "Dennis Can't Swim." Uninspired primary challengers have still enjoyed friendly coverage – and sometimes enthusiastic endorsements -- from the Plain Dealer.

This year, as Kucinich seeks reelection in a March 4 primary where he faces a reasonably well-financed challenge from a Cleveland councilman who has made a rough peace with the local elites – as well as several less fiscally-endowed contenders -- the Plain Dealer is campaigning as hard to defeat the congressman as are his foes.

The newspaper has not merely endorsed Kucinich's most prominent opponent, a one-time fan of the congressman named Joe Cimperman, it has taken every opportunity to portray Kucinich – whose passion for all things Cleveland, from polka music to kielbasa to steel factories is legendary -- as a flaky foreigner who neither understands nor cares about the city and its suburbs. The paper spills almost as much ink recounting actor Sean Penn's support of Kucinich than it does on the Hollywood lefty's movies.

Never mind that challenger Cimperman does not live in Kucinich's 10th District – the councilman is a resident of Congresswoman Jones' neighboring district but is Constitutionally permitted to run where he chooses – Kucinich is portrayed as the interloper. "Cimperman cannot vote for himself March 4," the Plain Dealer admitted in a February 21 editorial that may go down in history as one of the more bizarre arguments ever made by a newspaper on behalf of its endorsed candidate. "But people in the 10th District who want real leadership can vote – for Joe Cimperman."

What is "real leadership" in the eyes of the editors of the Plain Dealer? In Cimperman's case, it is best defined as a willingness to work with the community's business elites. Yes, the councilman objected at first to a Wal-Mart being located in a neighborhood where it was expected to threaten locally-owned shops. But when the chain store prevailed, chirps the PD, Cimperman accepted his lemons and "made lemonade." Translation: He made peace with the developers. That, the paper says, is the measure of "a smart leader."

Kucinich, on the other hand, is condemned for standing too firmly for living-wage jobs, local shopkeepers and real health-care reform. And it's not just Kucinich who is attacked. When local labor leaders stand up for the congressman who has fought with them to block bad trade deals and protect good jobs, they are accused of giving Kucinich "too much credit" for standing up for workers.

The editorials, the columns, the news analysis articles dismissing the assertions made by labor leaders in Kucinich's television ads, the constant references to Cimperman as a "workhorse" and the congressman as a "show horse" will continue through Tuesday. Then the voters of Cleveland, Lakewood, North Olmsted, Parma and neighboring communities will have their say. If they believe the Plain Dealer, they will reject Kucinich and get themselves a congressman who is skilled in the art of compromise. On the other hand, it they listen to Harriet Applegate, the executive secretary of the Cleveland-based North Shore AFL-CIO Federation of Labor, who says that Kucinich's edgy critique of corporate power – and even of corporate media -- is what's needed in Washington.

"It doesn't help to have all 435 members of the House be compromisers and negotiators," argues Applegate. Despite the Plain Dealer's preaching, the veteran union leader says, "Dennis Kucinich has worked tirelessly for working people, and that is why labor supports him." Conversely, it is Kucinich's refusal to compromise that guarantees the Cleveland Plain Dealer will continue to criticize this congressman for so long as his name remains on the ballot.

Comments (48)

1. Maybe the folks in Cleveland are sick of their Congressman WASTING TIME on impeachment moves that go nowhere...and taking 6-8 months out for Quixotic runs for President every 4 years and getting 2% of the vote?

   Posted by Mask at 03/03/2008 @ 12:19pm

2. Personally, I'm thankful for DK's willingness to stand up in the face of overwhelmingly bad odds for what he beleives is just and right for our coutry. Quixotic or not, Kucinich acts out of principle, regardless of the political consequences. His message is honorable; if we could only be so lucky to see it actualized.

   Posted by MATTMAN at 03/03/2008 @ 12:30pm

3. Maybe the folks in Cleveland are sick of their Congressman WASTING TIME on impeachment moves that go nowhere...and taking 6-8 months out for Quixotic runs for President every 4 years and getting 2% of the vote?

