With Alan Grayson leaving, Dennis Kucinich may be the last bastion of sanity in the House

Dennis Kucinich plans to do what he can to smack down Darrell Issa if he can become the Ranking Member on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform:

Dear Colleague,

Perhaps the most crucial vote you will cast in the reorganization of the 112th Congress involves the Ranking Member position of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. This is because the presumptive Chair of the full Committee, Rep. Darrell Issa of California, has already made wild and unsubstantiated charges which threaten to tum the principal oversight committee of the House into a witch hunt.

In just the past week, he has indicated a telling enthusiasm for a broad probe into the $700 billion American Reinvestment and Recovery Act program. He has equated it with “walking around money.” As you know, that is political slang for money off the books and under the table. He made this unsubstantiated claim in the context of promising hundreds of investigative hearings into the present Administration, calling President Obama “one of the most corrupt presidents in modern times.” I immediately sent Mr. Issa a letter (attached) calling for him to produce the evidence for such charges or to retract his statement.

Mr. Issa, through his eagerness to make unsubstantiated charges and to draw conclusions in advance of evidence, reveals a lack of restraint and basic fairness. This conduct in the Chairman of the Committee will degrade Congress’ oversight credibility and undermine the institution of the House through a lack of restraint in the use of subpoena power.

We cannot simply stand by idly and hope that such a reckless approach to the use of the power of the Chair will not happen, especially since it is not only being promised, but demonstrated by the person who will hold the gavel.

It is a matter of the highest importance that any intemperate use of the power of the Chair be challenged at every turn. Accordingly, I have decided to step forward as a candidate for Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. In that capacity, here is my pledge to you and our fellow members ofthe House:

1. Zero tolerance for smears and innuendo. Every single statement by Chairman Issa which is lacking in respect for the process of oversight, every unsubstantiated allegation or any publically pronounced assumption which lacks basic fairness will be promptly challenged.


2. I will encourage a team approach on the Committee which will tap the talents of all members to actively participate in responding to any abllse of process.


3. All members will receive weekly updates of oversight activities to be able to provide input.


4. Cooperation with Chairman Issa when, and only when, he proceeds in an even-handed manner which demonstrates basic fairness and respect for due process.

In the past two Congresses, the Domestic Policy Subcommittee, which I chaired, held over sixty hearings and heard testimony from hundreds of witnesses. We received testimony from Democratic and Republican administrations alike, proceeding in a deliberate and methodical manner, through thorough questioning of witnesses.

As Chairman, I worked closely with the Obama Administration. As a result of my advocacy and the multiple hearings that my Subcommittee held on foreclosure prevention, the Treasury Department created a $15 billion nationwide principle reduction program for “underwater” borrowers and now will allow flexibility in the use of federal foreclosure prevention funds by state housing agencies so that they’ can hire foreclosure prevention counselors.

Aggressive and thorough oversight is never to be feared. It is a goal. Now, with the change in the leadership of the Committee, we must be ready to preserve that goal tirelessly, courageously and unstintingly. That is the only way we can defend the integrity of congressional oversight from becoming an abusive power.

I ask for your consideration and your vote for Ranking Member of the full Committee.

Sincerely,

Dennis J. Kucinich
Chair, Domestic Policy Subcommittee
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

More here.

Can't we find a role for this guy to play in the fall campaign?

Awesome:

Does anyone actually believe the impeachment of Cheney will go through?

So much for the crazy aunt in the attic, eh? But before we go dancing in the streets at the impending removal from office of Dick Cheney, let's not underestimate the iron will of Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer -- but only when it comes to political expediency. When it comes to some kind of lame political calculation cooked up by consultants and guaranteed to be wrong, they dig in their heels. If it's about what's right for the country, they crumple like a Yugo.

I've been fighting off getting the viral bronchitis that has levelled half my department at work, so I've had little energy to do much other than go to work, come home, make dinner, clean up, watch Olbermann, and crash. So I haven't really had a chance to dig into this and give it the attention it deserves. So I'm going to kick you over to our friend and colleague jurassicpork, and Group Newsblogger Jesse Wendel, who have.

