Deeper Rivers

Editor's Note: Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich shot into prominence when he made a passionate and eloquent speech questioning the war on terrorism in February at a Los Angeles meeting of the Southern California Americans for Democratic Action. In David Corn's words, the little-known Democrat instantly became "a magnet for progressives suffering post-9/11 blues and longing for a kick-ass leader who would bash the Bush administration." Kucinich's popularity has steadily grown since then and many of his supporters are now talking about a possible run for the White House in 2004. But as Katha Pollitt points out, forgotten amidst this fervor to appoint Kucinich as the next leader of the progressive movement is "an anti-choice voting record of Henry Hyde-like proportions." AlterNet presents two different views of Dennis Kucinich and his credentials as a leader.

Since September 11, many politicians have prayed for America, but only one offered a devotional accusing the government of "in effect canceling" the first and fourth amendments, warning that a "great fear" overwhelmed America's leaders, and opposing "war without end."

When Representative Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat from Cleveland who is not a familiar face on Sunday news gab shows, offered such a "prayer for America" in February at a Los Angeles meeting of the Southern California Americans for Democratic Action, he became a magnet for progressives suffering post-9/11 blues and longing for a kick-ass leader who would bash the Bush administration, the national-security establishment and the recent expansion of federal police powers, and who also could express a left vision promoting peace, social justice, civil liberties and democracy.

Thousands of leftists across the country read Kucinich's words on the Internet and sent him e-mails declaring, "Right on!" The response to his speech prompted talk among liberals in L.A. and elsewhere of an improbable Kucinich-for-president campaign. In The Nation magazine, a starry-eyed Studs Terkel, the well-known lefty oral historian, declared, "Kucinich Is the One."

That's some speech that can do all that. (And Kucinich began it by singing portions of various patriotic anthems.) But with most elected Democrats proclaiming their support for George W. Bush's war on terrorism at home and abroad, the competition is slim these days for a national progressive leader. For his part, Kucinich, 55, has long been an independent voice willing to cut against political fashion. The son of a truck driver and the oldest of seven children, Kucinich was a child star of Cleveland politics. He was elected to the City Council in 1969 at the age of 23, a populist eager to mix it up with the city's business establishment.

In 1977, as the boy mayor of Cleveland, he waged a titanic struggle against the town's financial elite. The money gang wanted him to sell off the municipal utility to balance debt-ridden books he had inherited. Kucinich refused, hoping to preserve low electricity rates. The banks called in their loans, and the city went into default. Kucinich won voter referendums on the issue and on raising income taxes to cover the city deficit. But in the face of opposition from the local barons, he was bounced from office in 1979.

Seventeen years later, he was elected to Congress, beating a Republican incumbent/millionaire-businessman. As a backbencher in the minority, Kucinich does not have much clout. But he has become chairman of the Progressive Caucus, a collection of several dozen House liberals. And he has established himself as an iconoclastic and idealistic legislator who pushes issues few others will touch. At the Web site he recently set up Kucinich, highlights three causes he's been chasing: establishing a Department of Peace, outlawing weapons based in space, and advocating nuclear disarmament.