   "The Plain Dealer's penchant for pounding on Kucinich has LITTLE to do with the congressman's failed presidential bids or his current advocacy on behalf of changing U.S. foreign policy, restoring a measure of balance to our trade policies or impeaching members of the Bush-Cheney administration for high crimes and misdemeanors."

   Posted by phnord at 03/03/2008 @ 12:37pm

4. Posted by MASK 03/03/2008 @ 12:19pm

   "[D]espite a challenge in the primary from four opponents, Kucinich appears pretty safe for reelection:

   Dennis Kucinich 55 Joe Cimperman 29 Barbara Anne Ferris 5 Tom O'Grady 4 Rosemary Palmer 1"

   http://www.writeslikeshetalks.com/2008/02/27/ohio-10th-congressional-dis trict-poll-kucinich-wins-primary-cimperman-far-behind/

   Posted by MATTMAN at 03/03/2008 @ 12:45pm

5. Posted by PHNORD 03/03/2008 @ 12:37pm

   How about him working on those NATIONAL issues and seeking NATIONAL office...more than the concerns of his constituents back in the 10th of Ohio?

   Posted by Mask at 03/03/2008 @ 12:48pm

6. I'm sorry, but I just can't believe that Cimperman's well financed challenge and the Plain Dealer's position have nothing to do with Dennis's courageous stance on foreign policy.

   Posted by lnh at 03/03/2008 @ 12:49pm

7. Posted by MATTMAN 03/03/2008 @ 12:45pm

   True, didn't say he wasn't going to win. And note MR NICHOLS pointed out the problem Cimperman has as a "carpet-bagger".

   Just pointing out that Dennis has TWICE NOW run for President and TWICE gotten barely above "none of the above" polling or Lyndon LaRouche vote numbers.

   Maybe the reason he's in what trouble he is in...is due to the fact that SOME of the Clevelanders aren't happy with "Harold Stassen" or "Beloved on the Blogs, Not Much Elsewhere" as their representative???

   Posted by Mask at 03/03/2008 @ 12:50pm

8. Maybe the reason he's in what trouble he is in...is due to the fact that SOME of the Clevelanders aren't happy with "Harold Stassen" or "Beloved on the Blogs, Not Much Elsewhere" as their representative???

   Posted by MASK 03/03/2008 @ 12:50pm

   All this trouble, and yet he'll win in a landlide. Maybe that's why the paper has taken the tone with Dennis that it has...maybe it's their DUTY to clue these voters in on how they SHOULD feel about the guy!

   Posted by MATTMAN at 03/03/2008 @ 12:58pm

9. maybe it's their DUTY to clue these voters in on how they SHOULD feel about the guy!----Posted by MATTMAN 03/03/2008 @ 12:58pm

   MATT, back when Dubya was at 70% approvals...."The Nation" was doing that, weren't they?

   Posted by Mask at 03/03/2008 @ 1:19pm

10. Posted by MASK 03/03/2008 @ 12:50pm

    Yet, after his 2004 Presidential bid, he had a job approval rating of 78 percent in 2005. Maybe you should spend your time commenting on your own Representative and stop telling us what "some" people in the 10th District might think - as cover for articulating your views on Kucinich.

    And your views are basically the views of "Third Way" Democrats. So, what we really have is not only you hiding behind "some" people in Ohio but lame arguments about ego to hide your dislike of his positions. It's no different than talking about "hating America", liberals "hating themselves" or the other kinds of chickenshit name calling that passes for intelligent political discussion on this board.

    We all know you don't like Kucinich. But here's the thing - if he doesn't represent you, then perhaps you will do us the favor and kindly shut your hole about him.

    Posted by srjenkins at 03/03/2008 @ 1:27pm

11. i hear the congressmen has an earmark for a zeta-gamelon landing base for cleveland if re-elected.

    he's a shoe in.

    (just kidding dennis, give 'em hell!!!)

