FOX hired Kucinich because he is not a typical Democrat

[cthulu2016]

FOX hired Kucinich because Kucinich is precisely what FOX wants to present all Democrats as being.

He is a clown for them. Meek guy with a home-made looking haircut talking about having a department of Peace.

Even if Kucinich is the greatest guy in the world, he is still the caricature and still exactly the face FOX wants to put on the Democratic Party.

And it is comical that Kucinich could have been so vain as to think that him out there on FOX spreading his message would make the world in any way a better place.

It will not.

[Renew Deal]

1. You're right

He's a tool of Fox now.

[Terra Alta]

2. also because he is a critic of Obama

Even though his criticism of President Obama comes from the left -- in Faux's view, any criticism of Obama is good criticism.

Kucinich was in Faux News commercials a while back touting how "fair and balanced" they were, so it doesn't surprise me that they've hired him. I think this has been in the works for a while now.

[Cha]

24. You're kidding! Dennis was on a commercial saying "Faux

News was fair and balanced"! Wow! Worse than I thought.

[Terra Alta]

31. something along those lines, yes

don't really remember the exact wording, but he was definitely defending their "fair and balanced" slogan. It was in the mid-2000s. I looked for it online, but to no avail.

[Cha]

32. Way back then.. now we're getting into Weird

territory!

[leveymg]

55. The really bad joke is that so many Democrats have moved so far to the Right that Dennis seems

to be anything other than a normal pro-Labor, pro-social welfare, Mid-Western anti-war Liberal. Old School. But, then came Ronald Reagan, and his embrace by many Radical Centrists in both parties.

The GOP moved further Right and the corporate Blue Dog Dems shifted into the neoliberal centrist role once held by the Rockefeller Republican wing of that party. We now have two parties in America - business class center-right, and far right loony bin.

And, we're supposed to laugh at plain little Kucinich and his haircut?

[stevenleser]

72. The OP doesn't opine what WE will or should laugh at. It's about the intent of the hiring.

And the OP opines that the intent has nothing to do with Democratic or Liberal or Progressive audiences. It's possible the OP is correct, it's also possible it isn't, but your response doesn't address what is written at all.

I'd rather wait and see how Kucinich does and how he is positioned. Obviously, having been a guest multiple times I have some experience about what being a Democrat on Fox is about and I am curious about how this will play out. It's a challenging job no matter how you slice it and my tendency is to give someone credit for taking it on.

[leveymg]

77. The message behind the innuendo was clear enough.

The undertone was condescending and dismissive, even if there was an effort to frame it as something more objective and as third-person narrative. Sorry, Steven, I don't buy the attempt to mask that.

What possessed you to make appearances so far up the River Crazy? How was that experience, and what is your advice to others who might make that journey so they too aren't simularily misunderstood as sell-outs?

[treestar]

62. exactly

And they like the idea of discouraging liberals.

[G_j]

63. Link?

[MrSlayer]

3. Kucinich should be a standard Democrat.

What's sad is that his solid pro-labor, pro-people, FDR standard stances are somehow considered radical and fringe. He should be at the center of the Democratic party.

The third way, DLC, corporate Reaganites that make up the party today are the clowns and the joke.

Except the joke's on us.

Kooch is right, the Republican light sellouts are wrong.

[DJ13]

5. + A billion

[antigop]

6. +100 nt

[SilveryMoon]

8. +1

[backwoodsbob]

18. sir yes sir

Kooch is a better person than 99% of the POS that infest DC

[Lydia Leftcoast]

21. Not only "radical and fringe," but laughable, according to the "moderate" Democrats,

many of whom are to the right of Nixon.

People who don't stand for anything often hate those who do, calling them "unrealistic," "starry-eyed idealists," "outrageous," and "ridiculous." It's happened again and again throughout history, cf. the abolitionists, the women's suffrage movement, the civil rights movement, the anti-war movement, and so on.

For a comedic interpretation of this attitude, listen to Flanders and Swann's Cannibal Song.

