CAMPAIGN 2008 Kucinich already seems to be running again BY LANCE TAPLEY

Okay, congressman, let’s start with the crass question. With your appearances this weekend in Portland, Brunswick, Augusta, Deer Isle, and Bangor — are you running for president again?

Dennis Kucinich replied that he ran for president last year to challenge the Iraq War, and "hopefully" it will not be an issue in 2008, "but if it is . . ." His voice trailed off.

Kucinich was interviewed after he spoke on a rainy Sunday, May 8, to about 50 of the state’s liberal activists gathered at the Augusta City Center for a meeting of the Maine Progressive Caucus — "Affiliated with Progressive Democrats of America."

Iraq might not be the only reason he would become a candidate, he hinted. If Social Security were still an issue in 2008, "I’m staying active," he said.

Along with his position that the United States should get out of Iraq as fast as possible, Kucinich now makes opposition to President Bush’s Social Security proposals a foundation of his political oratory.

And he is characteristically plainspoken about this issue, too.

How come, congressman, when even the Bush administration admits that the president’s private accounts idea will not solve the alleged long-term financial problems of Social Security, the mainstream news media still refer to it like it might be a solution?

"The news media have always been there to serve the vested interests," he responded, adding that the press didn’t challenge Bush either when he took the country to war in Iraq.

A lot of Maine Democratic liberals love Kucinich. Although in 2004 he had to share their allegiance with former Vermont Governor Howard Dean and, to a smaller extent, with eventual presidential nominee Senator John Kerry — Kucinich finished third with 16 percent of the vote in the state’s February Democratic caucuses.

A representative since 1996 from Ohio and former "boy mayor" (at 31) of Cleveland, Kucinich is now 58 years old and an experienced, inspiring speaker. Trim (he’s a vegan) and small in a dark suit, he roamed the room to make talk-show-type connections with his interlocutors, at one point theatrically taking off a shoe to show proudly that he wore Dexter footgear — though, since Dexter as a manufacturer now has abandoned Maine, he missed making a point to support his anti-trade-globalization positions.

Kucinich was the original congressional leader against the Iraq War, and he easily roused the crowd with attacks on the administration for lying about the reasons for it: "It’s about oil. That’s all it was ever about."

He said that if Kerry had been effective in challenging the war, "He’d be president of the United States." He is optimistic, he said, that in the House there is "a growing movement" to oppose the war’s funding.

Bush’s Social Security investment-accounts proposal exists simply, he said in his speech, "to make that money available to the stock market." But "Social Security was never meant to be an investment. It’s an insurance policy." The Republicans, he said, "want to use Social Security as a way of effecting a transfer of wealth in this country upwards." He urged the caucus members to hold teach-ins to educate the public on the issue.

With his unapologetic liberalism, Kucinich is an outsider in the national Democratic Party. His presence fit well with the impatience of this group with the state party’s more conservative leaders.

Chris Miller of Gray spoke from the podium about the frustrations of his effort to get a bill passed in the Legislature to strip "personhood" from corporations, even though this position was approved at last year’s Democratic state convention. "The Democratic leadership really is clinging to the large corporations of the state," he declared.

"That’s where the money is!" came a well-received remark from the audience.

The objects of their impatience include Democratic Governor John Baldacci.

"He needs to engage his base a little more," said Scott Ruffner, the group’s chair, in an understated way.

"I voted for him, but he’s such a disappointment," Nancy Oden said of Baldacci. "He’s so clearly tied to the corporations. He doesn’t do anything for the people."

A longtime environmental activist from Washington County, she spoke to the caucus to try to drum up support for her very long-shot challenge to Baldacci as a progressive independent candidate.

But Kucinich, in the interview, defended Baldacci, with whom he served in the House. "He’s head and shoulders above most governors," he said, citing Baldacci’s efforts in health care insurance coverage and on environmental issues.

"It’s very difficult to be a governor right now," he added. "You’re at the mercy of the corporations to take jobs out" of the state.

The Maine Progressive Caucus is not supporting candidates, said Rita Moran, an ex-Green Independent who is chair of Kennebec County’s Democrats. ("Too many chiefs, not enough Indians," she said, explaining why she left the Greens.)

Instead, the caucus wants to pressure the party to present a real alternative to the Republicans.

"We’re the heart and soul of the Democratic Party," she said. "And the muscle."

But is this kind of muscle strong enough to pull the party in a more liberal direction?

Nationally, it’s too soon after the presidential election to tell which way the party will go, Kucinich suggested in the interview: "It’s all up for decision right now." A "dynamic movement" of progressives could energize the party with an alternative ideological vision, he said, or the party could become a "pathetic mimicry of what the Republicans represent."

Whether he runs again for president or not, Kucinich will be working hard to defeat this last possibility.