    Posted by frosty zoom at 03/03/2008 @ 1:30pm

12. I guess believing in UFOs doesn't help his case much either..

    Posted by ACook at 03/03/2008 @ 1:32pm

13. Posted by MASK 03/03/2008 @ 1:19pm

    I'm not from Cleveland, so I'm really not sure...but I'm willing to bet that The Cleveland Plain Dealer is not the local right-wing counterpart to the nationally syndicated magazine, The Nation. If The National Review were the publication in question, your point would have merit. But you're comparing apples and oranges to suggest that the admittedly left-wing The Nation's lack of support for Bush is the equivelant of the local Cleveland Press being staunchly anti-DK amidst his obvious popularity within that district. The point of the article is to suggest that The Plains Dealer values big business interests over the worker's rights that Kucinich fights for.

    Posted by MATTMAN at 03/03/2008 @ 1:39pm

14. I guess believing in UFOs doesn't help his case much either..

    Posted by ACOOK 03/03/2008 @ 1:32pm

    And somehow, beleiving in Jesus helps so many politicians.

    What a crazy mixed up world we live in!

    Posted by MATTMAN at 03/03/2008 @ 1:45pm

15. Posted by SRJENKINS 03/03/2008 @ 1:27pm

    If he had a 78% approval in 2005....why (Posted by MATTMAN 03/03/2008 @ 12:45pm) does he have a FIFTY-FIVE to 29% lead over Cimperman?....AMONG DEMOCRATS?

    Seems if he's at 78% approval district-wide...and is now at 55% among Democrats...that's a bit of drop, isn't it?

    Posted by Mask at 03/03/2008 @ 2:02pm

16. Posted by MATTMAN 03/03/2008 @ 1:39pm

    MATT, contradictory argument you're making--

    If the Plain Dealer ISN'T "the local right-wing counterpart to the nationally syndicated magazine, The Nation."...then it's non-ideological...and "the admittedly left-wing The Nation's lack of support for Bush is (NOT) the equivelant of the local Cleveland Press being staunchly anti-DK amidst his obvious popularity within that district"

    but then you say "The Plains Dealer values big business interests over the worker's rights that Kucinich fights for."?!?!?

    Which is it? Either The Dealer is "right wing" and "pro-business" (just like National Review, but locally)...or they are NOT the equivalent and it's "apples and oranges" that they go after Kucinich (even when he's popular) just like "The Nation" went after Bush, even when HE was popular.

    The Dealer is either ideological...or it's not. If ideological, then you CANNOT say there's anything wrong with them going after a politician they disagree with (if popular)...anymore than you can go after "TN" for going after Bush back in 2002ish.

    OR, they're non-ideological...and their opposition to Kucinich is based on critical analysis of his failings as a Representative?

    I figure you'd pick the first...but that undercuts your argument that somehow the CPD should NOT attack....popular politicians!

    Posted by Mask at 03/03/2008 @ 2:08pm

17. Posted by MASK 03/03/2008 @ 2:08pm

    Yeah, whatever. You voted for Bush!

    Posted by MATTMAN at 03/03/2008 @ 2:12pm

18. BTW,again to all...I am NOT saying Kucinich will lose his seat (not real sure why Mr Nichols is in such a panic over it?...after all he's still ABOVE 50% among Dems....right, SRJ?)

    But maybe there are SOME (not just the Plain Dealer editiorial staff) who are tired of the "spunky little Rep who could"...with his endless "outside the mainstream of even DEMOCRATIC politics" manuevers....from an impeachment that was DOA when Nancy said it was DOA....to the second Presidential bid that scored no better than Ron Paul and raised 1/10th Paul's money (if that)?

    But, hey, maybe they are supporting him for his huge list of co-sponsored legislation that have gone into laws?

    Anybody...got....that ...huge list???

    Posted by Mask at 03/03/2008 @ 2:14pm

19. Yeah, whatever. You voted for Bush!

    Posted by MATTMAN 03/03/2008 @ 2:12pm

    Yeah, in 2000...but I apologize for it. Seen many of the Naderites do that?

    And is "yeah, whatever" blog code for "Okay, ya got me...now for a out-of-left-field non sequiter attack"?

