Bizzare GOP talking points about Kucinich

[bluestateguy]

On the RNC webpage...

http://www.rnc.org/Newsroom/RNCResearch/Research030403.htm

Kucinich Was Forced To Wear Bulletproof Vest Due To Alleged Bounty On His Head Over Cleveland's Financial Nightmare. Cleveland's financial nightmare put Mayor Kucinich's "life in jeopardy, bringing an alleged $25,000 bounty on his head, and forcing Kucinich to wear a bulletproof vest. Eventually, seeing that the mayor was not going to be reelected, the hit was called off." (Ian Miller, "The Mayor, Muny And Murder Threats," The Hill, 6/21/00)

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This makes him unfit for office? The context of this citation is almost meant to suggest that Kucinich deserved to get death threats because of his performance as mayor.

Despicable.

[Must_B_Free]

1. He is a threat to the GOP

because he went to great lengths to uphold his oath.

Repukes can't stand an honest man who won't sell out the office entrusted to him

[veganwitch]

2. if he doesnt have a snowball's chance..

why do they devote a whole page to him???

[JohnKleeb]

3. fear I bet

[LittleDannySlowhorse]

4. They devote a whole page to him...

... because they consider him most god-fearing Amurrican's worst nightmare of an evil tax-and-spend gay-tolerating liberal, and they want to portray the democrats as a bunch of nonviable, zany kooks. I'm not saying Kucinich is a nonviable, zany kook, but to your average Klansman he certainly is.

[salin]

9. The power of his message

they don't want any of his progressive ideas to get traction. Discredit the man to discredit the ideas. Then later, if/when other candidates take up the ideas - the RNC is poised to discredit them as "Kucinich" ideas.

Dennis has some powerful messages that threaten the status quo.

[DemBones DemBones]

5. Dennis Kucinich to Studs Terkel : "But you gotta stand for something."

Anyone who hasn't read Studs Terkel's 2002 article "Kucinich Is the One" should do so.

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020506&s=terkel

Studs reflects on his 1978 interview with Kucinich, then the 32 year-old "Boy Mayor" of Cleveland.

Here's some of what Dennis told Studs in '78 (bolding added by me):

"MUNY Light has 46,000 customers in Cleveland. MUNY Light and CEI compete in most neighborhoods, street by street, house by house. MUNY Light's rates in the recent decades have been from 20 to 60 percent cheaper than CEI's, but MUNY Light's competitive advantage has depreciated over the years because of CEI's interference in MUNY's management.

From the moment Mr. Weir told me his price, I decided that a fiscal default was better than a moral default. If I had cooperated with them and sold MUNY Light to the private utility, everyone's electric rates would've automatically gone up. It would have set the stage for never-ending increases, much the same way that Fort Wayne, Indiana, is faced with that problem after relinquishing its rights to a municipal electric system.

I was hoping I was doing the right thing in holding my ground. I had to tell 'em no. I felt they were trying to sell the city down the river. They were trying to blackmail me. If I went along with the deal, they made it clear, things would be easy. Mr. Weir said he'd put together $50 million of new credit for the city. The financial problems would be solved. My term as mayor would be comfortable and the stage set for future cooperation between myself and the business community.

The media picked up the tempo. Why the heck don't you get rid of MUNY Light? I was asked on a live TV show. I replied that MUNY Light was a false issue. It wasn't losing money. Its troubles could be traced to CEI's interference. I was in office a little over a year and had inherited a mess. The city had a plan to avoid default, to which five of the six banks agreed: an income-tax increase, as well as tighter control of the management of the city's money. That's one of the reasons I got elected. I knew I was risking my whole political career. But you gotta stand for something."


Anybody else hear Bob Dylan singing "You Gotta Serve Somebody"?

It's because of who he has served -- and who he has NOT served -- that I support Dennis Kucinich.

[Nottingham]

6. Dennis Kucinich is an HONORABLE MAN!

In this day & age its a rarity! :bounce:

[Fovea]

7. Lies

and the political hacks who tell them.

That is not like the second coming of Lee Attwater, it lacks Lee's deft touch. In fact, it doesnt even have Karl's doughy touch. This is like particularly bad Limbaugh.

I think anyone who sat through the blackout will pretty much be done with it when it gets to the Fiscally Irresponsible Mayor part. I include Republicans in that assesment. Only a knuckle dragging mouth breather could love it, and they vote randomly without intending to.

[JNelson6563]

8. Didn't I see today

that Chimpy was the only speaker that had two armed guards/cops present on the stage with him? If we apply Anal-cyst boy's "logic" then surely the Simian is unfit for office too. He is the most hated man on the planet, after all.

Julie--who never ceases to marvel at the stupidity of the reich-wingers