Oh Dennis Kucinich. After years in Congress and failed 2004 and 2008 Presidential campaigns, I'm beginning to think he never really did much in Congress to begin with.
Think about it: Kucinich was always progressive and for years in Congress and his presidential campaigns stood for a lot of things progressives and even those in the Green Party believed in.
Just one problem: Like Ralph Nader, Kucinich was never very likeable. Sure, he spoke to people in an authentic way that spoke to what they believed in (no wars, getting out of Iraq, fair trade, etc.) but he suffers a lot from what even the Green Party suffers from, the lack of being inclusive.
However, being progressive myself, I know that being so is not just about liberal politics: I also believe that you need to think in reality, have good judgement and have optimistic views on how to progress the U.S. and the world in the future. Oh and above all things, you MUST read the whole evidence and story before you jump to conclusions.
Kucinich didn't do that here in the IRS investigation:
Transcript from video above:
Kucinich: You know, I am a liberal Democrat. I don't, I'm not someone who has celebrated Tea Party politics but, we cannot, this is not tolerable. We cannot have a condition in America where people's politics are the basis for IRS uh, uh, attacks.
Chris Wallace: Do you believe that the IRS statements by that mid-level manager, so far, that, and that's the only thing we've really seen that this is just a bureaucratic fowl up by a bunch of people in the tax exempt, the organizations applying for tax exempt status in Cincinnati, that didn't go up any higher?
Kucinich: The tone is set from the top, that's the problem we have to took at here, the tone that's set. We are in a hyper partisan, intensely partisan condition in Washington, that the polarization is damaging to our country and we're seeing another symptom of it.
Chris Wallace: So you think this is political targeting?
Kucinich: How is it not?
Let's educate Kucinich:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Internal Revenue Service manager, who described himself as a conservative Republican, told congressional investigators that he and a local colleague decided to give conservative groups the extra scrutiny that has prompted weeks of political controversy.
In an official interview transcript released on Sunday by Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings, the manager said he and an underling set aside "Tea Party" and "patriot" groups that had applied for tax-exempt status because the organizations appeared to pose a new precedent that could affect future IRS filings.
Cummings, top Democrat on the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee conducting the probe, told CNN's "State of the Union" program that the manager's comments provided evidence that politics was not behind IRS actions that have fueled a month-long furor in Washington.
"He is a conservative Republican working for the IRS. I think this interview and these statements go a long way toward showing that the White House was not involved in this," Cummings told CNN's "State of the Union" program.
It's debatable what a Kucinich presidency would be like today.