Kucinich, Not Dean

With Democratic primaries around the corner, we find the most vocal anti-war candidate, Howard Dean, leading the Democratic candidates financially and buzzwise. There's only one problem here; Dean is, in fact, not the staunchest anti-war or progressive candidate in the bunch as his supporters have banked on. Dean says as much himself in a July 6 Washington Post article: "I think it's pathetic that I'm considered the left-wing liberal." I think for those who intend to support Dean for his liberal and anti-war stance, another candidate better embodies that sentiment, and his name is Dennis Kucinich.
   There are significant differences between Kucinich and Dean. Kucinich favors pulling all the U.S. troops out of Iraq and bringing in the U.N.; Dean prefers American military control, which we know keeps the U.N. out. Kucinich wants capital punishment ended; Dean might revise it. Kucinich wants the U.S. out of free-trade institutions NAFTA and WTO; Dean favors some reform. Kucinich would kill the invasive PATRIOT Act; Dean would amend it. Maybe none of this would ever pass through Congress, but you get the picture.
   As the race plays out, Dean has been more of an opportunist, trying to cash in early as a progressive. He was the first to use deceased former Sen. Wellstone's line, "I'm here to represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party." But Kucinich was vehemently opposed to war early on. And while the Republican-dominated House ended up voting in favor of supporting the war in Iraq, Kucinich rallied two-thirds of his fellow Democrats in the House to vote against giving Bush a blank check for what we've now affirmed as an ill-begotten war in Iraq.
   No surprise who I'm supporting.