Kucinich, Racism and Revisionism

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

“Kucinich is making inroads, if his reception at a jam-packed Nov. 25 house party in rural Acworth was any indication. After hearing Kucinich hold forth for nearly an hour on topics like his opposition to unfair trade deals, his proposed Cabinet-level Department of Peace, and his interest in having Texas GOP Rep. Ron Paul as a running mate, Bob Sandoe of Etna was a believer.”

Racism and revisionism go hand in hand. Sam Webb refused to initiate struggle against the racist decision made by the United States Supreme Court against school integration while at the same time supporting Dennis Kucinich as he attacks Cynthia McKinney’s campaign for president.

Webb and the PWW remain silent about Kucinich’s suggestion he will ask the anti-Semitic, racist, free-enterpriser, John Bircher Ron Paul to be his running mate even as Webb talks about defeating the “ultra-right.”

Is there any wonder there is so much confusion and disorientation in the working class movement when the head of the CPUSA provides such pathetic “leadership.”

One of the primary responsibilities of a Communist Party leader is supposed to be to articulate the position of bringing people together towards the objective of creating the united all-peoples anti-monopoly front.

How can such perverted, racist, revisionist thinking as that being espoused by Webb and company possibly push the peoples movements towards this objective when racism and anti-communism are the main ingredients of division?

In embracing Kucinich wholeheartedly, as Sam Webb has done on numerous occasions including in his reports to the National Committee, Webb is sowing divisions and confusion among working people and in the progressive movement when the goals and objectives of our Party have always been to foster the greatest possible unity, which includes unity against anti-Semitism and racism as its core principle.

Webb must be removed as Chair of the Communist Party USA. Sam Webb is a revisionist, anti-Semite and a racist.

Webb’s silence on this issue of a Kucinich-Ron Paul ticket from the mouth of Kucinich says it all.

Webb’s support for Kucinich brings shame to our Party; a Party, which until now, has had a proud and unblemished record in the struggle against racism and anti-Semitism.

It is not coincidental that David Bednarczuk--- a big Webb booster on the Iron Range among his small following of drunks and pot-heads--- who is overseeing the destruction of Mesaba Co-op Park like Webb has overseen the attempts to liquidate the Communist Party USA, has also been promoting Kucinich.

Webb, Bednarczuk, and Kucinich are like peas in a pod... none of them have any principles.

I find it quite amazing that Sam Webb would consider Ford's intent to close the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant a "done deal" and actively work to destroy the developing peoples' movement to save 2,000 union jobs through public ownership while he supports and campaigns for a loser like Dennis Kucinich.

Talk about your "done deal." Webb is supporting a loser who can't even make it out of the starting gate.

Webb and his buddy Kucinich might have been better off supporting public ownership of the Ford Plant in Cleveland, Ohio slated to close as a way to get working class votes rather than making this pathetic appeal for votes by pandering to a bunch of bigots.

Webb must go.

Sam Webb can continue calling me "that bitch from Duluth,"

Rita

Link to story

http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/stories/index.ssf?/base/ispol/119660230730170.xml&coll=2&thispage=1Dennis Kucinich hoping for upset in New Hampshire primary

“Kucinich is making inroads, if his reception at a jam-packed Nov. 25 house party in rural Acworth was any indication. After hearing Kucinich hold forth for nearly an hour on topics like his opposition to unfair trade deals, his proposed Cabinet-level Department of Peace, and his interest in having Texas GOP Rep. Ron Paul as a running mate, Bob Sandoe of Etna was a believer.”

Sunday, December 02, 2007

Sabrina Eaton

Plain Dealer Bureau

Keene, N.H. -- "Moose Crossing" warnings still outnumber political signs along the snow-dusted byways of New Hampshire, home of the nation's first presidential primary and the place where underdog Democratic candidate Dennis Kucinich has pinned his presidential hopes.

Although Kucinich trails his party's front-runners in campaign money and polls, the Cleveland congressman says he hopes to pull off an upset in New Hampshire's Jan. 8 primary through the kind of hard work and grass-roots networking he has employed in Northeast Ohio for decades.

With that in mind, he recently wrapped up a 10-day campaign trip to rustic New Hampshire.

There, he spent 16-hour days shaking hands and delivering speeches in whitewashed town halls, cozy living rooms, local eateries and country club ballrooms.

"New Hampshire seems to be ready for a real change," Kucinich said between a book signing and town hall meeting last weekend in Keene, a picturesque college town that calls itself the "Currier and Ives" corner of New Hampshire.

"Every town hall meeting has been a solid turnout. What it tells me is that this election is not over. People are listening carefully to what I have to say, and when they hear what I have to say, they seem to like it."

The New Hampshire primary, coming right after the Iowa caucuses, makes and breaks presidential candidates. Long shots who triumph can become contenders for their party's nomination. A strong showing in New Hampshire helped propel former President Bill Clinton to the White House.

Coos County Democratic Party Chairman Paul Robitaille predicted Kucinich's long swing through New Hampshire could boost his fortunes. Although he personally backs John Edwards, Robitaille met Kucinich over breakfast last Saturday at Tea Birds Café in Berlin, a city in the White Mountains that has been devastated by closure of several local paper mills.

"Anything can happen in New Hampshire," Robitaille said.

"The state likes a maverick. They like someone who speaks the truth."

"Seventy-five percent of voters haven't made up their minds, and meeting candidates in the flesh like this helps them to focus," agreed North Grafton Democratic Committee Chairwoman Katherine Terrie, who attended a Kucinich town hall meeting at a senior citizens center in the mountain resort town of Littleton, where the candidate declared New Hampshire voters could "save this country" by picking him in their primary.

