Progressive Democratic think tank calls for House to pick Kucnich leader

[Padme Amidala]

The Patrick Henry Democratic Club, organized as a progressive think tank, has called for the House Democrats to select Dennis Kucinich as House Minority Leader.

Dennis has demonstrated that he is the kind of leader the American people can trust. He is true to his word and his principals. He has also shown that he will not back down to pressure. If America is to survive the next four years, the Democrats need a leader like Dennis in the House of Representatives.

The group's website is at patrickhenrythinktank.org

[joelogan]

1. Hear, hear!

DK is a leading voice of reason and morality in America

[montanacowboy]

2. Hear Hear

Maybe one house will get smart -
Obviously the Senate has caved

[liberalnurse]

3. Yes!

[asthmaticeog]

4. I'd love to see that,

but it'll never happen. Dems are major chickenshits right now, and selecting a far-left minority leader would be spun as "look how out-of-touch they are," so the Quisling moderate SOBs wouldn't have it.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

10. Uh, a guy from a real blue collar background who still represents a

blue collar district is "out of touch"?

How about the Senators and Congresscritters who voted for the IWR while their constituents were marching against it by the tens of thousands?

Go, DK! He is one Dem who richly deserves to be more widely known.

[asthmaticeog]

15. I'm not calling him out of touch - just saying that's how it'd be spun.

Hell, I live in Cleveland, I've adored the guy for-freakin'-ever. But that's what the spin would be, and logic very rarely penetrates that spin.

[genius]

16. He won by over a 70% victory in November. I'd call that in-touch

[asthmaticeog]

18. AGAIN, I'm not calling him out of touch.

THAT'S HOW IT WOULD BE SPUN if a far-left liberal took Minority leader, and once it's spun, it's what everyone believes, facts be damned. What percentage of Americans still belive we found WMDs in Iraq and that Saddam planned 9/11?

And by the way, he won by 58%, which is much lower than the 67% Kerry got in this county, and it's also his smallest margin of victory ever in a congressional race. His popularity is waning here, largely due to the fact that he's hardly been in town for a year and a half.

[Telly Savalas]

19. That's all the more reason he should get the job

What could be more entertaining than watching some shithead like Bill O'Reilly bitching about the latte liberal elite in Cleveland being out of touch with real American values.

[newyawker99]

31. Hi le chien jaune!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Nestea]

24. Pelosi voted against IWR too

What makes Kooch so great?

[AquarianM]

26. It's WAY past time we stood on what we believe in and stop trying to be...

...a slightly less vile form of Repugnican. Our strength is our core values.

Fair and verifiable elections.
Civil rights.
Fair trade.
Health care
Education
Clean energy policies
Making sure basic human necessities are met.

[newyawker99]

32. Hi AquarianM!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[eataTREE]

5. He may look like an elf, but...

...he's never been afraid to say what he really thought and in that, he's superior to 99% of Dems in Congress.

[pmbryant]

6. Pelosi is fine.

What has Kucinich demonstrated other than that he can pull in two or three percent in Democratic primaries?

:shrug:

Why doesn't Kucinich run for Senate or for Governor of Ohio? It's not like there's a plethora of Democrats already in those positions.

Peter

[Padme Amidala]

7. I guess voting Democrat on issues doesn't matter to Pelosi supporters

After all good leaders would cater to Bush, right?

By the way, Dennis came in 2nd, ahead of Edwards, in more than one state.

[DrGonzoLives]

23. Before or after Edwards dropped out?

Kucinich stayed until the end - think that might have anything to do with it?

[buddhamama]

33. Before Edwards dropped out.

In my state of Maine Kucinich beat Edwards.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[tkmorris]

14. Hey Craig

What's the story on that pic in your sig mate?

[MuseRider]

9. Good.

He deserves it, he will stand up for us, he will not be a Bush** supporter. He tells it like it is and does not back down. He is just what we need. Republicans respect him even if they do not agree with him. I hope they do it. Pelosi lost my respect a long time ago.

[sadiesworld]

11. ABSOLUTELY .

It is essential that progressive dem views on the environment and trade get through the media filter. Of course, this is the reason he has about a snowball's chance, but here's to hope :toast:

[GreenPartyVoter]

12. I'll sign on to that!

------------------------------------
Would Jesus love a liberal? You bet!
http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/

[DireStrike]

13. DenNIS! DenNIS! DenNIS! -nt-

[dpbrown]

17. Exactly!

Dennis has integrity.

