http://www.cqpolitics.com/2007/09/retired_army_captain_hired_to.html">Retired Army Captain Hired to Manage Kucinich Campaign
By Marie Horrigan | 5:00 PM; Sep. 14, 2007 | Email This Article
Democratic Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio has hired retired Army Capt. Mike Klein to help turn around a presidential campaign based on a platform of “strength through peace.”
It is the first time Klein, a business and communications consultant, has spearheaded any political campaign. Klein said he was brought on board to reorganize Kucinich’s campaign, bringing in new staffers, launching a new Web site and working on “branding and the messaging.”
“We definitely have a viable campaign, we’re just going through the process of proving it to the public,” he told CQPolitics.com.
Klein described Kucinich as “an honest broker,” which he said was one of the reasons he was attracted to the campaign.
Klein is taking over the reins from David Bright, an activist and organic farmer in Dixmont, Maine. Bright remained in Maine, while Kucinich campaign headquarters are in Cleveland. The New Republic reported in July that Bright was difficult to reach and rarely answered his cell phone because, as his outgoing message explained, cell phone coverage was spotty at his rural locale.
Although Klein is new to presidential campaign management, he also worked for retired Gen. Wesley Clark in the 2004 election cycle when the former four-star general sought the Democratic presidential nomination. A graduate of West Point and a veteran of the first Gulf War, Klein said he was brought on board for his leadership skills and not necessarily his political acumen. He described Kucinich’s effort as “a guerilla campaign, so to speak.”
Kucinich’s opposition to the war in Iraq has been one of the central issues to his presidential campaign. Thursday night, after President Bush’s televised address on the progress of the war, Kucinich issued a statement that said Bush was promising “a war without end” and called on fellow Democrats to end the war by cutting off funding for the conflict.
On Monday, Kucinich was the only member of Congress to vote against a resolution commemorating the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The congressman said he voted against the resolution because it failed to address “the lies that took us into Iraq” and “the lies that keep us there.”
Like Kucinich, Klein argues that the Bush administration conflated the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 with the regime of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to drive the U.S. into war with Iraq. Klein references statements by Clark, who famously contended that the Bush administration pressured him to connect the Sept. 11 events to Hussein within hours of the attack.
Klein also argues that the threat of global terrorism is far less significant than some would say. “There is a strategic issue that has to be dealt with, but I personally think it’s about number nine in a list of strategic threats for America and the world,” he said.
“We have much graver threats to humanity than 19 men with box-cutters,” he added, referring to the hijackers from the Sept. 11 attacks.