University of New Hampshire political scientist Dante Scala was more skeptical of Kucinich's chances. He described the congressman as "too far left" to be elected and said he doubts Kucinich will place in New Hampshire's top five.

Dennis Kucinich hoping for upset in New Hampshire primary

Kucinich and his backers, including his wife, Elizabeth, a striking redhead who accompanies him to many appearances and often answers questions from voters, disagree with that assessment. They describe his positions as "mainstream" and are eagerly pushing forward. Kucinich says his pleas to end the Iraq war, establish a nonprofit health care system and impeach President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney play particularly well in the state.

"I'm the one person who cannot be bought, cannot be bossed, cannot be controlled," he often told voters in New Hampshire, leaning forward on the balls of his feet. "I'm ready to give you your country back."

Viability of bid drawn into question

With a volunteer driver ferrying him to each stop in a silver Dodge SUV, Kucinich certainly packed in the crowds. His town hall meeting last Sunday at Keene's Unitarian Universalist Church attracted about 200 people - as big a crowd as an event that GOP candidate Mitt Romney held earlier that evening. The area's politics junkies treated both events as a doubleheader that they topped off by watching the New England Patriots beat the Philadelphia Eagles on TV.

Crowds applauded and cheered Kucinich's words, partic ularly when he discussed the Iraq war, health care, impeachment and the need to reduce corporate sway over America. Yet at nearly every stop, voters said they liked Kucinich's message but might support someone else because they questioned his ability to win.

They cited Kucinich's low standing in current polls, his lack of campaign cash, and the superior resources of other Democrats as reasons. By the end of September, Hillary Clinton's campaign had collected $89 million and Barack Obama had collected $79.4 million, while Kucinich had $2.1 million.

"I am concerned that if I support your candidacy, that the nominee who is most close to the corporate interests on the Democratic side will win the Democratic nomination," David Jonas of Francestown told Kucinich at a Nov. 24 house party. "I am very concerned about that and am in clined to support my second choice [Barack Obama] because of the viability of your candidacy."

Kucinich and his wife, whom Kucinich said would act as an ambassador to world trouble- spots if he becomes president, made their case to Jonas by citing a USA Today/Gallup poll in mid-November that showed him in fourth place nationally among Democrats. They noted his campaign was outspent exponentially by the candidates who placed behind him.

Kucinich's support level in that poll was 4 percent, and the margin of error was 5 percent.

Clinton had 48 percent, followed by Obama with 21 percent and Edwards with 12 percent.

Dennis Kucinich hoping for upset in New Hampshire primary

The pair also cited Kucinich's strength in online "noncorporate" polls, like a "Presidential Pulse Poll" conducted by the liberal group Democracy for America.

Kucinich finished first in that tally, with 49,000 out of the 150,000 votes cast, after his campaign sent repeated e-mails that urged his supporters to vote. Kucinich did not secure the 66 percent majority needed to clinch the group's presidential endorsement.

"If people get behind their choices, and if people get behind their hearts and line up with their intentions and get their friends to do so, everything changes," the candidate told Jonas. "If you believe that what I've had to say tonight is what you really want, is the real direction you want America to take, if this is what you want, then go for it."

After hearing out Kucinich, the bearded Jonas said he was skeptical but might still back the congressman as a "moral statement" rather than a strategic one. He said he admired Kucinich for "speaking up against the criminal acts" of the Bush administration, but was worried by Kucinich's lack of campaign money and inability to place campaign ads.

"Obama has a very good organization, Hillary has a good organization, they have huge advertising dollars," Jonas fretted. "They are in your face every evening when you turn on the television. And I read a lot. I've known about Dennis for years. But he is an asterisk, in many respects, in the campaign. The last debate in Nevada is an example. He was fighting for airspace and not being called upon."

Some triumphs in little meetings

Kucinich won over others at the party. Ron Lucas of nearby Greenfield shouted "Amen" at several points in Kucinich's speech, and afterward signed up as a campaign volunteer.

He said the congressman "hit the nail on the head on every issue - impeachment, corporate cartels, everything."

"Democracy means you vote for what you stand for and you vote for someone who stands for your principles," he said.

The next afternoon, after signing several dozen copies of his new autobiography, "The Courage to Survive," at a bookstore in Keene, Kucinich pointed out that he has a long history of winning Cleveland-area elections on a shoestring. He observed in an interview that Democratic Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter was able to defeat GOP incumbent Jeb Bradley in the state last year through low-budget grass- roots campaigning.

"What we're hoping to do with this effort in New Hampshire is to demonstrate the capability and viability of a grass-roots effort," Kucinich said, looking very much the author in a black corduroy jacket and tie that featured Democratic Party donkeys. "If we can have a strong showing here, this will spread all over the country. Of course, that's what we're hoping for. What I see that is really encouraging is these turnouts at these town hall meetings. It is very encouraging. And if you look at our schedule, we are going morning and night, morning and night, every single day."

Kucinich is making inroads, if his reception at a jam-packed Nov. 25 house party in rural Acworth was any indication.

After hearing Kucinich hold forth for nearly an hour on topics like his opposition to unfair trade deals, his proposed Cabinet-level Department of Peace, and his interest in having Texas GOP Rep. Ron Paul as a running mate, Bob Sandoe of Etna was a believer.

"So many people that I've talked to have said they think you would make a terrific president, but you can't be elected," Sandoe told Kucinich as the gathering concluded. "And I want to say: Of course you can be elected. All it takes is a roomful of people like this, over and over again."