CNN’s Person of the Month: Dennis Kucinich

Photo of Matthew Balan.

One of CNN's favorite people during the month of April is leftist presidential candidate extraordinaire Dennis Kucinich. His appearance on Wednesday's "American Morning" was the culmination of three straight days of coverage of the Ohio congressman's impeachment proposal against Vice President Cheney. Despite the amount of coverage he has been given, not just in the past three days, but also earlier in April, "American Morning" co-host John Roberts was the first to specifically mention Kucinich's 1 percent standing in the last CNN poll. So why all the free CNN publicity?

Monday's "The Situation Room" was the first to report that Kucinich was seeking the impeachment of Dick Cheney. Host Wolf Blitzer reported that the Ohio congressman scheduled a news conference where he would announce his articles of impeachment against the Vice President.

Blitzer asked CNN senior political correspondent Candy Crowley about Kucinich's motivation for seeking Cheney's impeachment. She admitted that this was an "issue of the Left," and "an article of faith... with those who are supporters of Dennis Kucinich." She also categorized Kucinich as a "natural messenger" for this cause.

For the second straight day, Tuesday's "The Situation Room"covered Kucinich's impeachment proposal. In a segment with CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider in the first hour of the program, Blitzer hypothesized that Kucinich's impeachment resolution "could give his struggling campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination a boost."

Blitzer interviewed One-Percent Dennis during the second hour of "The Situation Room" on Tuesday. A partial transcript of the interview, with the key questions and answers:

BLITZER: Why the vice president, if you're so concerned about the war, as opposed to the commander in chief? That would be the president.

KUCINICH: Well, the vice president had a singular responsibility in whipping up public sentiment to lay the groundwork for a war against Iraq on false pretenses, and the articles of impeachment cover that. And there's another practical reason, Wolf, and that is that if someone was to aim at impeaching the president, then Mr. Cheney would become the president. I don't think that this country could tolerate two consecutive impeachments.

So I think that the evidence is there to focus on the vice president. That's the appropriate place to begin. And that's what I've done today in filing House Resolution 333.

BLITZER: A lot of your critics already suggesting it's a political stunt, given the fact that the speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has ruled out impeachment. The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, says that's not on his agenda. Do you think you have enough votes to really get this out of a committee?

KUCINICH: I think that people in Congress are about to find out that all over the United States, citizens have been asking questions. What kind of a government do we have? And why isn't someone stepping forward to challenge the conduct of this vice president?

And so, people are asking me today, is anyone standing behind me? And I think there are millions of Americans who believe that it was time to raise this issue. And the reason I did it now, Wolf, is because the vice president is beating the same drums of war against Iran that he beat against Iraq under false pretenses, and he's doing it all over again, against Iran. The same false pretenses. And I say that it's time to stand up to that.

Our country couldn't afford this last war, we sure can't afford to go into another one. And somebody has to challenge the conduct of this vice president. And that's what I've done today.

BLITZER: Well, high crimes and misdemeanors. That's a high threshold. Specifically, explain to our viewers what your articles -- you have three articles of impeachment -- what they are alleging.

KUCINICH: Well, the first article, and I quote, says that he "... fabricated a threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to justify the use of the United States armed forces against the nation of Iraq." And the second article points to the fact that he "... fabricated a connection between the government of Iraq and al Qaeda and used that to justify war." And the third article says that he's "... openly threatening aggressive war against Iran," which is a violation of Article 6 of our Constitution, and a violation of Article 2 Section 4 of the U.N. charter. That's basically a synopsis of the articles.

It appears that Wolf Blitzer's hypothesis that Kucinich's impeachment resolution "could give his struggling campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination a boost" was correct, and it was CNN's coverage that made the major contribution.

CNN's coverage of Kucinich during the month of April was not limited to past 3 days. On April 11th, Miles O'Brien, then co-host of "American Morning," wholeheartedly endorsed his letter-writing campaign targeting oil companies. Kucinich then appeared on CNN's "In the Money" on April 21st, where he expounded more on his jihad against the oil companies.

