The Independent: Interview with Elizabeth Kucinch

[illinoisprogressive]

She's an idealistic young Englishwoman. He's an American politician more than twice her age, making his second run for the presidency and his third run at marital bliss. She's six feet tall with long, flowing, red hair. He's short, with looks unprepossessing enough to earn him comparisons to one of the hobbits from The Lord of the Rings.

Nothing, in other words, about the union of Elizabeth Harper, now Kucinich, and her husband Dennis Kucinich fits the usual clichéd categories of a Mills and Boon romance. Except there it is. The seasoned, ultra-liberal congressman from Cleveland, Ohio, and the fresh-faced VSO veteran fell in love almost instantly when they met a little over two years ago, and they have been inseparable ever since.

Mr Kucinich's die-hard – but, unfortunately for him, not very numerous – band of supporters would love to think that Elizabeth's presence on the campaign trail will give him just the shot in the arm he needs to garner support for his opposition to the Iraq war, his calls for gun control and an end to the death penalty, his demands for the impeachment of the Vice President, Dick Cheney, and his dream of replacing the Pentagon with a Department of Peace.

The brutal reality of modern American political life, though, is that Elizabeth Kucinich is getting plenty of attention for her looks, her British citizenship, and the fact that she towers over her husband, but almost none for the issues that are firing both of them as they tour college campuses and attend Democratic candidates' debates in the run-up to the primary season starting in January.

"It's important not to trivialise a woman who has worked on international humanitarian matters, helping people in Africa to get access to energy and education and housing," Mr Kucinich pleaded to a breakfast television interviewer during a joint appearance earlier this month. "I hope you are going to talk about more than her tongue stud."

But her tongue stud was exactly the thing that the interviewer wanted to focus on. Would Elizabeth take it out, she asked, if she became First Lady? "It's been there 10 years, it's part of me now," Mrs Kucinich replied with as much grace as she could muster. Could she give the audience a peek, came the follow-up question. "No I can't," she answered flatly.

for the rest:

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article3174387.ece

[Gregorian]

1. Great article. But since when is common sense considered ultra-liberal.

I admit that reading this has me thinking about Dennis Kucinich in a new light. He's my ideal. He's what I hope we can be. He certainly is not ultra-liberal. It's just that America has veered seriously into idiocy and conservatism. I think he's going to see quick sand and bogs on his way to the White House. And I'll admit that I'm skeptical of his somewhat non mainstream interests. I've heard people talking about their discomfort with his relationship with Shirley McClaine. But what could possibly be more disturbing than the willingness to kill people in a voluntary war? And that's just what we've had for nearly thirty years. Between sanctions and illegal invasions, we need a rest. Kucinich would be just that.