Antiwar Theme Plays Well to Labor Group
Builders Union Cheers Remarks by Democrats
WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential candidates pledged their support for labor rights before a builders union yesterday, but the war in Iraq cast a shadow over the session, with union members shouting down a Republican lawmaker who backed the war and cheering Democrats who promised to get the United States out of Iraq. 
“This war is a mess. We should bring the troops home now!” shouted Representative Dennis Kucinich , Democrat of Ohio, bringing the blue-collar crowd to its feet in raucous applause. Kucinich, a second-tier candidate who draws minimal support in public-opinion polls, rarely gets such an enthusiastic response at multi candidate forums.
Other candidates also won cheers and standing ovations from the Building and Construction Trades union when they attacked President Bush’s Iraq policy and committed themselves to ending the war.
By contrast, House minority leader John Boehner of Ohio, one of two Republicans who addressed the conference, was booed loudly when he spoke in favor of the war. “If we don’t fight them [in Iraq], we will be fighting them here in America,” Boehner said, before the audience shouted him down.
“I appreciate the dialogue. I do,” Boehner said, as the audience continued to express its disapproval.
The Democratic contenders — all eight of the announced candidates except former Alaska senator Mike Gravel — took turns bashing President Bush’s policies toward labor unions and each said he or she would reverse course upon reaching the White House. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson further pledged that, as president, his labor secretary would be “a union member.”
The group gave Senator Hillary Clinton , Democrat of New York, several standing ovations for her detailed and passionate comments on raising the minimum wage and protecting the rights of workers to organize. But Clinton — who has been criticized for her 2002 vote to authorize force in Iraq and subsequent refusal to apologize for it — did not mention the war, and a handful of anti war protesters greeted her when she arrived at the conference.
Former senator John Edwards , Democrat of North Carolina, had the crowd frequently on its feet as he praised the builders and condemned what he called inadequate healthcare benefits for workers. “We want to honor working people in America. We don’t just honor wealth, we honor work,” said Edwards, who has made the labor union vote a key target group of his campaign.
But Edwards drew as many cheers when he talked about the war. “America needs to be leaving Iraq,” he said.
Senator Christopher Dodd , Democrat of Connecticut, criticized the Bush administration’s labor policy, while Senator Barack Obama , Democrat of Illinois, reminded the crowd that he was against the Iraq war when it came before Congress in 2002. A state senator at the time, “I stood up and said this is a bad idea,” Obama said.
Senator Joseph Biden , Democrat of Delaware, dedicated much of his speech to the war and his plan to apportion power in Iraq to quell the political battles between competing factions. “Ladies and gentlemen, this war must end. It must end, and it must end soon,” Biden said, drawing cheers and a standing ovation.
Edward C. Sullivan , president of the builders union, said the group, an AFL-CIO affiliate, would decide who to endorse in the next few months. “This was a first impression, but it is not the last impression,” he said of the candidates who appeared.
Several GOP contenders — including former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney — were invited to speak but declined, citing scheduling conflicts, he said.
Sullivan said many in the union’s membership, which he described as about 30 to 35 percent Republican, counted Iraq as a major voting issue. “We have a lot of members with a son or daughter over there who are coming back injured, coming back without feet or legs. They need to come home,” Sullivan said.
© Copyright 2007 Boston Globe
If John Boehner appreciates the dialogue, then why does he rarely expand his discussion beyond tested GOP talking points? The phrase “we need to fight them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here” is a phrase tested and promoted by GOP pollster Frank Luntz.
Frank Luntz is a master of using language to frame issues. He helped to change the estate tax into the death tax along with changing global warming into climate change.
During the 2000 Presidential election, Frank Luntz was on MSNBC talking to a focus group who had just watched the debate between George W. Bush and Al Gore. He asked the group how many people thought George W. Bush had done better than expected. Most of the people raised their hands. He then turned to the camera and said, “there you have it, George W. Bush is the winner of this debate.” How he got from “better than expectations” to “winning the debate” shows how he uses language to spin and deceive the public.
