Cleveland Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich was the only member of Congress on Monday night to vote against a symbolic resolution to recognize September 11 as a day of remembrance, extend sympathies to those who lost their lives and their families and honor emergency workers and the U.S. armed forces.

Kucinich issued a press release before the vote, criticizing the resolution as "incomplete," and saying that Congress needs to "wake up to the truth and exercise its obligation under the Constitution to save our nation from being destroyed from the lies that took us into Iraq, the lies that keep us there, the lies that are being used to set the stage for war against Iran and the lies that have undermined our basic civil liberties here at home."

"The September 11 resolution that Congress considers today should have made reference to those matters," he continued. "It does not, so I cannot support it."

Kucinich's presidential campaign sent an e-mail this morning to supporters titled "Remembering 9/11" that urged America to "regain the moral high ground in our efforts to recover from 9/11."

"We need to call those who used 9/11 to take us into war against Iraq to an accounting under the U.S. Constitution, U.S. law and international law," Kucinich said in the e-mail.

Yesterday, the U.S. officer in charge of military operations in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, testified before the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees. Kucinich says Petraeus attempted to mislead Congress, however, and the Cleveland congressman issued a press release that demanded withdrawal of all U.S. troops.

Kucinich was taking heat from right-wing bloggers this morning after distribution of a Syrian television interview in which he blasts U.S. foreign policy. On a trip to the Middle East earlier this month, Kucinich visited camps for Iraqi refugees in Syria, and met with the presidents of Syria and Lebanon. He told the Associated Press that he didn't visit Iraq because "I don't want to bless that occupation with my presence."

In an interview conducted after Kucinich returned from the trip, MSNBC commentator Tucker Carlson asked Kucinich whether he was "uncomfortable" attacking his own country in the presence of one of its sworn enemies, and whether he recognized Syria might use his visit for propaganda purposes.

"I don't embrace any nation's foreign policy wholesale," Kucinich replied. "But I do want to see for myself. The president of Iraq did not ask me to go see the refugees. I asked to see the refugees."

An e-mail that Kucinich sent his presidential supporters about the trip said Kucinich and his wife "traveled to a troubled, dangerous region of the world to meet with heads of state and other political leaders to find ways to solve the problems, mitigate the dangers, and find common ground for diplomatic cooperation - and PEACE."

"While the other leading candidates for the Presidency were spending the Labor Day weekend campaigning at picnics, barbeques, state and county fairs and parading in front of the cameras, YOUR candidate, Dennis Kucinich, without fanfare, was quietly traveling throughout the troubled Middle East in search of real-world solutions to monumental global challenges," the e-mail began.

Kucinich will be visiting North Dakota and Hawaii later this week, newspapers in those states report. Kucinich was one of the few Democratic presidential candidates that wasn't invited to Iowa Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin's yearly steak fry this weekend, and it's not because he's a vegan. Harkin's aides told the New York Times that Kucinich and former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel weren't invited "because neither has established an active campaign organization in Iowa."