[genius]

20. Everyone contact your rep or the nearest Dem rep and get them to back him

America needs Dennis.

[Albert Einstein]

21. Good work, PHDC. Go Dennis!

I'll start making calls tomorrow.

[Guaranteed]

22. Look, I love Dennis...he's great. A very principled man.

But I just don't see him as a leader, for some reason. Ever since he said "We need a Department of PEACE!!" during the primaries...I can't get it out of my mind. That's not the kind of reality-based thinking that's going to help our party. It's too hippie-pot-smoker sounding. It won't resonate with middle-America.

I know so many of you are going to hate me for this, and I don't like it either because I see people saying the same kind of dumb shit about Dean. But it's just the way I see him, and I'm sorry.

On edit: Man, when he said that.....I just my head and held it in my hands and said "Ohhh, Dennis"....Everytime I think of him, that's what I think of.

[ChipperbackDemocrat]

27. He is a principled man...

That's why he's a leader.

"Ever since he said "We need a Department of PEACE!!"

That is what I used to think, until a day in January at a campaign office in Manchester, New Hampshire.

I was up there freezing, doing the door-to-door thing for Kucinich..and he showed up to lend moral support. It wasn't some quick in-and-out deal. He was there for about four hours, and doing that time, I had a chance to ask him about some of his platform. I had never met the man before.

I asked him about the "Department of Peace". And being a midwestern conservative, I wanted to know what it entailed, and I was skeptical.
He took about 40 minutes and explain to myself and some other campaign workers what it was all about in detail. He stressed the foreign and domestic applications that such a department would reach. I was impressed in the in-depth, factual and structual analysis I was getting and that ran through the full range of his proposal. What really sold me on Dennis as a candidate was how he thought his positions out. I didn't agree on all of them, but I did appreciate a candidate who wasn't trying to sound-bite me to death. He appreciate getting the straight poop on what he wanted to do, and how he was going to do it.

As far as the Department of Peace goes, I found it to be a refreshing, innovation proposal. Imagine that, a President not grabbing his rhetorical crotch and saying to the world, "BRING IT ON!" We've had so much trash-talk coming out of the White House since 2001, that I was beginning to think we had elected Deion Sanders.

To me, the bluster of this current administration is behavior that is "pot-smoker sounding". And many mid-Americans don't take kindly to big talk when they understand that it's all hat and no cattle.

Of all the people we have in Congress, the 5'6" gentleman from Ohio stands as a giant. This man has something that can move people, and I think the opposition in Congress needs to look at that when selecting an opposition leader.

It is time for our Party to be a tough, determined opposition again. Our nation is depending on it between now and 2006.

[Guaranteed]

29. I hear ya. As I was writing that post

I was thinking that I just need to hear about another side of Dennis...I feel kind of jaded on him because that was the one thing that stuck in my mind. And I see what you're saying about the detail- the detail is very important. It shows he has a real vision- an even rarer product of already rare principle.

Thank you for that post. That helps a lot.

[eridani]

28. On the peace thing, he's actually channelling Richard Nixon.

War is an option whose time has passed. Peace is the only option for the future. At present we occupy a treacherous no-man's-land between peace and war, a time of growing fear that our military might has expanded beyond our capacity to control it and our political differences widened beyond our ability to bridge them. . . .

Short of changing human nature, therefore, the only way to achieve a practical, livable peace in a world of competing nations is to take the profit out of war.

--RICHARD M. NIXON, "REAL PEACE" (1983)

Admittedly, politicians are usually allowed to say stuff like that only after they retire, and Dennis is unusual in saying it while still being a working politician.

[Guaranteed]

30. That is a powerful quote.

Very striking from a man like Nixon. Oddly, that says something about Nixon, too.

Seen Stone's movie?

[AquarianM]

25. Absolutely Dennis!

I couldn't agree more with that choice.

[buddhamama]

34. Yes!

Dennis Rocks! And he's just what the House/Party need right now.

[G_j]

35. Yes! and they stated the case very succinctly:

"He is true to his word and his principals. He has also shown that he will not back down to pressure."

That is exactly what is needed now!