I’m glad there were cheers for anti-war “statements” (talk is cheap) although I’d prefer action that isn’t “non-binding” (talk is cheap). But there is one labor issue appropriate to the setting and the audience which wasn’t mentioned in the article. Does anyone know if any of the aforementioned donkeys addressed the urgent need to repeal the infamous Taft-Hartley Act? If you’re unacquainted with this nasty piece of business, check this out and see why getting rid of Taft-Hartley is of such importance to working people in this country.
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0901-08.htm
Osborn and bildad,
I suggest you go to www.kucinich.us and learn about the only car-carrying union member in the Presidential “race”!
You may also learn a lot more about a man ignored by the mainstream media who has REAL” people and the saving of this country in his heart and mind…THEN TELL OTHERS!
I want my country back, and this is the only REAL candidate I believe can do it–because he has “No Strings” attached to lobbyists or big business or health care moguls.
THINK KUCINICH!!! SPEAK KUCINICH!!! SPREAD THE HOPE!!!
Brown knows the score!!
I suggest Susan Milligan actually ATTEND some other of Kucinich’s speeches, and she’ll find he gets a standing ovation MOST ALL OF THE TIME! And he only scores low in opinion polls with people who know nothing about him.
She’s just another media hack how to minimalize him. I do thank her for including the picture, though.
Kucinich isn’t going to get on his knees and beg for attention from the Corporate Media. The Corporate Media ignores him because they know President Kucinich will hold them accountable. EVIL is always frightened by GOOD.
I am thinking Kucinich and am behind him because his views are closest to mine. I just hope that when he doesn’t get the nomination at the convention he doesn’t fall in and be blindly obedient to the mainstream Dem views. I am fed up with centrist, middle of the road, patronizing rhetoric.
puccini
right now lets keep thinking about gettting the nomination - all kucinich needs is to be not howard dean
if we dont get the nomination, then vote green, or whatever, but support kucinich now for victory - otherwise its only academic. sez me at any rate
To Brown,et. al., I have to reply with a reprise of a previous post, since the issue I raised about Taft-Hartley failed to garner any interest in this discussion:
Dennis Kucinich has a lot of qualities I admire. And personally there’s nothing I would like better than having a fellow vegan as President if he would take his values to work with him. But remember that “Old Tugboat” (so called because of his strategy of dragging progressives back into the Democratic fold–presumably to be ignored, marginalized and ridiculed by the rest of the party just as he is) doesn’t stand a chance of winning the Democratic nomination. But we can be sure that just like last time, he will openly and unequivocally support WHOEVER the Democrats nominate, even if that person is his polar opposite philosophically–which shows that he cares more about party loyalty than standing up for his principles. If he would decide to quit the donkey party and join the Green Party–whose platform he has almost entirely adopted anyway–he would be appreciated and respected, and he would almost certainly win the party’s nomination. He might even get into the debates. As it is, he is a “stealth” candidate designed to tell progressives what they want to hear so that they will continue to believe the lie that there is a place for them among the Democrats. Of course that place will be standing with Old Tugboat on the sidelines, cheering on the pro-war, corporate anti-Kucinich candidate that his party will nominate in the end. Once again, he will be asking progressives to hold their noses and vote for someone who is against everything he stands for, a big-money Democrat whose main qualification will be that he or she is “better than the Republican” (barely). Democrats, please vote for him in the primary — something I cannot do since I’m not a registered Democrat anymore (I quit in disgust years ago) — but don’t forget that the day after the election, he’ll still be a member of the War Party. And so will you. The question then will be whether or not you will follow the honorable congressman in the post-primary path of lesser-evilism or not. That will be up to each of you to decide for yourself.
Dennis Kucinich is the only candidate for President who has time and again proven himself trustworthy. He has steadfastly opposed this war, is doing all he can to impeach Bush et al, and is the only candidate to propose a universal single payer health care plan for America. In the debate, he exposed the flaws in Edward’s plan (which puts the universal plan at a disadvantage competing with the insurance industry - sound familiar?)