    Posted by Mask at 03/03/2008 @ 2:16pm

20. Mask, I see your point with how I may have contradicted myself by including that last statement about The Plains Dealer being pro-business. However, it is often the case that the status quo press in general that claims to have a non-ideological, "fair and balanced" (for example) take on the news, but more often than not favors big business. But fuck it. Any paper is free to endorse any candidate they want. And while it appears evident that Kucinich's popularity has somewhat slipped in recent years within his district, as you demonstrated, the article suggests that the paper's problem with DK is exactly the reason he is popular among his people; because he fights for worker's rights against the business interests that support that paper! This is but one example of an already established, but growing trend in our country, where corporate interests intersect with the media and skew the public's version of truth. Do you defend such practice in general, or only when it involves the "quixotic" Dennis Kucinich, whom you don't happen to approve of?

    Posted by MATTMAN at 03/03/2008 @ 2:21pm

21. And is "yeah, whatever" blog code for "Okay, ya got me...now for a out-of-left-field non sequiter attack"?

    Posted by MASK 03/03/2008 @ 2:16pm

    Maybe...see above.

    Posted by MATTMAN at 03/03/2008 @ 2:22pm

22. I've hung on to that little peice of "non-sequiter" arsenal for precisely this type of situation!:)

    Posted by MATTMAN at 03/03/2008 @ 2:40pm

23. Posted by MASK 03/03/2008 @ 2:02pm

    Undeniably true. The problem is that you are extrapolating without context, and you are also smuggling in your agenda in the process.

    The questions I think would be interesting to ask is what kind of approval ratings are typical of individual members of Congress in general, the effect that a Presidential run has on the approval ratings of second and third tier Presidential candidates that happen to also be members of Congress, Kucinich's typical approval ratings and trending data, and so forth.

    Beyond that, I think there are factors in play in Kucinich's circumstance that can also account for the drop. Surely some of the negative might come from the fact that major players in Cleveland business have decided to make a bit of a run at him. It also seems likely that there might be long term factors that have nothing to do with his "ego". The whole UFO thing has got to be driving some people the question his judgment.

    We don't know any of these details, and it makes it really difficult to come to any kind of significant conclusion.

    I think Dennis Kucinich warrants some criticism. But, please, don't "Mask" your opinion by couching it as if it must be the opinion of "some" voters in his district, and just come clean that your opinion is based on your perspective that his ideas aren't workable. We don't need all the innuendo.

    Posted by srjenkins at 03/03/2008 @ 2:53pm

24. Maybe the folks in Cleveland are sick of their Congressman WASTING TIME on impeachment moves that go nowhere...and taking 6-8 months out for Quixotic runs for President every 4 years and getting 2% of the vote?

    Posted by MASK 03/03/2008 @ 12:19pm

    How dare he stand up for the Constitution despite ignorant derision of lemmings and cynics!

    And what nerve to throw his hat in the ring for president when his principles and record makes him eminently qualified (even though his principles and record - see above - makes his election as likely as Bush admitting any of his mistakes).

    Those poor Clevelander's - too bad they don't have someone who knows when to get with the program, kowtows to corporate interests, and doesn't get too big for his britches.

    Posted by Turk33 at 03/03/2008 @ 2:58pm

25. Posted by MATTMAN 03/03/2008 @ 2:40pm

    Feel free, live by the Archive, die by the Archive...and I don't try to cover my ass by excusing what I did in 2000...again, unlike some others for their votes in 2000.

    As for the Plain Dealer...two points-

    1. again, why is Mr Nichols in a panic, if Kucinich is up 55-29?

    2. Can somebody disagree with Kucinich WITHOUT being "in the pocket of corporate interests"? Or is Saint Dennis' approach to politics sacrosanct?

    Posted by Mask at 03/03/2008 @ 3:52pm

26. I think Dennis Kucinich warrants some criticism. But, please, don't "Mask" your opinion by couching it as if it must be the opinion of "some" voters in his district----Posted by SRJENKINS 03/03/2008 @ 2:53pm

    Wait a minute so YOU think Kucinich warrents some criticism...but if I posit that OTHERS as in "some in Cleveland" might think so too...I'm engaging in innuendo?!?!???!?

    Posted by Mask at 03/03/2008 @ 3:56pm

27. Those poor Clevelander's - too bad they don't have someone who knows when to get with the program, kowtows to corporate interests, and doesn't get too big for his britches.----Posted by TURK33 03/03/2008 @ 2:58pm |

    Well, from 78% district wide to 55% amongst primary voter Democrats...apparently some disagree.

