Did Dennis Kucinich Sell Out Anti-War Democrats?

[mstrsplinter326]

by Amy Goodman

Democratic Party delegates supporting presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich struck a deal this weekend with representatives of John Kerry over the Party's stance on the Iraq war. The deal happened this weekend at the Democratic Party Platform convention in Miami. Kucinich's delegates withdrew their proposal for a quick withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.

The critical paragraph was worked out in negotiations led by Sandy Berger, who was President Bill Clinton's national security adviser.

It pledges to remove American troops "when appropriate so that the military support needed by a sovereign Iraqi government will no longer be seen as the direct continuation of an American military presence."

Ana Dias, the chief sponsor of the pullout proposal, said Kucinich had called off his forces. Dias is a delegate from Hawaii and she told The New York Times she was "terribly disappointed" not to get a vote on the issue, but added, "We do want to be unified."

Berger characterized those he was negotiating with as "a group of people who want to win." Berger added, "We didn't give up anything."

The platform retains a sentence that the antiwar delegates originally found objectionable stating that "people of good will disagree about whether America should have gone to war in Iraq."

--snip--

AMY GOODMAN: Well, what about the charge that your delegates-- that you backed down because you didn't want to have a platform fight over what many considered a key peace plank in the platform that they wanted to get in.

REP. DENNIS KUCINICH: Well, I still consider the withdrawal from Iraq as being central not only to America's security, but to peace in the world. However, we didn't have the votes to be successful in a platform fight. You know, we barely had enough to start the discussion. I've carried this campaign in challenging the war for two and a half years. But there comes a point where we have to realize, whether we have the votes or not, to be able to prevail in insisting on our point of view, or if we're going to create a rupture that would make it impossible for a Democrat to be elected president. You know, I think what we were able to do was get some recognition from the Party, of the urgency of not maintaining a long-term commitment to Iraq, and it's a step in the right direction. It is not everything we wanted by any means. But it manages to do two things. We carried the fight as far as we could in the Platform Committee, and we're intending to participate in helping to elect a new president, and our efforts are going to continue to try to guide the United States to a more constructive policy in Iraq.

EDIT: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/14/1410234

[Jim Sagle]

1. Amy Goodman is a fake Democrat who likes to weaken the party through

excessive purification.

[Emboldened Chimp]

2. I can't stand Amy Goodman

She can blow it out her ass with her utopian bullshit. No concept of political reality. Progressives like her have an impossible vision of how the world should be, and in the process of trying to achieve utopia, they end up making things worse. Politics is compromise, Amy. Learn it.

[mstrsplinter326]

5. Would you compromise on issues like...

Clean drinking water
Abortion
The First Amendment?

Of course not, Politics is not entirely compromise, nor entirely chasing utopia, it is a mix of both that changes to fit the political scene. And, as it is now, it can be corrupted to fit a specific group of people's utopia (the wealthy).

I don't know amy goodman, nor do I care to defend her, but if you stop reaching for a utopia entirely, I'd say you don't belong in politics, because your charge as a politician is to represent other's dreams.

[Bucky]

10. I admire Amy Goodman. I disagree with her but democracy needs her kind too

She's not utopian, only idealistic. We need her voice in these times. I don't think Kucinich is selling out, only playing the game smartly (just like he did with the Edwards gambit in Iowa). She's wrong about this, but democracy would be fucked without an Amy Goodman out there keeping us ugly pragmatics at least a little bit honest.

[rosalux]

18. it is called vision

Although we sometimes have to make politically expedient decisions, we should not lose sight of our true goals. Amy Goodman is a media figure, not politics, so she is in a perfect position to keep ideals alive. She engages in the ruthless critique of everything, which is essential to building a true democracy.

[silverlib]

3. No, he didn't sell out...

He fought the good fight and has shown those that might have thought him eccentric that he is a reasonable and honorable man. Many of us knew that long ago. This will allow him to continue important conversations in the future with a Democrat in office. He would have no chance of meaningful conversations with the current pResident. He is a true unifier and not a divider. He is no Nader.

[Charlie Brown]

4. Kucinich is in a tough spot

He has to balance his peace platform with the Kerry platform to stay in good standing with the Democrats. Although it frustrates me to see liberals compromise their values, if he wanted to stay in the party's good graces, he really had no other choice.

[Warpy]

6. Kucinich hasn't sold anythiing out

He realizes that not only will we be in Iraq forever, we will in all likelihood be pursuing more wars fueled by a conscripted army if Bush is allowed another four years.

You can bet he's still going to fight tooth and nail to get the troops out of Iraq. He's not going to be able to do a damned thing unless we DUMP BUSH. That's the key to everything.