The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name

Rebecca Traister forcibly pulls aside our curtain of denial:

You are lying to yourselves. In a quest for an "electable," "not insane" presidential candidate, you are willfully overlooking the candidate who actually comes closest to representing the things in which you really believe: justice and peace and the basic freedoms that should be afforded to every American, regardless of race, class, religion, gender, sexual orientation or galactic origin. In an effort to distance yourself from the squish of the Birkenstock and the stench of the patchouli, you have convinced yourself that compromise and pragmatism light the path to the White House. And you are correct. But still, before walking listlessly down the aisle toward our impending union with tepid centrism, let's rip our clothes off for one final, ill-advised fling with ideological honesty:

Dennis Kucinich is our man! If he can't do it, well, that's because we're all chickenshit and condemned to a future of our own making. Yay, Dennis!

It's true, and I suspect many of you think it to yourselves, perhaps even confess it sotto voce to your loved ones during each Democratic debate (especially the ones where he doesn't mention the UFO): If the Democratic base pulled levers for the candidate whose policies best reflected its own beliefs, Dennis Kucinich should win his party's nomination in a landslide.

OK, sure, his reign as mayor of Cleveland was a mess. He has never passed a piece of legislation. He loves to flash peace signs that provoke flashbacks of your crazy Aunt Martha's annual Woodstock slide show. The fact that when you try to picture him at any sort of summit, you quickly envision Nicolas Sarkozy stealing his lunch money leads you to suspect that he might be an ineffective player on the world stage. He is a vegan. He has been compelled by his sense of honesty, and his close personal friendship with Shirley MacLaine, to disclose his encounters with extraterrestrial life. Also, he really does bear an unfortunate resemblance to a leprechaun. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

[snip]
But here is the truth: If you believe in universal, single-payer healthcare and that campaign finance and electronic voting are corrupt; if you hate the Patriot Act and believe it erodes civil rights; if you believe that gay people should have the same rights as straight people, that America should rejoin the Kyoto Protocol and take steps to halt global warming, that we should invest in alternative fuel sources, that our water and air need to be protected from pollution and overuse, that the government should reduce the amount of money it spends on war and instead work to improve the country's education system, and that going to war in Iraq was a terrible and tragic mistake, then you are that guy playing air guitar, and he is you.

This is something I've thought about ever since I fumbled my answer to the "What about Kucinich" question last week when I called the morning show on our local Air America affiliate. Because let's face it: the Democratic candidate who best reflects progressive values is Dennis Kucinich. The problem is that he's a utopian. Many of us aren't quite ready to just succumb to the notion that any Democrat is light-years better than any Republican, especially when said Democrat regards lobbyists as people just like you and me and signs on to giving President 24% the cover he needs to embark on an ill-advised attack on Iran. But there's progressivism, and then there's mishegoss.

Last week I had a rather heated dispute with one of our commenters, a young person who like many of his generation hates the baby boomers because we "sold out." Is recognizing that a "Department of Peace", while laudable, just Isn't Going to Happen selling out? I hate the argument that "the perfect is the enemy of the good", but while it doesn't mean we should delude ourselves that Hillary Clinton is a progressive, wasting effort on an alternative that is never, ever going to get this nomination no matter how many bloggers endorse him, isn't all that much different from the libertarians writing position papers for the Ayn Rand Institute.

Kucinich's presence in the race makes it interesting in that it has the effect of nudging the eventual nominee (provided said nominee is not named "Hillary Clinton") to the left. He's unserious without having the kind of Grandpa Simpson Comic Relief that someone like Mike Gravel has. As entertaining as Kucinich may be on The Colbert Report, his repeated quixotic quests for the White House are starting to make him seem like a lefty Harold Stassen.

Doesn't mean I don't agree with him, though.