    Posted by Mask at 03/03/2008 @ 4:00pm

28. Mattman. I suggest the Pee Dee's Kucinich rivalary has more to do with PD's sympathy with those who'd sell out Muny Light and screw the general public. Same goes for Kucinich's penchant to take on insurance companies. No way to score points with advertisers.

    Posted by cyclezealot at 03/03/2008 @ 4:30pm

29. Mask . Rush Lumbugh is encouraging Republicans to vote in the Democratic primary to oust Dennis Kucinich. Tommorrow is to be a lousy weather day . Republicans usually turn out if they have to wear ice skates. Clear Channel interferance al la Limbugh might bright about a foul play. We will hope not.

    Posted by cyclezealot at 03/03/2008 @ 4:35pm

30. Posted by CYCLEZEALOT 03/03/2008 @ 4:35pm

    Building in some CYA, if Dennis loses? Come on! LIMBAUGH?!?!?

    First, love to hear his exact quote (i.e. transcript)...curious as to why El Oxy'cotin is pulling for a defeat of a guy he uses as a punching bag for "nutty liberals"?!?!? Maybe vote for Hillary, to crush the Obama mo' and keep the Dems fighting to the Convention....but to bother with Dennis?!?!?

    Second, everybody has already cited the numbers...DK polls 55-29% over Cimperman. Don't think so.

    Posted by Mask at 03/03/2008 @ 4:43pm

31. Posted by MASK 03/03/2008 @ 3:56pm

    Wait a minute so YOU think Kucinich warrents some criticism...but if I posit that OTHERS as in "some in Cleveland" might think so too...I'm engaging in innuendo?!?!???!?

    The difference, Mask, is that I am saying what *I* think. You are pretending that what *YOU* think is an opinion of "some" in Cleveland. Projecting your opinions on "some" others while making accusations about Kucinich's alleged egoism pretty much defines innuendo.

    innuendo: an oblique allusion : hint, insinuation; especially : a veiled or equivocal reflection on character or reputation b: the use of such allusions

    Posted by srjenkins at 03/03/2008 @ 5:23pm

32. Kucinich attended more votes than any presidential candidate from Congress during his run this year. He has one of the highest and most progressive voting records in congress.

    Posted by dustinchicago at 03/03/2008 @ 5:40pm

33. Don't read what Mask writes. Add him to your Ignore list. Trust me.

    Posted by dustinchicago at 03/03/2008 @ 5:42pm

34. Of the few people I've met from Cleveland, most, if not all, didn't like Kucinich, but they couldn't really say why. It wasn't policy, it was style- and it was the style dictated to them by the local press.

    Posted by dustinchicago at 03/03/2008 @ 5:43pm

35. The difference, Mask, is that I am saying what *I* think. You are pretending that what *YOU* think is an opinion of "some" in Cleveland. Projecting your opinions on "some" others while making accusations about Kucinich's alleged egoism pretty much defines innuendo.

    innuendo: an oblique allusion : hint, insinuation; especially : a veiled or equivocal reflection on character or reputation b: the use of such allusions

    Posted by SRJENKINS 03/03/2008 @ 5:23pm

    DIND, DING, DING, DING, DING, DING.......

    "Jackpot to the gentleman over here!"

    Story time: My honeymoon had to be changed very late, and we ended up booking a Vegas Honeymoon Suite in Caesars Palace! Quite fittingly, I hit a jackpot on the slots--still the most I've ever won--$600 (1981) dollars.......there I was, jumping up and down......ahhhh, what a thrill it was!

    Posted by Happy at 03/03/2008 @ 5:43pm

36. I voted for him, because he is a real progressive with principles. He walks the walk, besides talking the talk. You would not see a secret message to the Canadian government telling them not to pay attention to any talk of changing NAFTA coming from him. I would think the voters in Ohio would know what they had in Kucinich as a Congressman, and would ignore the newspaper. But , I did send him a few dollars, and a few more dollars from other people might help.

