Kucinich supporters take side trip in 'Steps for Peace'
Originally published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer
Kucinich supporters take side trip in 'Steps for Peace'
11/16/03
A weekly roundup of notes from the presidential campaign.
A cross-country walk by four of Dennis Kucinich's presidential campaign supporters has taken as many detours as the candidate's political career.
The "Steps for Peace" stroll that began in Portland, Maine, on Oct. 17 and is supposed to end in San Francisco on Feb. 29, veered south to Washington, D.C., last week for a Veterans Day event at a statue of Mahatma Gandhi on Massachusetts Avenue. The quartet will trek to Cleveland over Thanksgiving before it heads west to the Iowa caucuses in mid-January and, eventually, on to California.
"This is the moment that will change the course of history," declared 21-year-old walker-in-chief Jonathan Meier, as he kicked off the journey. Joining later were a massage therapist from Kentucky and a self-described "recovering management consultant" from Cincinnati, with his 14-year-old son.
Meier walked from Iowa to the nation's capital last winter before he caught the Kucinich bug. United Methodist News Service reported that after hearing a sermon at his church in Ames, Iowa, Meier "experienced a strong feeling that he needed to walk to Washington. He started out the next morning without any elaborate planning."
"Every day I go on, I'm more and more certain this was a calling, and God wanted me to do this," Meier told the news service.
Four play
What year is the next presidential election? Why, 2004, of course. But Dick Cheney doesn't want you to forget it. So in a new fund-raising letter, the vice president requests that you "please send your 2004 One Year Out contribution of $204, $104, or even $54 to join the Bush-Cheney '04 team today."
Get it? '04.
Cheney warns that the election "could hinge on as few as 10,000 total votes in key states across the country. The Democrats and their liberal special interest allies have been using fiery rhetoric that sharply illustrates what is at stake in this election. . . . Our choices are clear. If you believe President Bush is the right man for the challenges that America faces today, please join the Bush-Cheney team with your contribution of $204, $104, or $54 today."
Just spell my name right
In the upside-down world of presidential politics, criticism can be seen as a compliment if it helps a candidate break away from a crowded field. So it was that New York civil rights activist Al Sharpton issued a news release advertising an attack on himself by conservative commentator Pat Buchanan, who knows a thing or two about lost-cause presidential candidacies.
In his column, Buchanan denounced Sharpton for overreacting to Howard Dean's remark that he was seeking the votes of the folks who stick Confederate flag decals on their pickups. Dean, the former governor of Vermont, eventually apologized. Sharpton had urged him to do so and called the flag "America's swastika," during a political sermonette that Buchanan derided as a "patented rant." Buchanan concluded that Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are the new "moral arbiters" of the Democratic Party, deciding what is permissible to say on racial matters. Buchanan is declaring, "It's Al's Party now," Sharpton said.
In the meantime, Sharpton, who apparently views Jackson as old news, announced formation of a National Progressive Network to help him raise money and organize volunteers. "We can pick up where the Rainbow Coalition [Jackson's organization] left off a decade ago," he said.
Pledging heart, karma
Marin County, Calif., has its share of granola types, earth mothers, spiritualists and surfers, many drawn by the planets' alignment to Dennis Kucinich. And so when the Cleveland Democrat uttered these words last weekend at a "Kucinich Convergence" in East San Rafael, as reported by the Marin Independent Journal - and confirmed by Kucinich's congressional office - the aura in the room was palpable:
"We are the stuff that dreams are made of. We have the conscious power to create a new nation . . . to truly create the world all over again, into something so powerful, so transcendent that the light forever shines in the darkness and the darkness never comprehends it."
Ram Dass, the spiritual leader, told the group, "Dennis Kucinich represents my heart. It is exciting to have a politician who will represent your heart."
Kucinich rope-a-dope
Author Studs Terkel helped propel Kucinich as a household name to the progressive crowd. Now Terkel, writing in In These Times, acknowledges that Kucinich "has as much chance of being nominated as the Chicago Bears do of winning the Super Bowl. He has no money and he is not known."
A big part of the problem, he says, is the mainstream press, which Terkel links with "cravenness" and "triviality." But he also blames the Democratic Party.
"Had the Democratic Party true leadership, Kucinich would be the candidate. And, of course, if he were nominated, he would win. In a debate with Bush there would be a knockout in the first round, there would be no competition."
No gag gifts, please
Finally, Dean, taking a page from Kucinich and countless others, celebrated his birthday yesterday with - ta da! - a round of fund-raising parties. Since he turned 55, the campaign suggested the 330 parties throughout the country each try to collect $555 total from the birthday guests. In lieu of goodie bags, Dean and his mother, Andree Dean, were to speak to the parties in a teleconference.
The coming week
Dick Gephardt is in Tennessee and South Carolina tomorrow; Sharpton in South Carolina on Wednesday and Thursday, and Kucinich in New York City on Friday night for an interview and live program at Kaye Playhouse.
Stephen Koff and Sabrina Eaton of the Plain Dealer Washington Bureau contributed to this column.
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