—Matthew Balan is a news analyst at the Media Research Center.


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Looks like my little unwitt

Looks like my little unwitting Ron-Paul-media-bias control-group is earning the "Constant Coverage" nickname I slapped on him right here in late Jan...
JMR

Ron Paul v. Dennis "the Menace" Kucinich

And yet, people on the extreme left feel people like Kucinich are not represented by the MSM.  Has Dr. Paul had any interviews lately?  How about other Republican nominees who have less than 5% support among likely Republican primary voters?

If you're not outraged at the media, you haven't been paying attention.

There was a rumored appeara

There was a rumored appearance (I have yet to see it on youtube) on the late night Fox News show "Redeye," and Lou Dobbs finally had him on after rescheduling him twice (I managed to miss that one, too) but overall the internet's doing the journalism on all the minors. It's becoming easier & easier to understand why Dr. Paul gave C-Span his announcement. And speaking of announcements, does anyone else find McCain's today unintentionally-funny because he's been obviously-running for so-long by now?
JMR

Recall

Does Ohio have recall? If so, the people of Kucinich's district should begin the recall process immediately. In fact, I'd love to see that happen to every Democrat in Congress who represents a state where recall is allowed. Let them waste lots of money hanging on to their seats. And if one Senator was knocked off and replaced by a Republican, the Senate would shift to the GOP.

When you put the clowns in charge, don't be surprised when a circus breaks out.

Dennis 'Frodo Baggins' Kucinich

Dennis 'Frodo Baggins' Kucinich has become the laughingstock of congressmen here in Ohio. He is receiving absolutely no backing from his Democratic cronies in Congress for his idiotic proposal and even the electorate of the 10th congressional district which he represents are beginning to question his mental state.

In case you missed it, his news conference had minimal participation by the media.  Kucinich is a grand-standing, photo-opportunistic, left-coast, bleeding-heart, 'do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do' liberal who will be voted out of office in the next congressional election. I'll bet a steak dinner on it!

Never dance on an empty stomach unless it's a liberal.

golden, calling him 'Frodo Ba

golden, calling him 'Frodo Baggins' is a compliment he does not deserve. It more like Dennis 'Gollum' Kuncinich.

Gollum Kucinich

I love it! "Gollum" fits him to a tee! And he's just as diabolical!

My Favorite Martian will do a

My Favorite Martian will do anything to gain attention and a couple more votes, maybe even from some family members.

I saw this yesterday with Blitz and Kucinich.

Laughable.

As an aside...No laughing matter though, do not think for one minute the leftists are not going to investigate every little thing they can and try to bring down the VP and President...and they are still working on Rove now...never-ending.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2003678550_investigate24.html

What a loon!

Appart from the first two articles not being "high crimes and misdemeanors". The third article is non-sensical. How is the Vice-President's folowing of the President's foreign policy with respect to mentioning that the military option was not off the table a violation of Article VI of the Constitution, which reads:

Article 6 - Debts, Supremacy, Oaths

All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation.

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

I expect members of Congress

I expect members of Congress to have the intelligence of understanding what constitutes impeachment charges as well as a rudimentary understanding of the Constitution. Kucinich's actions are what you would expect to see coming from lunatic bloggers like Daily Kos.

Although I don't believe this will go anywhere, based on irresponsible actions by Dem leaders you never know.

I heard part of Dennis the Me

I heard part of Dennis the Menace's "speech" when he announced these "articles of impeachment". He claimed that Cheney "falsely" claimed that there were ties between Iraq and al Qaeda.

The problem for Cuyhoga River Fireboy is that the previous Administration, in their own 1998 Federal indictment of bin Laden, also claimed a tie between the two.

http://www.fas.org/irp/news/1998/11/98110602_nlt.html

Strategically the more lunati

Strategically the more lunatic things democrats do over the next year the more they ensure that will be back in the minors in '09. So I would encourage Dennis to go forth and make a fool of himself.