    Posted by P. J. Casey at 03/03/2008 @ 6:21pm

37. Of the few people I've met from Cleveland, most, if not all, didn't like Kucinich, but they couldn't really say why. It wasn't policy, it was style- and it was the style dictated to them by the local press.----Posted by DUSTINCHICAGO 03/03/2008 @ 5:43pm

    You are pretending that what *YOU* think is an opinion of "some" in Cleveland. Projecting your opinions on "some" others while making accusations about Kucinich's alleged egoism pretty much defines innuendo----Posted by SRJENKINS 03/03/2008 @ 5:23pm

    So...uh....going after DUSTIN sometime soon, are we, SRJ?

    BTW, how did I "project" my opinions, by simply offering an explanation for the drop in Mr Kucinich's popularity? Again, YOU say you have criticisms of him...but I can't offer a view that maybe there are "some in Cleveland"...that SHARE your criticism?!?!??

    Posted by Mask at 03/03/2008 @ 7:17pm

38. Posted by DUSTINCHICAGO 03/03/2008 @ 5:42pm

    Almost as easy, DUSTIN...take your left index finger and put it in your left ear canal....take your right index finger and put it in your right ear canal...then repeat after me-

    "I'm not listening! I'm not listening! Nah-nah-nah-nah!"

    Posted by Mask at 03/03/2008 @ 7:18pm

39. Maybe the folks in Cleveland are sick of their Congressman WASTING TIME on impeachment moves that go nowhere...and taking 6-8 months out for Quixotic runs for President every 4 years and getting 2% of the vote?

    Posted by MASK 03/03/2008 @ 12:19pm

    BINGO!!! Among other things. Read the local editorials, letters to the editor, and blogs. Obama's message that resonates with the voters is CHANGE, but locally Dennis has been in and out of politics for the last 35 years and the change has been regressive. People are tired of his perennial promises while jobs leave and he's off securing his .8% of the vote for President.

    Cleveland is not owned by big business, but big government. His stand against selling Muny light was not a principled virtuous act to thumb his nose at the private sector, he already sold himself to the public unions. Different face, same tactics. WHat did he have to lose anyway....not many public utilities folding when they can more easily get a state or federal bailout than any corporate entity.

    It's why the 45-50 mile stretch between Cleveland and Akron are for the most part, prosperous suburbs. People will work in Cleveland proper...few want to live there.

    All this trouble, and yet he'll win in a landlide. Maybe that's why the paper has taken the tone with Dennis that it has...maybe it's their DUTY to clue these voters in on how they SHOULD feel about the guy!

    Posted by MATTMAN 03/03/2008 @ 12:58pm

    He just might get re-elected, but I doubt it will be a landslide. It's not like any Republicans would dare to run in the unionized innercity, so any change would have to be incremental. Maybe things have come full-circle for past Kucinich supporters who have been put out of work and theyre all out of scapegoats. Move Dennis 1 district over in ANY direction and he would have been ousted from the House years ago.

    Posted by Sliver at 03/03/2008 @ 7:27pm

40. Posted by MASK 03/03/2008 @ 7:17pm

    Dustin is relating what he heard people actually say then he offers his own interpretation. You, on the other hand, offer your own interpretation and put it into the mouths of other people.

    Just pointing out that Dennis has TWICE NOW run for President and TWICE gotten barely above "none of the above" polling or Lyndon LaRouche vote numbers...Maybe the reason he's in what trouble he is in...is due to the fact that SOME of the Clevelanders aren't happy with "Harold Stassen" or "Beloved on the Blogs, Not Much Elsewhere" as their representative???

    Maybe the reason he is in trouble is because he didn't anticipate a contested primary? Many alternative explanations, but you just run off and make assumptions based on your opinion - which is fine. Just don't think that when you run off the cliff in chase of a conclusion that everyone else is a lemming and has to follow you there.

    Posted by srjenkins at 03/03/2008 @ 8:14pm

41. But, hey, maybe they are supporting him for his huge list of co-sponsored legislation that have gone into laws?

    Anybody...got....that ...huge list???