He is also the only candidate who refused to sacrifice his principles to save his political career (back when he was the mayor of Cleveland). It’s worth noting that the media’s masters are scared to death of him and for good reason. I have never seen any other politician so totally ignored by those in power. He is unquestionably the only candidate who will refuse to put up with the military industrial complex running our country. I have to admire his stubbornness for staying with the Democratic Party. I think this party has needed a proper funeral for a long time now. But I would vote Democratic if Dennis gets the nomination.
By the way, he gets a majority of votes in the Republican parts of his district as well. Integrity cuts across party lines.
http://www.anunreasonableman.com/
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
-George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (1903)
“Maxims for Revolutionists”
We’ve heard all this before from Democrats. They want our votes. During the four years of the Carter administration they controlled the presidency and both houses. During that time there was not one major piece of legislation important to Labor that was passed.
They controlled both houses and the presidency during the first two years of Clinton’s administration. Remember him, the guy that kicked people off welfare. Remember NAFTA?
Mondale, Dukakis, Jackson, Gore, Clinton. I’ve seen my fair share of them at my Union’s International Convention. Organized Labor is to the Democrats that the Christian right is to a section of the Republican’s; footsoldiers and a source of money.
The labor officals are the biggest supporters of the Democrats, most US workers abandoned these two parties a while ago.
And it is not about individuals. It doesn’t matter if Kucinich is number two on American Idol’s most honest Ameican’s list. His party is a corporate party, a capitalist party and will not serve the interests of working people.
Spread the hope?
You’ll be pleased to know the Democrats are declining in the polls as the Republican propaganda machine rips them to pieces. Soon, if the trend continues, the Republicans will return to power again. You may not get another chance to defeat them, so we might as well get used to living in their world, made in the bloody neocon vision of unending war.
How I long for some peaceful years again.
Dennis Kucinich is the bomb. I caught him on Democracy Now! yesterday and he was laying it down. I do tend to agree with the non-Dem up here, in that he did throw his support behind Skull-and-Bones Kerry even though he was totally all about the war.
We need to create a mass movement here, gang, bring folks out in big numbers to support Dennis, Edwards and any other candidate who will truly fight for peace and labor. (Not to mention public financing) We will probably never get a President who takes on AIPAC, so it’s probably not worth fighting about, although you can if you want. I will keep fighting to repeal Taft-Hartley, to get the Employee Free Choice Act, and other important policy changes. And I know Dennis can move that conversation along.
indictments for the war criminials….wake up congress,we need a degree of sanity for all the crap that has been placed on our doorsteps.nothing else matters does it? sanity…..
lordi loprdi miss torti,kerry was in a war,bush was chopping up the cocaine and hiding,2 stolen elections,number of dead?indictments…..whats left, more lies to the tillman family,the ghost of carla fae is lurking and ready for redemption…dennis,bill richardson,john edwards—they are honest….
“You’ll be pleased to know the Democrats are declining in the polls as the Republican propaganda machine rips them to pieces.”
With no help from the self-emolating Dems, huh?
Look, if Dems want to torch themselves…fine, just don’t keep asking me to put out their fire. I’ve gone back and voted for Dems several times, only to be shit on every time.
Sorry, figure a way out yourself…or…join those of us who are thinking rationally.
Dennis Kucinich has the courage to speak the truth, and he deserves support for that. His participation in debates w/ the other Dems is significant. And, it would be a miracle for him to get the nomination.
John Edwards has grown since 2004, and every change in him is in a more progressive direction. He also could defeat any Republican candidate, and he would pay attention to working people in his decisions about Cabinet posts. I hope he’s the Democratic candidate, if the media doesn’t succeed in squeezing him out by focusing too much attention on the worst militarist Dem in the race (Hillary Clinton).
As for Green Party- I voted Green (Howie Hawkins) for US Senate after Jonathan Tasini lost to Hillary in the primary here in New York, and living in a ’safe’ ‘Blue’ state, I’d vote that way for Pres, if we have Hillary or Biden as our choice. I’d like to see progressives organize as a stronger force in the Dem party (via Progressive Democrats of America, or however we can) and help decide on a winning Dem for President, the most progressive one we can elect. Right now, that appears to be John Edwards.
