Site Presented By
Sunday, Nov 22, 2009
But let's say it's January 2005. How would President Kucinich get any of his agenda passed?
The way to do it is obvious. You run a campaign where the nation becomes so excited with the possibility of change that you bring in a new Congress as well. Look at FDR in 1932 and you'll see -- he brought in close to 100 new Democrats. It gave him a Congress that gave him the ability to get it done.
Your speech to the DNC last Saturday was about the war and about foreign policy.
Successes on domestic policy have been undermined with our move towards war, and they will continue to be undermined. Whether it's Lawrence Lindsey, the president's former chief economic advisor, or Professor [William] Nordhaus of Yale, they both talk about the impact of the war on the economy, and they see the cost of the war as anywhere from $99 bil to a trillion or more, depending on the costs of bombing, the costs of occupation, the costs of reconstruction of Iraq. Two hundred billion dollars was Lindsey's estimate. In addition to that, we all understood that the rising cost of oil would have a very damaging effect on the national economy.
I led the effort in the House of Representatives; I organized 126 Democrats to challenge the administration's policy. And this is not only about Iraq. The White House relies on preemption and unilateralism, and in this complex world that can only mean more danger to United States.
You've had to answer lately some questions about what seems like a shift in your position on abortion, which some have accused you of doing for political expedience, so allow me to ask some as well. In 1996 you ran for Congress as a pro-life candidate --
Wait, wait, wait. When you say I ran as a pro-life candidate, that implies that I ran on that as a campaign theme.
Well, when you first ran for Congress you said that you believed that life begins at conception, and in the past you've been pro-life.
I've had a five-year voting record, that's right. Like everything I deal with, I took a lot of time to think about this issue. This is a very complex issue. When I've been faced with it for voting purposes, there are a couple things I brought to it. First off, I never favored a constitutional amendment to criminalize abortion or to overturn Roe v. Wade. It's important to understand that from the beginning.
But there are a whole range of positions that come into this discussion, so in my voting record that you're talking about, from the second part of the last Congress, it came out that I've been giving thought to this issue over the years. There were some issues that came up in the second part of the last Congress that started me to kind of express my concerns about the way the issue was headed.
Specifically you're referring to a May 2002 amendment by Rep. Loretta Sanchez [D-Calif.], which would have allowed for federal funding of abortions in overseas U.S. military bases. In September 2001 you voted against allowing such funding, but in May 2002 you voted for it.
That was an issue when the woman was paying for it, and the question was as to whether or not that woman was going to have the right to obtain an abortion using her own funds in a military health facility. I voted for the Sanchez amendment to allow women in the military to use their own funds to pay for that.
And despite having a generally pro-life voting record, you support Roe v. Wade?
Yes; I've never been for overturning it. In fact, I had an opponent in 1998, Joe Slovenec, who was from Operation Rescue, and one of things he was pressing for in the campaign was a constitutional amendment to overturn Roe v. Wade. And I've never been for that.
I know that my voting record indicates very clearly that over a five-year period I have voted in ways that have been supportive of those who have worked to make sure that quality of life is affirmed. And there have been some cases in which those votes can be construed to be part of the polarity that this country's in. But expanding one's view is beyond changing one's mind.
Well, can you explain to me precisely what that view is?
I support a woman's right to choose, which is guaranteed by the Constitution. And on the other hand, I want to work to create alternatives to abortion. And I think it's possible to do both. Most Americans would like a leader to be elected who steps out of the polarity and tries to reconcile people and recognize that people may hold viewpoints that seem diametrically opposed.