    Posted by MASK 03/03/2008 @ 2:14pm

    how many representatives individually have a huge list of bills they have enabled to overcome those myriad of hurdles?

    i'm just a bill.........

    Posted by frosty zoom at 03/03/2008 @ 10:07pm

42. If I were in that district, I'd vote for Kucinich. He's basically been my favorite Democrat in Congress or virtually anywhere for years. And I agree with him on virtually every issue. Unfortunately, I can't vote for him. I live in the 5th District, where where virtually everyone votes Republican, and for pro-Bush/pro-Reagan type lock-step mindless Republicans like Bob Latta, who replaced Paul Gilmour, who died last fall. Shame, I'd like to be able to vote for a Democrat in a Congressional race that matters tomorrow.

    Posted by molotov at 03/03/2008 @ 10:39pm

43. Posted by MOLOTOV 03/03/2008 @ 10:39pm

    Dennis doesn't need your vote. "Lock-step" is what's gotten him this far. The NIMBY crowd loves him, but haven't lived in his district.

    Something tells me the lock-steppers in the 10th are putting ol' Denny under the microscope a little more these days.

    Posted by Sliver at 03/03/2008 @ 11:34pm

44. "Maybe the folks in Cleveland are sick of their Congressman WASTING TIME on impeachment moves that go nowhere...and taking 6-8 months out for Quixotic runs for President every 4 years and getting 2% of the vote?"

    Anything is possible, but I think its more likely that you are just a jerk.

    Posted by Kevin_OKeeffe at 03/04/2008 @ 09:13am

45. "Just pointing out that Dennis has TWICE NOW run for President and TWICE gotten barely above "none of the above" polling or Lyndon LaRouche vote numbers."

    That's not an accurate characterization of Kucinich's 2004 run. He scored over 615,000 primary votes in that election, coming in fourth place in terms of the popular vote, after Kerry, Edwards, and Dean. He polled higher than The Butcher of Belgrade, Gen. Wesley Clark (for whom a Hillary hack like you probably voted), and he got more than twice as many votes as Joey LIEberman. He also got more votes than Richard Gephardt, Al Sharpton, and Carol Mosley-Braun combined (not to mention six times as many votes as Lyndon Larouche). He also secured 64 convention delegates. Its true he didn't do as well in 2008, but his candidacy in 2004 was not the spectacular failure you are pretending it was. Or do only candiates who actually get the nomination have any justification for running? Because if so, what's Hillary's excuse?

    Posted by Kevin_OKeeffe at 03/04/2008 @ 09:23am

46. Posted by KEVIN_OKEEFFE 03/04/2008 @ 09:23am

    To be fair, Mask said he would vote for any Democratic nominee - including Kucinich. The rationale for Kucinich support was that Congress would moderate his more extreme, from his perspective, views. I also don't think he can be called a Clinton supporter. He regularly gives Clinton this kind of treatment as well.

    That said, I do think your question about whether "only candiates who actually get the nomination have any justification for running?" is a good one. Because if you accept that they do have justification, then it becomes harder to reject candidates like Kucinich or even third party candidates in the general election.

    I think Mask gets out of this problem by drawing the line on viable candidates. So, Clinton/Obama matters in a way that Clinton/Kucinich or Obama/Nader doesn't.

    Posted by srjenkins at 03/04/2008 @ 10:41am

47. From Wikipedia:

    Dennis Kucinich:

    '...Kucinich was elected Mayor of Cleveland in 1977 and served in that position until 1979. At thirty-one years of age, he was the youngest mayor of a major city in the United States, earning him the nickname "the boy mayor of Cleveland".Kucinich's tenure as mayor is often regarded as one of the most tumultuous in Cleveland's history. After Kucinich refused to sell Muni Light, Cleveland's publicly owned electric utility, the Cleveland mafia put out a hit on Kucinich. A hitman from Maryland planned to shoot him in the head during the Columbus Day Parade, but the plot fell apart ... In 1998 the council honored him for having the "courage and foresight" to stand up to the banks and saving the city an estimated $195 million between 1985 and 1995....In 1983, Kucinich won a special election to fill the seat of a Cleveland city councilman...1994, when he won a seat in the Ohio State Senate. "He was in political Siberia in the 1980s," said Joseph Tegreene years later. "It was only when it became clear to people that he was right... he got belated recognition for the things that he did."...In 1996, Kucinich was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, representing the 10th district of Ohio. He defeated two-term Republican incumbent Martin Hoke by three percentage points. However, he has never faced another contest nearly that close, and has since been re-elected five times....He has criticized Diebold Election Systems (now Premier Election Solutions) for promoting voting machines that fail to leave a traceable paper trail, and posted internal company memos on his website in which company executives promised to deliver the 2004 Ohio election to Bush. He was one of the thirty-one who voted in the House to not count the electoral votes from Ohio in the United States presidential election, 2004....'

