Presidential Timber

Richard Cohen, a reliably liberal commentator in the Washington Post, recognizes that some Democrats running for President shouldn't be. This particular Presidential splinter is Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), who appears to be running, not for President, but for Demagogue-in-Chief.

Mr. Cohen's take of Kucinich is that he is a fool for his unprincipled and unsupported stance against war with Saddam Hussein. Today's op-ed by Cohen relates a dust-up between the Dark Prince of the Neocons, Richard Perle, and the loser from Ohio. It was really a no-contest, and perhaps should have been banned out of mercy to Kucinich, who came into this battle of wits unarmed.

Kucinich, and a certain socialist-dreamer class who think as he does, believes that the looming war with Iraq is solely about oil. When Mr. Perle challenged this silly assertion and the illogic that informs it, Kucinich had this to say:

"I base that on the fact that there is $5 trillion worth of oil above and in the ground in Iraq, that individuals involved in the administration have been involved in the oil industry, that the oil industry would certainly benefit from having the administration control Iraq, and that the fact is that, since no other case has been made to go to war against Iraq, . . . oil represents the strongest incentive."
Shooting tuna fish in a barrel, Mr. Cohen demolishes this stupidity with ease. Right. "No other case has been made to go to war..." Development and use of WMD, for starters. Invading two neighboring countries. Threats (which the tyrant Saddam Hussein will carry out) to kill Americans. And so on, and so on...

The point is not just to illustrate the stupidity of Kucinich, with his support for the infantile slogan, "no blood for oil." It is show to what depths the party of FDR, Harry Truman, and Lyndon Johnson has gone in its now-futile quest to lead the nation. Having abandoned a strong national defense, which, believe it or not boys and girls, used to be one of the things that distinguished Democrats from Republicans, they are left with this cast of never-weres:

• A race-baiting clown who looks better without the extra 100 pounds
• A pretty boy from N. Carolina
• A crook and another professional victim from a state between Indiana and Iowa
• A Kennedy-wannabe (don't ask why anyone would want to be) with the initials JFK
• A guy from a state that's a suburb of New York and Boston who wants to be dealt with seriously but acts just like any other slick pol
• Another guy from the northerly suburbs of Manhattan, slightly to the left of Ben&Jerry's founders, which is to say the incoherent left
• And, last and least, the Dennis from Ohio.
  

I omitted Dick Gephardt from this list for the obvious reason that he might actually make a decent President. For this reason alone, he can't get the Demo nomination. And he shouldn't really want it.

Four more years of Dubya comin' at ya, Democrats. Deal with it. By 2008, if you haven't gotten the message, then it's time to fold your tents.

http://tzaddik.us/haganah/archives/2003_02.html