The Institute for Accuracy has released a report which finds that five Democratic presidential candidates supported President Bush's dubious claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. The report also officially states that Northeast Ohio Congressman Representative Dennis Kucinich and the Reverend Al Sharpton are the only candidates who walk the talk. The report's release prompted several reporters from Democracy Now to clarify the conflicting statements of the candidates, particulary General Clark, Dr. Dean and Senator Kerry. The independent news service has released the offical transcripts which reveal the candidates refusals to answer their questions about their double-speak.

The three said candidates are running their campaigns on a 'restore honesty to the White House' platform. "Senators Kerry, Lieberman and Edwards, Dr. Dean, and General Clark all claimed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and, therefore, contributed to the political climate which falsely justified a war. The implications of this are enormous," Kucinich said. "They were either misled or looked the other way while President Bush was using the alleged presence of weapons of mass destruction as a reason to go to war against Iraq. Either way, these candidates have seriously undermined their ability to win in the general election when President Bush is obviously running for reelection based on his Iraq policies." Regardless of who said or did what in the past, Dean, Clark, Kerry, Edwards and President Bush continue to support the occupation and support the involuntary service of US troops, by forcing them to serve in Iraq past their required time.

If the Democrats nominate a candidate who supports the same issues as Bush, it will be harder for them to prove to voters that they can beat the GOP incumbent. With President Bush washing the war blood off his hands by announcing on Monday to appoint an independent commision to examine the claims, it puts him in the same boat and same campaign strategy as the four top candidates. f the primaries continue to push any of the five closer to a debate with Bush, they will have no strategy to put themselves opposite of him, since they all supported the WMD claim, but presently all say they were misled. Now that five of the eight are defending their support for the war based on trusting misinformation, it leaves Kucinich, Sharpton, and Liberman as the only candidates that have acted the most presidential in standing firm and consistent with their beliefs and campaign promises. If it's going to take leadership and undebatable opposing issues, then Kucinich and Sharpton who oppose the war, and Liberman who supports it would have the greatest chance for this strategy. Listen or watch the Democracy Now interview with Dean, Kerry and Lieberman click here: http://www.DemocracyNow.org.

Ohio congressman Dennis Kucinich said Monday he is the only Democratic presidential contender who can stand up to President Bush on Iraq. It's a pretty bold statement from a candidate with single digits in the primaries, but a statement that is true and vital to the security of the United States.

Asked about his poor standing in the New Hampshire opinion polls (1 or 2 percent) Kucinich said the war in Iraq and American casualties would dominate the Democratic convention in July "because by then we're going to have hundreds of thousands of people marching through the streets against the war." At that point he will be uniquely placed to claim the party's nomination as "the only true peace candidate," he said. "Sen. Kerry, Sen. Edwards, Sen. Lieberman, Gov. Dean, General Clark - each of them made statements over many months that supported the war talk in Washington," he told two dozen people at the Ecos Cafe on Monday afternoon, before heading to Maine.

"They're not going to be effective in debating President Bush, and he knows it," Kucinich said. "They either supported the war, agreed there was evidence of weapons of mass destruction, favor the occupation or have no plan to get out." And yet Congress never saw any proof former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction or had the ability to deliver them, Kucinich said. Nor was there any evidence Hussein was behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, he said. "You don't attack another nation without any proof," he said. "When all the talk was going on in Washington, I was standing - sometimes alone - against this drumbeat of the march to war."

Although Kucinich supports universal health care, alternative energy and bilateral trade agreements that include protections for labor and the environment, he said his top priority is getting the U.S. military out of Iraq except as part of a United Nations peace-keeping mission. "We are creating instability everywhere by our presence there," he said. "We're not going to be able to get to the rest of our agenda unless we get this mess straightened out in Iraq."

Interview with Kucinich press secretary William Russell Pitt, author of The Greatest Sedition Is Silence: Four Years in America, and War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know, with former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter as a contributor.

CC: How many delegates does Dennis now have?

WRP: "Two, according to CNN's latest results."

CC: Is that enough to make an impact at the convention? what kind of impact?

WRP:"There are 44 more primaries to come, including Puerto Rico and Guam, the total number of delegates are 4,321. the total number to secure the nominiation is 2,161, and Kerry the presumpted front runner has 200. So, add that to 42 primaries to go plus five others, we all still have a long way to go. We are barely into the primary season."

CC:Why is he getting the low numbers if he is the best man for the job?

WRP:"There is a study that we received from the international media monotoring agency Media Tenor. Dennis Kucinich has received 0.94% of the total media coverage of the candidates during the 30 minute nightly news casts. The issures are not being covered to the extent that they deserve."

CC:Why are the other candidates in the lead?

WRP:"I think because it's probably differerent for every candidate. Dean was in the lead because the borrowed the title of being the only candidate against the war where in fact, Dennis voted against it in Congress. That gave him momentum in the progressive community. I remember in Iowa, Kucinich was dissappointed that Dean was still sending caucus voters fliers which stated that he was the only candidate against the war. I think that Dean takes the issue to capitalize on the progresseive issues, but it was Dennis Kucinich in Congress who made that vote and has in through word and deed opposed the occutpation since September 2002."

CC:Tonight, in the Super Tuesday primary, Kucinich received 5% of the vote in New Mexico, 3% in North Dakota, and 1% or 2% in the remaining states. Based on tonight's Super Tuesday results, what does he need to do to stay in the race?

WRP:"Dennis needs to contuinue to do what he has been doing - by showing his sharp differences between himself and the current frontrunners."

CC:What do Dennis supporters need to do to keep him viable?

WPR:"Continue to tell their friends and neighbors to contribute to the campaign the best they can and vote March 2, and notify the mainsteam media that they are dissappointed in the manner the campaign has been covered."

CC:NBC ran a story last night based on Dean accusing Kerry as the Senator who has taken the most special interest dollars to advance his career. NBC reported that all of the Democratic candidates have taken special interest money, but completely ignored Dennis Kucinich and Al Sharpton in the report. Why did NBC say that all of the candidates take special interest money, but left out Dennis?

WPR:"I can't speak for Sharpton, nor can I offer an explaination why NBC would fail to mention Congressmen Kucinich in their coverage, but the fact is that Dennis is the clean Elections candidate in this race. He is someone who is financing his campaign above and beyond the reach of special interests, by reaching out to the people by grass roots organization."

CC:Why does the media ignore Dennis? How does this effect his campaign?

WPR:"To a certain extenct the media likes to fix itself upon a story line, and the story line for the last several weeks has been Kerry, Dean, Edwards and Clark. I think that, well, take the New York Times for example, since the onset of the campaign, they have failed to recognize Dennis or give him scant coverage and turn around several days ago and say that he should be excluded from the rest of the presidental debates. In terms of how it affects the campaign, it invigorates us to rise to the challenge. As the field narrows, the differences between the candidates will become more and more clear and you will see Congressman Kucinich make a great impact. As I said before, this primary season is only just beginning."

CC:How would media coverage change under a Kucinich Presidency?

WPR:"Go to the platform section of http://kucinich.us. He will work for media reform including substantial time for candidates and parties. He will create a greater diversity of viewpoints by breaking up the media conglomerates."

CC:What will happen to the country if Dennis isn't elected?

WPR:"The United States will continue to have an excellent leader in Dennis Kucinich. He will contunue to be a true leader of the progressive community. Dennis Kucinich is running for President, but Dennis Kucinich is also organizing a national, powerful grass roots progressive movement that will be in place to effect great change long after these races are run."

Interview by Cool Cleveland contributor Charlene Coates coatescc@hotmail.com

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