And I don't mean me.
I'm talking about another Dennis—the often maligned Congressman from Cleveland, Dennis Kucinich.
Kucinich is one of those guys who easily becomes the butt of jokes, especially on the Right, among pundits and in the all knowing cocktail parties of Georgetown. He is a hardcore peace activist and progressive Democrat from the old school of the Party who has run for President twice. He holds strong beliefs and often finds himself to be the odd man out.
How much of a fighter he is and why he has earned my respect was on display this week when he became one of the rare Democratics in Congress since the election—a Democrat who gets off the mat and start swinging back at the incoming Republican Majority.
Kucinich is an interesting guy in our National politics. Among his supporters he is a principled fighter--a man willing to take on anybody to defend what he believes and his working class constituents. Among much of the rest on the Nation he is viewed as being ineffectual and silly—a DFH if you will. And yet this carefully crafted myth of him is a widely off the mark. I think the view of his most ardent supporters is closer to the truth.
I've met Dennis before and I've spent some time with him. He is a tough guy, a fighter who grew up in Cleveland/Ohio politics and a fellow who never stopped fighting for the working class folks of his District and his city. He is a smart guy who is serious about finding real solutions to the problems facing our Nation. And he is a guy deeply concerned about justice and rooting out corruption in government and in corporations.
I have to admit that it took meeting him in a context away from politics to see him in a way that is very much at odds with the pie-in-the-sky-silly-man meme that our 24/7 political pop culture uses as short-hand to dismiss the Congressman, his ideas, and the people he represents.
I never supported him in either of his runs for the White House and I doubt that I would support him if he ran again. But I do support him as a Congressman and a Legislator. In this role he is just hitting his stride. Perhaps Dennis will follow in the footsteps of Teddy Kennedy who became at his best as a Senator when he stopped running for President. That freed Teddy and I hope it will also free Dennis. The woods are filled with folks running for President, but what we need in Congress is a new Liberal Lion. That is a role that Dennis Kucinich is growing into.
Earlier this year he bucked the "Kill-the'Bill" crowd and voted for HCR after he had pushed to make the final Bill better and to have his views heard as the more important rule making process begins. A good Legislator knows that a Bill signed into law is just the first step. The rules crafted by the Executive Branch and the way that they implement those rules are the steps that ultimately determine the success or failure of any piece of Legislation. Once the Executive Branch gets to work, the only influence of Congress is through the budget, oversight and a good working relationships with the President and his staff. Kucinich has proven to be a good Legislator in all three and by working with the Obama Administration he has maintained his influence.
And it was in the area of oversight where Kucinich started swinging back at Republican nonsense this week.
As some may know the incoming Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee is going to be Darrel Issa, who has promised an endless stream of useless investigations designed solely to harass and obstruct the Obama Administration. In the build up to launching an investigation about anything from soup (the White House garden perhaps) to nuts (birthers anyone), Issa and his fellow wingnut drones have been pulling allegations out of their collective asses and repeating them over and over in the hopes that the mighty wingnut wulitzer will start to play the tune.
It was on this ground that Kucinich swung back this week. As a long-time member and sub-Committee Chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Kucinich knows how the battles of oversight are fought whether Democrats are in the majority or the minority. He knows that it is important that when members of that powerful Committee make broad claims—especially claims of corruption—that they have facts to back them up. The vile legacy of the McCarthy/HUAC era still haunts this Committee and partisans know that they will be in political trouble if they cross the line and use the unique powers granted this Committee to engage in witch hunts and politically driven character assassinations. All members of the Committee, especially the leadership, know that crossing that line can do real damage to themselves and their party.
This week Kucinich called out incoming Chairman Issa on doing just that—crossing the line and making partisan driven claims of corruption without a shred of fact behind the charges. Here is the letter (emphasis added):
Representative Darrell E. Issa
Ranking Member
November 10, 2010
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
B- 350A Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Ranking Member Issa:
Elections have results, and one of the results of2010 mid-term elections is that your desire to become chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will be realized. Holding the gavel of the principal investigative and oversight committee in the House of Representatives is a powerful position. You will be able to call hearings, require witnesses to testify at those hearings and demand documents from any citizen, corporation or governmental agency in the Nation. Such awesome power is a privilege held in trust for the people of the U.S. and should be accompanied by restraint, respect for law and basic fairness.
In view of such responsibilities of power, I am disappointed by recent comments you have made in which you liken the economic stimulus to "walking around money."* That term, as you may know, refers to the use by certain political campaigns of money for off-the-books, wholly unaccountable, and potentially illegal purposes. It does not begin to describe funds subject to the bimonthly scrutiny of the Government Accountability Office, which has issued no less than 10 reports on the use of stimulus funds; or the publications and websites of every Federal agency that committed stimulus funds; or the investigations and reports of the Inspectors General of those agencies; or the 50 state websites devoted to accounting for the use of stimulus funds in that state; or the various publications of the Council of State Governments; the U.S. Conference of Mayors, or the National Conference of State Legislatures.
While one may quarrel with the use to which the economic stimulus has been put, or even whether fiscal stimulus is an appropriate governmental response to the worst economic recession since the Great Depression, it is not possible to argue that the economic stimulus resembles "walking around money." There is no evidence with which I am familiar which substantiates your claim, and much which refutes it.
Therefore, I am writing to demand that you produce your evidence or retract your comment.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Dennis J. Kucinich
Chairman
Domestic Policy Subcommittee
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
*Statement by Congressman Darrell Issa, The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, November 8, 2010.
This is a shot across Issa's bow letting him know that at least one high ranking Democrat on the Committee is willing to call him out on bullshit and demand answers. The power dynamics on the COGR between the Majority and the Minority are different than on any other Committee. It matters if one side or the other slips into Blacklist Witch Hunt mode. The credibility of any work of the committee can be destroyed as Dan Burton—corruptionist Republican and a former Chairman of the Committee—destroyed the credibility of the COGR with his endless investigations of everything Clinton.
Of course, that will not stop Issa from following in Burton's footsteps, but I'm happy to see that Kucinich is already calling Darrell out on his weak ass shit. By letting Issa know that he will be called to put up or shut up, Kucinich is complicating the endless investigation plan and reminding folks that there may be a political price to pay. I'm glad that Dennis has picked this piece of ground to fight upon. He cares about corruption and has been fighting it all his life. If there is evidence of real wrong-doing in the Obama Executive branch, then I think it is quite safe to assume that Kucinich wouldn't hesitate to call it out. And that makes his attack on Issa "integrity" something to watch as it develops over the coming months.
Despite what you may have heard in the dulcet notes of the wurlitzer, Dennis Kucinich is a fighter. I for one was very glad to read his letter to Issa and I'm happy that at least one Democratic Congressman is back on his feet and taking the fight to these weasels.
It would be good to support Congressman Kucinich on this effort and ask other Democrats in Congress to challenge Issa on this point. He should be force to retract his slander and forced to explain why his planned investigations should not be dismissed as partisan witch hunts.
I plan to contact my Congressman about this on Monday and urge folks to do the same.
Cheers
dengre
[reposted from Balloon Juice]