Dennis Kucinich to Try Second Presidential Bid
Raw Story links to an AP story that Rep. Dennis Kucinich is about to announce a second run for the presidency:
Hmmm. I was very interested in the hearings Kucinich was going to hold on the Lancet report that some 600,000 Iraqis have died by violence since the war started but a presidential bid can put those hearings in a different light. The Democrats won the 2006 House elections. That will give Kucinich a strong voice on any number of House committees that will be holding oversight hearings. A presidential run can potentially undermine Kucinich's role in those hearings (as it can undermine others as well but the others are in the Senate where Democrats have a shaky one-vote majority). Running in 2004 made particular sense for Kucinich since a presidential run gave him a voice that did not exist in the Republican-controlled Congress.
For the next two years, nothing is more important than the oversight hearings Democrats will be holding in both houses of Congress. I wish Kucinich well on his presidential bid but he's going to have to walk a fine line. I strongly suspect the congressional hearings will reveal a great deal more about where our country is and what has happened during the last six years than anything Kucinich could say. But given the nature of the times, anything can happen in the next two years. If he runs, Kucinich will join twelve other Democrats in a bid for the White House. Such a large slate is good for democracy.
Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who unsuccessfully ran for president in 2004, said Monday he is planning another bid because his party isn't pushing hard enough to end the Iraq war.
In a statement, Kucinich said he plans to formally announce his candidacy on Tuesday at Cleveland's City Hall, where he served as mayor of his hometown in the 1970s.
The liberal, anti-war Ohio congressman said he was inspired to run because he disagrees with the way some of his fellow Democrats are handling the war, including approval of a proposal to spend $160 billion more on the conflict.
Hmmm. I was very interested in the hearings Kucinich was going to hold on the Lancet report that some 600,000 Iraqis have died by violence since the war started but a presidential bid can put those hearings in a different light. The Democrats won the 2006 House elections. That will give Kucinich a strong voice on any number of House committees that will be holding oversight hearings. A presidential run can potentially undermine Kucinich's role in those hearings (as it can undermine others as well but the others are in the Senate where Democrats have a shaky one-vote majority). Running in 2004 made particular sense for Kucinich since a presidential run gave him a voice that did not exist in the Republican-controlled Congress.
For the next two years, nothing is more important than the oversight hearings Democrats will be holding in both houses of Congress. I wish Kucinich well on his presidential bid but he's going to have to walk a fine line. I strongly suspect the congressional hearings will reveal a great deal more about where our country is and what has happened during the last six years than anything Kucinich could say. But given the nature of the times, anything can happen in the next two years. If he runs, Kucinich will join twelve other Democrats in a bid for the White House. Such a large slate is good for democracy.
posted by Poechewe at 3:33 PM
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