The Charge of the Muny Light Brigade

[Sapphire Blue]

The Charge of the Muny Light Brigade
Submitted by Elizabeth Kucinich on December 15, 2006 - 16:48

Then-Cleveland Mayor Dennis Kucinich in 1978, when he was under siege by Cleveland’s business community, its media and many local private interest groups—all of which were pushing him to sell the city’s publicly owned municipal power plant. His principled refusal to do so kept him out of public office for the next 20 years. He now serves as a U.S. congressman from Ohio.

http://www.truthdig.com/interview/item/20061214_battle_muny_light/

Finally! The truth is out about Muny Light.

Joshua Scheer at Truthdig today posted an interview, newspaper articles and TV news stories which show the great courage it took for 32 year old Mayor Dennis Kucinich, to save a public power system, 28 years ago today.

The city went into default, because the banks would only accept the public utility as payment. Nothing else would do.

The story exposes the very real issues of corporate greed, media manipulation and corruption all of which were overcome when the people were supported by the very courageous Mayor, Dennis Kucinich.

Visit http://www.truthdig.com/interview/item/20061214_battle_muny_light/ for the full story, TV and newspaper articles.

http://www.kucinich.us/node/972

[bobbolink]

1. What he did was brave and principled. Would that *ALL* our pols would govern like that!

He looks about 17, rather than 32. :) He looks like Senior Class President. :)

"I was elected mayor of the city of Cleveland on a platform of saving the people’s electric system. My first act in office was to cancel a sale that had already been consummated by the City Council and the preceding mayor. I had blocked the sale with a citizens’ petition drive and ran for mayor while the sale was in limbo. "

I didn't know that. I hadn't realized it was the *beginning* of his term. What a brave and classy thing to do!

[LittleClarkie]

2. How old was he when he was elected? He looks 12 there

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, he was kinda cute when he was a puppy.

[enigmatic]

3. 31

I grew up in Cleveland in the 70's when Dennis was Mayor; his fights w/ City Council President George Forbes were legendary. He wasn't a great Mayor, but he was following Carl Stokes, too...

[ninkasi]

4. A man of principle

and honor. How rare today.

[Berry Cool]

5. I think he was 29 when he was elected.

Looking back, refusing to sell Muny Light was probably the right thing for him to do, but at the time it was a great humiliation to the city to go into default. Kucinich set himself up against all the banks and, as a result, made complete enemies out of all business in Cleveland as his way of "standing up for THE PEOPLE against the fatcats." He was constantly railing about "THE PEOPLE" vs. "THE FATCATS" and how he was for "THE PEOPLE," but this is the only stance I can ever recall him taking that was supposedly for "THE PEOPLE" that wasn't just a lot of talk and posturing. The end result was that yes, he saved the light plant, but the city went into default and he barely survived a recall election.

I know a lot of Dems admire him for that today, but as a person old enough to remember when he was actually a mayor, I recall his stubbornness on the subject looking very much like that of the current White House resident on Iraq. He had an opinion, and he was not going to listen to anyone else. He was going to do his thing, no matter what. He would not consider or propose a compromise or any other possible alternatives. He was right, and everyone else was wrong. If he were captain of the Titanic, he'd go down with the ship, claiming that some mega-corporation had put the iceberg in its way, but that didn't matter, because the passengers were going to triumph!

It was impossible for Kucinich to work with business at all. To him, business was the root of all evil, and the art of governing was all about "protecting THE PEOPLE from THE FATCATS." Personally, I don't think that's the kind of person we need leading the country. I don't think business is the root of all evil. I do believe that a lot of evil happens in the name of corporations, and I am all for reining in some of their power and for more of a balance of power between corporations and individuals, but I don't think big business is by definition evil, and I don't want a president who treats it like it is either and sets it at loggerheads with himself in order to present himself as some knight in shining armor to the electorate. Being president requires being able to work with everyone, not just being able to make principled stances for one side against the other.

It seems to me that all the real Kucinich admirers come from outside the Cleveland area, which should tell you something right there. If this guy is so great, why do the city's own lefty "alternative" newspapers dislike him as much as the Plain Dealer? You'd think more people would be asking that question.

Oh, and one more thing: Since when is having a young, beautiful, "hot" wife such an important qualification for the presidency as some people here would have it be from what I have seen posted lately? I would expect DU to be a more feminist place, but instead I see threads about how "gorgeous" Elizabeth Kucinich is and how wonderful a human being she must be to be in love with him and how his worthiness for high office is proved by his ability to snag a wife that young and hot. If this kind of stuff was said about a Republican in Freeperville, everyone would be disgusted.

Put it this way: I'm from northeast Ohio, and frankly, I'd rather have Obama.

[johnnie]

6. I live in Cleveland and I remember him as mayor

What he did proved to be the right thing to do.

"why do the city's own lefty "alternative" newspapers dislike him as much as the Plain Dealer?"

That's funny. That rag is not "lefty" at all. In the last presidential election it, for the first time in it's history, didn't endorse a candidate because the editors wanted to back Kerry and the publisher supported bush.

And comparing the Muny light situation to Iraq is a bit over the top if you ask me. They aren't even close, not even the stubbornness of Kucinich and bush. That's silly.

[LWolf]

8. lol

Someone in Ohio must like him a great deal, or he wouldn't be consistently reelected with large margins.

Of course, I've never even been to Ohio, but I'll take DK over Obama every time. He is the best the party has to offer on the issues, IMO, he's the cleanest, and he's the most likely to actually work to achieve what he says he stands for. He's not the only Dem I'd vote for, but he beats the current media darlings hands down.

[Selatius]

7. I don't know of very many politicians who would jump on a political hand grenade.

He did, and he destroyed his political career for that...before reviving it from the ashes two decades later.

That man sticks to his principles. He so believed that what Cleveland was about to do was so wrong that he took on the bankers and lost everything, but in the end, he will be remembered as a hero of Cleveland's working people.