Great to see Kucinich get top billing. So rare in the mainstream media. Please read is Iraq Peace Plan on his web page. It is a way out and a way forward.
!!!!!!!!!!!! EMERGENCY CALL TO ACTION !!!!!!!!!!!
I don’t think Bush has any intention of vetoing the Supplemental funding bill if it ever gets to his desk. One of the benchmarks he has to certify turns Iraq’s oil over to the major American and British oil companies is buried in this Supplemental!
Please read Richard Beham’s “George Bush’s Land Mine” just posted here on Common Dreams. Excerpt:
“The Iraqi Parliament has before it today, in fact, a bill called the hydrocarbon law, and it does call for revenue sharing among Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds. For President Bush, this is a must-have law, and it is the only “benchmark” that truly matters to his Administration.
Yes, revenue sharing is there-essentially in fine print, essentially trivial. The bill is long and complex, it has been years in the making, and its primary purpose is transformational in scope: a radical and wholesale reconstruction-virtual privatization-of the currently nationalized Iraqi oil industry.
If passed, the law will make available to Exxon/Mobil, Chevron/Texaco, BP/Amoco, and Royal Dutch/Shell about 4/5’s of the stupendous petroleum reserves in Iraq. That is the wretched goal of the Bush Administration, and in his speech setting the revenue-sharing “benchmark” Mr. Bush consciously avoided any hint of it.
The legislation pending now in Washington requires the President to certify to Congress by next October that the benchmarks have been met-specifically that the Iraqi hydrocarbon law has been passed. That’s the land mine: he will certify the American and British oil companies have access to Iraqi oil. This is not likely what Congress intended, but it is precisely what Mr. Bush has sought for the better part of six years.
It is why we went to war.”
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ACT NOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We have to contact every member in the Congress that is on the panel to reconcile the House and Senate version of the Supplemental funding bill that just passed both houses of Congress. This “benchmark” has to be stripped out of this bill before it goes to Shrub’s desk!
GO! GO! GO!!!
P.S. I’m going to go on over to Move On and see what the can do.
Thanks.
>>>
P.S. I’m going to go on over to Move On and see what the can do.
>>>>
Seems like MoveOn has become more a part of the problem than a part of the solution lately. Nominally they are a progressive anti-war organization; but they sure provided a lot of cover for the ‘leadership’ of the Congressional Democratic Party to play partisan tactical games designed only to get themselves re-elected in ‘08.
It seems that their own re-election is the over-riding concern of these people, and they’re willing to sacrifice American troops and Iraqi civilians by giving George Bush more time and more billions of dollars…just so they can maneuver for a Dem Party advantage in ‘08.
Electing more Democrats is NOT the answer if those we elect are going to behave like so many of those we already have in Congress. Who the hell needs more Hillary Clintons and John Kerrys and Joe Liebermans if they’re going to continue voting for things like NAFTA, the Patriot Act, Bankruptcy ‘Reform’, and some Rube Goldberg ‘Universal Healthcare’ scheme that just guarantees more profits for the insurance industry. They’ll keep disguising themselves as populists and progressives; but they know who really owns them, and they’ll vote accordingly.
Like so many posting here, I’d be happy (overjoyed in fact!) to work for a Kucinich candidacy…and there are about 100 other progressive Democrats I’d love to see re-elected to Congress; but I’ll be damned if I’d vote for Hillary or some Hillary clone.
We’ve had more than enough ‘lesser evils’…including the canonized Bill Clinton whose policies hurt the Democratic Party (AND organized labor!!) more than they ever helped. What’s the point of having ‘elections’ if we are forever being offered only ‘a choice between two evils’?
I’m hoping for a groundswell of grassroots support for Dennis Kucinich….we certainly can’t expect the mainstream media to inform the public about his candidacy [QED]. I think a majority of Americans support the policies Kucinich is advocating…and I think a majority of Democrats (at least those of us outside the Beltway) are sick and tired of watching the erstwhile “Party of The People” (under the lousy leadership of its corporate-financed, corporate-controlled, Republican-Lite wing) morph into a pale shadow of what it once was. We have to win this party back…or start building a new party that will represent US.