[Cha]

8. I agree! People are accusing Dean of selling out too..

but Dean always said he would support the DEm nominee and he is. The mega important thing is to oust the reich regime!

[Bucky]

7. Good for Kooch! This is the right compromise at the right time

Compromise is the highest democratic (small d) principle. If people who disagree can't find common ground, no government other than tyranny can be sustained. This "sell out" involves the honorable cutting of a deal by which US troops can gradually downsize their occupation a sovereign nation without unduly exposing that nation to a take over or bullying by Iran.

I want the troops home asap, but not so impulsively that the Iraqis end up under occupation or threat from Iran's radical ayatollahs. The last desparate justification/rationalization for this was "to free the Iraqi people." While I don't believe that fiction, we need to honor that goal in deeds at least enough to offset the widespread perception that it was just about taking their oil.

I mean, sure, it was pretty much mostly about taking their oil. But if we fail to sustain that fiction, we embolden Islamic radicals and the terrorists they support. If we maintain that fiction and truly support a sovereign Iraq, we give peace and Islamic moderates a fighting chance.

Our troops are in a country full of pissed off who hate us for killing their relatives over a greedy lie. That's why the insurgents are killing our people and our people are killing them right back. Yet if leave suddenly and all at once, chaos ensues and many many more will die. Not good. If we stay and find a path for (1) returning control of Iraq's resources to Iraq's people and (2) pulling out as Iraq regains the ability to defend itself, then fewer people die and the parties who promote gradual peace processes over radical violence get to show that moderation is a winning strategy. Maybe then we can say that our 900 and their 11,000 have not died for nothing.

By signing onto this deal Dennis shows that he's a class act and a true leader. God bless him.

[rooboy]

9. I heard her interview with Kucinich..

and all he did was the same thing Democrats want Nader to do - be pragmatic for the sake of the necessary end result.

[sandnsea]

11. Thank you Dennis

The important thing is to get somebody who will listen into the White House. We have no hope of a sane Iraq policy and bringing the troops home with Bush, and Dennis knows that. I appreciate him doing this ALOT.

[mia]

13. "...and all your supporters who attended the draft committee event."

I was there this past weekend as a guest and met many of the activists who submitted their ammendments to the committee. It was exciting to watch history being made and to become more aware of the democratic process. It's not easy to compromise your values for a greater good. I admire Kucinich and his supporters and thank them for their passionate activism and for introducing me to a new progressive movement.

[Northwind]

12. The Fundamentalist Progressives have become so amusing.

In their short-sighted lunacy.

Do they ever stop tp think what would happen if Kucinich pushed the issue and it came to a vote? He would lose, and then all of the other Dems would have proof postive that they did not need him or his supporters.

Same thing with Nader. If he stays in, and Kerry wins with more than 5% margin even with his spoiler presence, no one will ever court the vote of Nader supporters again, because it will have been proven they are not valuable.

[iamjoy]

15. Very Smart!

I think you are right, about if Kerry wins in spite of Nader, Nader is further marginalized.

Sadly, if Kerry loses with Nader in the race, the progressive cause is totally sunk, the Conservatives will (wrongly) start crowing mandate & the Democrats will (also wrongly) see this as further rejection of liberalism, thus shifting further to the right.

The country will head down a dark path of facism and it will take at least a generation to recover.

[Shakespeare]

14. Oh, take a powder, Amy.

GOD that woman irritates the shit out of me. Yeah, Dennis is a real sellout. He's sacrificed the last year of his life to pressing these issues and gave a really, really great effort to influencing the platform.

How in the HELL this woman can criticize him at this point just boggles the mind....

[Cocoa]

16. Dennis is a stealth PNACer

I knew it! :-)


edit: I believe him over Camejo, btw. Dennis is absolutely right, disparaging people is NOT his style.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Congressman Kucinich, we had Peter Camejo, the vice-presidential runningmate of Ralph Nader, Independent presidential candidate, on the line. He said, "Dennis Kucinich told me John Kerry is a fake and a fraud when we had a private meeting. He said but I'm sorry, Dennis, I'm going to go public with that because I think it's horrendous that you now think he's a terrific guy when you don't believe it." What is your response?

REP. DENNIS KUCINICH: I'm sorry to hear that my good friend Peter Camejo would want to get to that depth of-- sink to those depths. You know, I never said that. It is not my approach in life to disparage people, even those people with whom I have the strongest disagreement, such as George Bush. You know, I haven't disparaged George Bush personally during this campaign. And I certainly haven't doesn't it to John Kerry. So, I'm sorry -- I have no idea why he would say that. But it never happened.

[Zorra]

17. "And so if we don't get what we want today,

it doesn't mean that we quit and walk away. It means that we continue our efforts until we finally win."

Ces't la vie.