    Barack Obama:

    '...Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996 from the 13th District, ... In January 2003, Obama became chairman of the Health and Human Services Committee when Democrats, after a decade in the minority, regained a majority in the Illinois Senate. He resigned from the Illinois Senate in November 2004 following his election to the U.S. Senate...'

    Posted by HonestLiberal at 03/04/2008 @ 11:13am

48. "Only after meeting and interviewing the former mayor did I come to the conclusion that what the Plain Dealer and many other Ohio media outlets saw as instability was a rare commodity in that state's stilted politics: a principled determination to stand against entrenched power, even at great political expense".

    It's time for NO MORE COMPROMISES. Politics that compromises with abusive business and warmongers is not compromise, it's complicity.

    Dennis knows where the baseline is beyond which there is nothing left to discuss, and for that he's a visionary gift of courage and incorruptible scruples.

    Anyone from Cleveland's 10th district (where, based on some of the comments to this, I never, ever want to set foot), who claims there's ANYTHING wrong with Dennis and his presidential run is just absurd, a shyster, a shill.

    The Nation should avoid any further use of the term 'Quixotic' presidential bids, except in defense of those alternative candidates and in defiance of such claims. Alternative candidates are categorically given their due until they drop out or lose. It seems the Nation supports the idea of Dennis for president, but only grudgingly, as it has before.

    Anyone from Dennis's district who complains about Dennis and his actions at the national level, is intentionally, and clearly corruptly ignoring the fact that his district has spent a billion dollars on this war, which was fought for lies, as he so brilliantly points out in his impeachment bill. It was his duty to defy the admin in it's crimes, on behalf of his constituency and the general rule of law.

    These shills clearly don't care about the schools, roads, services, all the things that the money could have bought for that district, let alone the lives lost and destroued, all for 'business nterests', NOT anything to do with 'terror' not 'national security'.

    The fact that backward, conservative, red-state rednecks from Ohio would be unable to see this means that red-staters are just daft, deranged and diseased (Read 'What's the Matter With Kansas' for a full explanation of the red-state disease).

    Dennis was doing the work of his constituency like no other congressman has during the tenure of this administration, not even our own very decent Rep. Hinchey, nor any of the other 'liberal' reps of districts around the land of the 'upper-left side', NY. And he's doing it all from within a hideous swath of red-state bible-belted believers amd right-wing corrupt greed, militaristic warmongers and graft.

    We would be only too glad to have Dennis Kucinich fight for us here, but unfortunately for us he seems to like Cleveland (and not for the Kielbasa, he's Vegan).

    I so miss seeing Dennis in the news, ever since this bogus attack pulled him out of the presidential race where his national fight for Cleveland was the fight for us all, the national political news has been devoid of any spark of light.

    Luckily these liars who attack him, shills for Cleveland business interests, will have wasted their ill-gotten gold, as Dennis will of course, win.

    The Cleveland Plain Dealer needs to be boycotted. As a business man, I call their bluff-- anyone in business who works with owners, against the basic needs and rights of workers, for their own ill-gotten gain, needs to be boycotted and shut down.

    It is a prerequisite of being in business that those who work for you get the rights and requirements which were so hard won. People who think otherwise should move to china and run sweatshops, and see exactly where we were before the exploitative industrial system in this country was reformed.

    LONG LIVE THE GREAT DENNIS KUCINICH!

    Posted by Giordano Rios at 03/04/2008 @ 7:30pm