What entitles Susan Milligan to categorize Dennis Kucinich as “second-tier candidate who draws minimal support in public opinion polls”, when the honorable Senator was the only candidate who spoke for the people during the 2004 campaign that the war was wrong and that if he were elected he would get the troups home immediately and let the United Nations go in for security and that the US will pay for reparations. Why didn’t the mainstream media and the Boston Globe heed Denis’s vision then ? We could have saved this country a bundle from the current Iraq quagmire, from the loss of life and and our wealth. Mr. Kucinich was the only candidate that spoke out for single payer Medicare, free education through college for all, against NAFTA and WTO, and the creation of a department for peace. This country needs all these programs if we are to live in a civilized world of peace and justice. Is the minimum support for Dennis from the public or the editors of the Globe ?
Kucinich has been the right person for the Presidency since at least 2004. He was always against the war, against the Patriot Act, for Universal Healthcare (without raising taxes) and against NAFTA and the WTO.
He’s had it all right all along. He’s a dynamite speaker, but the media won’t cover him. And do not forget the Dept. of Peace, at www.DOPcampaign.org.
And lucky me, I shall see Kucinch speak once again on Monday. This man has a presence I will never forget.
A trillion dollars would pay for a lot of health care for Americans. Too bad it’s been used to kill and maim (Iraqis and Americans) instead. Talk about immoral!
Kucinich is the man. He’s the only real straight talker out there. I’ll vote for him in a heartbeat, if only he can gain the nomination. Let’s all contribute to his campaign now, today, and let’s all write a letter to an editor today in support of Dennis.
The Corporate Media has done progressives no favors, ever. They minimize Kucinich’s chances the same way they minimize the number of protesters at peace demos in DC, and for the same reasons.
Remember how we fell for it in the last two presidential elections? Remember how we let them tell us who, out of all the candidates running, was ‘electable’? (Not to say that Gore and Kerry weren’t elected… but that’s a different rant)
This year, the Corporate Media has anointed Hillary and Obama as the candidates between which we are allowed to choose (with Johnny E cast as the HDean dark horse). Will we let them fool us AGAIN?
I say, in this primary season, let’s tell THEM which candidate best represents our ideals and our hopes for America. We all know that’s Kucinich. The only quibbles with him are that he isn’t pretty enough for prime time, and isn’t bankrolled for war with the corporate-funded puppets.
If that disqualifies him as a candidate, we’ve got to drastically change our description of the political system. ‘Democracy’ is too precious a word to use for a system of corporate ownership of public functions. Mussolini had a more accurate word for it.
Let’s pile on any pundit arrogant enough to tell us we’ll waste our vote in the primaries by using it to support Kucinich’s platform. We can send a loud message, in the primaries, to the powers that be. The system may be stacked against a non-corporate candidate, but ALL Americans long for an honest voice to cry out in this fascist wilderness.
Progressives online can be Dennis Kucinich’s loudspeakers, and get that voice heard where the Corporate Media controls every microphone.
Hasta la victoria,
Peach McD in Durham NC
Finally, Dennis Kucinich got the recognition he has earned and so well deserves. He’s the only Democrat running for President who speaks the truth about ALL the critical issues responsible for our nations rapid decline, and the only one who has any REAL solutions to the problems that confront us as individuals and as a country.
How many of you out there have taken the time to discuss Kucinich’s campaign with your friends? Have you given them his website address and urged them find out what he is all about? It is “We The People” who must be the voice for the statesmen who can and will turn this country in the right direction.
The corporate-controlled Mass Media is not going to promote a candidate they can’t manipulate. So, please, for the sake of our country, take a little time to get Kucinich’s clear and rational voice heard. Every person we reach could be another vote for him. We cannot rely on the Mass Media to get this man elected!
Kucinich is the only democrat I would vote for. He’s his own man and not owned by the Oligarcy. For that reason if he starts to get any traction look for the media bum rush.