The only concern I have is th

The only concern I have is that the "objective" media won't bother to report these looney toon episodes. I don't even watch or listen to network news these days-did any of them give prominent air time to Dennis and his impeachment articles?

looney toon episodesThe thing

looney toon episodes

The thing is, almost always regardless of substance, when an episode stars a lefty, they cover it and think it's cute and that there may be a kernel of truth to what s/he is saying.  If it's a righty, it's dead serious and the world has to be warned about the danger posed.

See! This is the kind of thin

See! This is the kind of thing that happens when Kucinich escapes from his Amozonian wifes' purse! I would call him a dope, but then I would owe dopes everywhere an apology.

"There are two types of people in this country; those who provide freedom and those who enjoy it." MM says...

Kucinich belongs on the Carto

Kucinich belongs on the Cartoon Network. As a resident of Ohio, I've witnessed his career since his days as mayor of Cleveland. I honestly don't understand how he continues to remain in public office.

He's the nimrod who set the r

He's the nimrod who set the river in Cleveland on fire, correct?

Didn't Kucinich learn politic

Didn't Kucinich learn politics from Jerry Springer?

The liberal MSM has become an enemy of the USA.

Why dont we get the justice d

Why dont we get the justice department looking into to Golam's anti Americans activities, I'm sure they could dig something up on the lines of treason.

The right needs to be on the offensive, NOW! They have been on the defensive for so long, it doesnt matter that these charges have no merit, they are so frequent and persistent that they leave the impression of guilt, expecially when unchallenged.

Republicans hit back, NOW!

Crazies to the left, and Whimps to the right

Glenn Beck had a great commen

Glenn Beck had a great commentary at lunch time in which he said most of Congress cannot possibly be human and must in fact be aliens from the planet Gazel.

He said that Pelosi, Kucinich etc in actuality are probably lizardoid Gazelians (not to be confused with Little Green Football lizards) underneath their "skin".

Go ahead, send your article

Go ahead, send your articles of impeachment, Dennis, you nitwit, prove to your flake constituency what a man you are

Go get them oil companies, shut 'em down, bring the country to a standstill, people will thank you for it.

You'll be a hero, Dennis, immortal, people will make movies of you, your tenure in Congress won't be the abject failure it has been up to this point

"will make movies of you

"will make movies of your tenure . . . . "  -  -  -  and we'll call it Looney Tunes. 

Kucinich is the Congressional

Kucinich is the Congressional Gnome. 

Nice hairpiece, Dennis.Does

Nice hairpiece, Dennis.

Does that style come in a range of colors, such as "Salt and Pepper" or "Graceful Gray"? I don't think anyone is buying that you haven't a gray hair on your head. Did you pluck out all your gray eyebrows, leaving no eyebrows left?

Anything goes Kucinich!

Dennis who?

kucinich

As a life long resident of the state of Ohio,I am totally embarrassed of this f***ing nut.

which f***ing nut? Blitzer

which f***ing nut? Blitzer or Kucinich?

"There are two types of people in this country; those who provide freedom and those who enjoy it." MM says...

MM...The answer would be...YE

MM...

The answer would be...YES!

The liberal MSM has become an enemy of the USA.

My sincere sympathies for the

My sincere sympathies for the entire state of OH.  But how can OH voters keep electing this parasite? 

"HAV3 TH3 BRIDG3S OF INSANITY B33N CROSS3D AND FOR3V3R R3TRACT3D???."  - Meshuggah, "3ntrapm3nt", from Catch Thirty Thr33 (2005)

Dennis

As a former resident and 4th generation Ohioan, I am also embarrassed and ask how Ohioans can be so studpid as to vote this a**hole into office time and time again. What the hell is the matter with everybody?????????????