Kucinich: DLC agenda 'indistinguishable' from Neoconservative agenda David Edwards and Muriel Kane

Published: Monday August 13, 2007





Print This Email This Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, a consistent opponent of the war in Iraq, appeared Sunday on ABC's This Week, telling host George Stephanopoulos, "I think that the support is building in my direction." Stephanopoulos suggested instead that the response to Kucinich merely represents the Democratic Party's "liberal base" and that the "centrists" of the Democratic Leadership Council under Howard Ford believe that Kucinich's ideas "could hurt the party." Stephanopoulos quoted Ford as saying, "'George W. Bush is handing us Democrats our Hoover moment'" and told Kucinich, "They believe that if the party follows your path, they're going to blow this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity." "You have to keep in mind that the center has shifted in our politics," Kucinich responded, smiling. "I'm really at the center, and all the other candidates are to the right of me. And they're to the right of the American people." "The Democratic Leadership Council's agenda is indistinguishable from the Republican Neoconservative agenda," he went on. "They want to continue to stay in Iraq. They reject the idea of a not-for-profit health care system. ... These analysts are ... trying to keep a politics that really helps support a privileged few at the expense of the many. So I'm the candidate of the people." Stephanopoulos then switched to the topic of Iraq, asking, "What is the plan after you bring the troops home?" "We must engage Syria and Iran and other nations in the region to put together this international security and peacekeeping force that would move in as our troops leave," said Kucinich. "The occupation is fueling the insurgency. ... That's why we must leave. And the incentive [for other nations to cooperate] is stability in the region. ... Every country's concerned about the instability which our occupation of Iraq continues to bring." "In your view, what role do nuclear weapons play in our defense arsenal and under what circumstances would you use them?" Stephanopoulos asked. "I think that the United States must lead the way for nuclear abolition," Kucinich replied, calling any talk of keeping all options on the table, even with reservations, "not acceptable." "We need to rebuild our relationship with Russia," Kucinich stated, "and we also need to tamp down the violence on the Asian subcontinent. For anyone to talk about attacking Pakistan with any kind of weapons just begs the question as to whether they have the fitness to be president because that could set of a nuclear exchange of Pakistan with India. ... The idea that somehow by having nuclear weapons you make the world a safer place is essentially insane." The following video is from ABC's This Week, broadcast on August 12.





