Reply #59: Kucinich - GOLDEN SPINE RECIPIENT [View All]

[paineinthearse]

Liberals hope Dean stiffens party's spine

February 26, 2005

By Malia Rulon Associated Press

WASHINGTON — A year ago, an activist group from the Seattle area gave Howard Dean a thin, golden statue of a backbone. The Oscar-like award honored the former Democratic presidential candidate and Vermont governor for standing up against the Iraq war and other Bush administration policies. Now, as Dean settles into his new role as head of the Democratic Party, that golden spine has come to represent, for many liberal Democrats, Dean's potential to develop a tougher, take-no-prisoners attitude among the party faithful.

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"So many Democrats can't wait to get started. They want to grow our party from the ground up. And that's exactly what we're going to do," Dean said. Dean traveled Thursday to upstate New York and to Washburn University in Topeka, Kan., where he criticized President Bush for suggesting Social Security faces a big crisis. As for the president's plan to create personal investment accounts as part of Social Security, Dean said, "I don't believe the way to fix Social Security is to have Wall Street run it so that it can be invested in Enron and Tyco and MCI."

Bill Moyer, executive director of the Backbone Campaign, said he hopes Dean will continue to be a leader among liberal Democrats and that his chairmanship will mark a turning point for the party. "Dean is the link to this progressive movement," Moyer said. "The Democratic Party can either use that or squander it." The latest recipient of the golden backbone was Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio, who challenged Ohio's electoral college results from last November's election in Congress, forcing a rare debate in the House and Senate. Tubbs Jones said having a backbone, for Dean, may mean bringing liberal Democrats to the table with the rest of the party. "There are some that worry that he will move the party too far to the left, but I'm not worried about that," she said. "I think he will give definition to the party and allow Democrats to define the party instead of allowing Republicans to define us."

Another golden spine recipient, Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, said the Democratic Party's problem is that it needs to stop talking in generalities and start articulating its message: "I don't know why the Democratic Party even exists if it can't advocate for universal health care and ending the war in Iraq."

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On the Net:

Democratic National Committee: http://www.dnc.org

Backbone Campaign: http://www.backbonecampaign.org/