Kucinich responds! Or at least to Salon. Jake Tapper has a new interview with Congressman Dennis Kucinich in Salon. In it he has this question and response …
A rival’s campaign has brought an April 1972 Cleveland Magazine article to my attention in which you are accused of using racial politics. The story says that after you arrived in the city council in 1967 you began “playing confrontation politics with the city’s black administration as if [you] had invented the game.” Care to comment?
My political career goes back to the ’60s and those were times of vigorous debates. But race was not a factor in those debates. The debates were on issues, not about race — there may have been differences of opinion. But they were never about race. When I was running for mayor I said that half of my major appointments would go to members of the African-American community, and they did. I could cite a long, deep connection with the African-American community. I have a very strong constituency in that community. So in the ’60s was it possible that there were some differences of opinion? Yes. But it was never based on race. Never. Not a chance. Not even the people I clashed with in major ways would ever say that.
Also of interest is this list of three people’s accounts of Kucinich’s career. One friend, one foe, one a bit of each.
