Kucinich Readies for Bid for Democratic Presidential Nomination
Kucinich Readies for Bid for Democratic Presidential Nomination
As he prepares for his second consecutive underdog bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, Ohio Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich can use a bully pulpit to draw attention to his activist liberal agenda. His appointment this week to be chairman of a new House domestic oversight subcommittee could help.
The panel headed by Kucinich is under the House Oversight Committee, chaired by California Rep. Henry A. Waxman. The Domestic Subcommittee will oversee domestic policy issues including health care, labor, pensions, energy and the environment, among others.
Kucinich said that as head of the new subcommittee, he will be able to influence Democratic policy making and “re-establish public oversight” over regulatory agencies that he said has been absent since President Bush took office.
“I will be asking questions about the operations of every federal department and expect to be able to bring to public light information that has been hidden for the last six years,” he said in a statement Wednesday.
He has broad leeway to pursue this goal. The subcommittee will have jurisdiction over the Labor, Commerce, Interior and Energy departments, as well as the anti-trust division of the Justice Department, the Federal Communications Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, among other agencies.
It may be a good perch for Kucinich, an unconventional and outspoken figure who was the last challenger to drop from the field in 2004 after Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry emerged as the Democratic Party’s consensus candidate.
The six-term representative of the Cleveland-area 10th District announced in December that he intended to seek the Democratic nomination for the 2008 presidential election.
His campaign is centered on many of the same issues as he pursued four years ago. Now as then, he is a fervent opponent to the war in Iraq and critic of President Bush’s handling of the conflict. Kucinich is positioning himself as the true anti-war candidate and has called for an immediate and complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
Kucinich is one of five candidates who have officially announced plans to seek the Democratic nomination for president. He is joined by former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, the party’s 2004 vice presidential nominee; Connecticut Sen. Christopher J. Dodd; former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack; and former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel.
Illinois Sen. Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) announced Tuesday he is setting up a committee to explore the idea of a presidential run, while New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton — the front-runner in early polls sizing up the Democratic field — is widely expected to announce her candidacy in the coming weeks.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/cq/20070118/pl_cq_politics/kucinichreadiesforbidfordemocraticpresidentialnomination_1
As he prepares for his second consecutive underdog bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, Ohio Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich can use a bully pulpit to draw attention to his activist liberal agenda. His appointment this week to be chairman of a new House domestic oversight subcommittee could help.
The panel headed by Kucinich is under the House Oversight Committee, chaired by California Rep. Henry A. Waxman. The Domestic Subcommittee will oversee domestic policy issues including health care, labor, pensions, energy and the environment, among others.
Kucinich said that as head of the new subcommittee, he will be able to influence Democratic policy making and “re-establish public oversight” over regulatory agencies that he said has been absent since President Bush took office.
“I will be asking questions about the operations of every federal department and expect to be able to bring to public light information that has been hidden for the last six years,” he said in a statement Wednesday.
He has broad leeway to pursue this goal. The subcommittee will have jurisdiction over the Labor, Commerce, Interior and Energy departments, as well as the anti-trust division of the Justice Department, the Federal Communications Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, among other agencies.
It may be a good perch for Kucinich, an unconventional and outspoken figure who was the last challenger to drop from the field in 2004 after Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry emerged as the Democratic Party’s consensus candidate.
The six-term representative of the Cleveland-area 10th District announced in December that he intended to seek the Democratic nomination for the 2008 presidential election.
His campaign is centered on many of the same issues as he pursued four years ago. Now as then, he is a fervent opponent to the war in Iraq and critic of President Bush’s handling of the conflict. Kucinich is positioning himself as the true anti-war candidate and has called for an immediate and complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
Kucinich is one of five candidates who have officially announced plans to seek the Democratic nomination for president. He is joined by former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, the party’s 2004 vice presidential nominee; Connecticut Sen. Christopher J. Dodd; former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack; and former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel.
Illinois Sen. Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) announced Tuesday he is setting up a committee to explore the idea of a presidential run, while New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton — the front-runner in early polls sizing up the Democratic field — is widely expected to announce her candidacy in the coming weeks.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/cq/20070118/pl_cq_politics/kucinichreadiesforbidfordemocraticpresidentialnomination_1
posted by presgore19 at 4:47 PM
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