The powered want us to vote for Hilary or someonelse in thier back pocket.
Another thing is we have sank so low as not even to get fair elections anymore. We have let the dark ones get to much power [eg.] the media, the courts, congress, presidency, religious wacko-right{who should not have tax exempt status] intelligence agencies that act like terrorist. What is left for us?
No matter what it will be an uphill battle.
The only thing we have left is the internet and you know thier working overtime trying to subvert and control it.
Gail: I like your ideas! And I think there is another way to bring Kucinich into the public arena a viable candidate that can win in ‘08.
If we could convince Kucinich that he has massive support for reintroducing Articles of Impeachment, he would not be left twisting in the wind again. There is a lot activity out there whipping up support for impeachment. We the people have got to get organizations like Common Cause, MoveOn, Act For Change, and the Progressive States Network to initiate and coordinate campaigns that would support Kucinich and the introduction of Artcles of Impeachment in the House. Many of these outfits have already got Impeachment petitions and actions going. They need to ALL direct those actions as support for Kucinich. With enough support, the major media could not ignore Kucinich anymore. With enough support, Kucinich could rise to the level of an “electable” presidential candidate.
In the meantime, I’m going to write Kucinich and let him know how much I support impeachment, and how I would encourage him to run as an independent if the Democrats can’t come up with a decent candidate for prez.
SUPPORT KUCINICH!! IMPEACH NOW!!!
P.S. to Willo
We have a LOT we can do! And it’s already happening all over America. The only way to make lasting change FOR the restoration of our democracy is to make sure that genuine election and campaign finance reform happens NOW. Make YOUR vote count! Some of the web sites where you can be part of the actions that are already in motion are at commoncause.org, fairvote.org, nationalpopularvote.com, and at the Progressive States Network. In addition, support the “Fair Elections Act Now” introduced by Senators Durbin and Spector. Your State and Federal representatives are standing by for you message. Fasten your seat belts! We are ready for take off!
Raise Hell!! And make it LOUD!! LOUDER!!!!
Dennis Kucinich has too many serious handicaps in the vain and superficial culture of America…he’s short, has a funny looking face with two beedy cockroach eyes, and he talks with a squeeky voice.
In modern American politics, what you look like is far more important than what you believe in.
Fleeto - Your statement might have been true a year ago, but is no longer supported by the voting public. Given the mess we have now, the American people would elect a polar bear to become president if it meant that we NEVER, EVER have a president in the mold of Bush! We are made as hell and we will never make this mistake again! Stop insulting our intellegence!
FleetoCanada–Speaking of beady eyes, funny-looking, weird voice, etc. look who’s
president right now !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rebel, read your history. Bush isn’t the first idiotic President to be elected by the masses. How about Mr. Andrew Jackson…the war hero of New Orleans who graces the 20 dollar bill…”Indian Killer” extraordinaire (Cherokee Trail of Tears, etc.) who closed the federal banks and nearly destroyed the US economy.
Then there’s James K. Polk…invaded Mexico in a giagantic land grab. The problem is that Bush is not all that out of keeping with many of the people who have served as the Chief Executive of the United States.
Rebel Farmer March 31st, 2007 2:14 pm
“If we could convince Kucinich that he has massive support for reintroducing Articles of Impeachment, he would not be left twisting in the wind again. There is a lot activity out there whipping up support for impeachment.”
Rebel - This is from Kucinich’s website:
Congressman Kucinich was asked about impeachment Wednesday (3/28/07)in a live interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! Kucinich continued,
“I think that impeachment has to be on the table, and I also think that it’s time to have a national conversation in cities, in towns all over America, about the appropriate conduct for a President and a Vice President, about whether it’s right for a President and Vice President to lie to the American people and take us into war. About the erosion of civil rights in America and how that’s come about as a result of this administration’s conduct of the war.”
You can read the entire interview at: http://kucinich.us/
He is asking citizens to voice their opinions about impeachment. If you haven’t already taken the opportunity to do so, it’s not to late. http://kucinich.us/node/3696 and click on to “add new comment”.