Muslims For Kucinich

~Practice Limited to~
ELECTION , CAMPAIGN FINANCE, & POLITICAL LAW ¨ FIRST AMENDMENT ¨ INITIATIVE & REFERENDUM ¨ GOVERNMENT ETHICS ¨ OPEN MEETINGS & PUBLIC RECORDS

LAW OFFICES OF DONALD J . MCTIGUE
A T T O R N E Y A T L A W
3886 NORTH HIGH STREET ¨ COLUMBUS, OHIO 43214
TEL: (614) 263-7000¨ FAX: (614) 263-7078 ¨ mctiguelaw@rrohio.com

October 23, 2003

Dear Station Manager:

I am writing to you in my capacity as legal counsel to Kucinich for President, Inc. and Congressman Dennis Kucinich. I understand that a political ad has been produced by Dean for America, the U.S. presidential campaign of former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, that includes false statements which are damaging to the reputation of Congressman Kucinich and his campaign I must request that you not air or immediately cease and desist from airing the advertisement in question. In addition, I request that you provide Kucinich for President, Inc. air time equivalent to the time in which you have already aired the advertisement free of charge so that Congressman Kucinich may have an opportunity to correct the falsehoods contained in the advertisement.

In the advertisement, Governor Dean speaks the following words:

"A hundred and thirty thousand troops in Iraq, with no end in sight and a price tag that goes up daily and the best my opponents can do is ask questions today that they should have asked before they supported the war. I opposed the war from the start because I want a foreign policy consistent with American values and I want to reclaim our rights and our liberties that were taken away in the name of patriotism. I'm Howard Dean and I approved this message because only you have the power to restore the dignity and respect that our country deserves"

By "my opponents" Governor Dean can only be referring to the other eight contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination. According to the National Journal's Hotline, which is also the source of the above transcript, Dean's campaign claims the advertisement "sets Governor Dean apart from the Washington candidates running for president." This can only be referring to the five members of Congress who are among Dean's eight rivals for the Democratic nomination.

Congressman Kucinich, who is one of the five individuals alleged to have supported the war, in fact never did support the war. Kucinich famously spoke out against the build-up to the war in a February 2002 speech that resulted in a flood of requests that he run for president. Kucinich never once wavered in the slightest in his opposition to the build-up to the war or to the occupation. Congressman Kucinich led the effort in the U.S. House of Representatives that organized nearly two thirds of the Democratic Members to vote against the war. Congressman Kucinich voted against the war. Kucinich sued the President in an attempt to prevent him from going to war without a Congressional Declaration. Congressman Kucinich led the opposition in Congress to the occupation and to the President's recent request for another $87 billion to spend on that occupation, and has published a plan that would bring the troops home from Iraq. The claim that Congressman Kucinich supported the war is false, and the evidence that it is false is a matter of easily obtainable public record. Kucinich has made his opposition to the war the primary focus of his presidential campaign, and to allege that he supported the war is significantly damaging to his reputation.

Governor Dean, in the advertisement, strengthens his claim that his opponents supported the war by contrasting it with his own alleged opposition to the war and his own objection to the "price tag that goes up daily." But Dean did not consistently oppose the war, has not opposed the occupation, and, in fact, supported the recent request for an additional $87 billion, a measure on which three of his five Washington opponents, including Congressman Kucinich, voted 'No.' The following is an excerpt of the transcript of a nationally televised debate held on Oct. 10, 2003:

"KUCINICH: I want to comment as the only person on this stage who actually voted against the war in Iraq. I want to say that Governor Dean's answer was incomplete before, because he told CNBC two weeks ago that we have no choice about funding the $87 billion. And this morning in the New York Times, he wouldn't take a position on the $87 billion, and the governor says that he's still for keeping 70,000 troops in Iraq...

"KUCINICH TO DEAN : I want to ask him, do you believe in spending $87 billion to keep our troops in Iraq? Because I don't. Do you?

"DEAN: I get to answer the question?

"WOODRUFF: Yes.

"DEAN: I believe if the president is serious about supporting our troops in Iraq that he has to say where he's going to get the money from, and that means he's got to get rid of $87 billion worth of the tax cuts that went to Ken Lay and his friends at Enron.

"KUCINICH: Would you fund to keep the troops in Iraq?

"DEAN: Yes."

Dean's objection to the rising "price tag" attributes support of recent spending to Congressman Kucinich, who opposed it publicly beginning the night the President pr oposed it. Dean's objection contains the claim that Dean did not support the recent spending. The above transcript shows otherwise.

Dean's claim that he opposed the war from the start also does not hold up to a survey of the evidence. For example:

Ø August, 2002: Dean said he would support unilateral action if convinced Iraq had usable Weapons of Mass Destruction (Source: Slate).

Ø September 23, 2002: Dean said "Pre-emption is not off the table, but the moral high ground does matter," (Source: Iowa Cit y Press-Citizen.) The paper also reports that Dean said "he would endorse a pre-emptive strike against Iraq if it can be proven that Saddam Hussein has access to weapons of mass destruction and the means to discharge them."

Ø September 29, 2002: (Source: CBS "Face the Nation") After saying that the administration "had not yet made" its case that Saddam was an immediate threat, and that if we attack Iraq, "it's got to be gone about in a very different way," Dean also stated: "It's very simple. Here's what we ought to have done. We should have gone to the UN Security Council. We should have asked for a resolution to allow the inspectors back in with no pre-conditions. And then we should have given them a deadline, saying, 'If you don't do this, say, within 60 days, we will reserve our right as Americans to defend ourselves and we will go into Iraq.'"

Ø January 31, 2003: (Source: Los Angeles Times) reported that Dean said he would support unilateral action if convinced Iraq had usable WMDs.

Ø February, 2003: Dean said unilateral action could become "unavoidable," although, he said he would prefer U.N. intervention and was skeptical of Colin Powell's case (source: Salon).

Ø March 20, 2003: Dean told the Associated Press, "I'm not going to back off my criticism of the president's policy, but I'm certainly going to change the tone. There won't be the kind of red meat remarks that you make in front of partisan Democratic audiences."

Ø March, 2003: speaking in South Carolina, Dean declined to oppose the war, saying "it's hard to criticize the President when you've got troops in the field." (Source: The State [Columbia, S.C.]).

Ø August 12, 2003: Dean said, "I think it was a mistake to go into Iraq in the long run. Now that we're there, we're stuck there, and the administration has no plan for how to deal with it, and we cannot leave because losing the peace is not an option. We cannot leave Iraq" (Source: Buchanan & Press, MSNBC).

For all of the above reasons, I am requesting that your station not air the Dean advertisement in question that includes false statements damaging to the reputation of U.S. Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich and to his presidential campaign, and if you have begun to air such advertisement, I demand that you cease and desist immediately from continuing to do so. You may contact me at the address and telephone number on my letterhead.

Thank you.

Very truly yours,
Donald J. McTigue