[Cronus Protagonist]

26. Dennis is an exemplary progressive

We would all benefit from listening to him a little more. I'm glad he's doing it. He will bring tough arguments to the issues. They'll laugh at him, of course, but Fox viewers will see a man with integrity and a strong personal commitment to his progressive ideals, which is a seldom-seen thing on TV today.

Could be interesting. I'll never see the show, though, because I will never swell the coffers of Fox by watching anything during or around their "news" shows. I hope to never find out who is advertising there. Having said that, I look forward to some good YouTube clips of Dennis making some serious points and standing up for the left of center point of view, which is almost unheard on television today.

I wish him all the best. And when you don't have to get re-elected, you can really let it rip!

[LWolf]

43. +1

[99Forever]

44. Worth repeating:

"The third way, DLC, corporate Reaganites that make up the party today are the clowns and the joke.

Except the joke's on us.

Kooch is right, the Republican light sellouts are wrong."


Bravo!

[RedCappedBandit]

50. Yup

[Earth_First]

59. +10000

Exactly.Correct.

[tabasco]

60. Pro-people boy voted against the Affordable Care Act

He's pure as driven snow! LOL.

[MrSlayer]

66. No, he didn't.

His was the vote that put it over the top.

Try again.

[tabasco]

68. Facts for you.

Kucinich voted against the bill that INCLUDED A PUBLIC OPTION.

He later voted for a bill that DID NOT INCLUDE A PUBLIC OPTION.

http://www.healthreformvotes.org/congress/roll-call-votes/h2009-887

But you are correct that he voted for the watered down legislation. Maybe you can explain why pro-people-boy hates the public option.

[MrSlayer]

75. Trip this.

He wants/wanted straight up single payer, which should have been our starting position. The public option bill was not going to pass because of the scumbag blue dogs. His no vote there reflected his feelings toward not having single payer.

When it came down to the bill that could and did pass, he voted in favor of better than nothing. The ACA does suck but it is slightly better than what we had before.

That's called taking a principled stand and then compromising to get some of what is needed as opposed to getting none.

So fuck your Dennis bashing. He did NOT vote against the ACA as you claimed.

[Spock_is_Skeptical]

71. abso-frickin' lutely! nt

[Stardust]

4. Please tell me this is a joke...Kucinich is on Faux News now? Well, I

suppose that could be a good thing










in Bizarro World! But, please tell me it ain't so, Kooch.

[JVS]

7. Maybe he could be kept busy by giving him Arne Duncan's job.

[Comrade_McKenzie]

9. Maybe he will give the daily UFO report. nt

[moondust]

10. Tend to agree.

Fox may very well try to portray him as the "typical Democrat" and may try to bait him into saying some unconventional things in order to show their viewers how "wacky" the Democrats are.

Don't think they haven't noticed how a number of Republicans like Aiken and Mourdock and Christine O'Donnell and others have been widely ridiculed as looney tunes and how it has cost them politically. They may see Kucinich as an opportunity to "even things up."

[Lydia Leftcoast]

22. This may backfire on Fox

Their working class audience may listen to him and say, "Here's a Democrat who actually talks about things that are meaningful to me." If you think he's all about The Department of Peace, then you have been relying on the caricatures from the Republican Lite Democrats.

[moondust]

25. Hope so.

But Fox viewers are not exactly known for their critical thinking skills.

[tama]

34. Nailed it

Dennis and his views based of basic human decency are "outsiders" only in High Washington and courts of banksters, corporations and militarists. In fact he's mainstream pragmatist and can connect well with ordinary people regardless of which party they tend to vote.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

46. Yes, I saw him interacting with people on three of his campaign spots in Minnesota in 2004

Most striking was when he spoke at a dinner in a suburb of St. Paul, and afterwards, the kitchen staff came out and all wanted their pictures taken with him and told him how much they liked his speech.

That's why the Establishment Dems ridicule him. He talks about things that matter to ordinary people in terms that anyone can understand.

[tama]

48. He seemed

one of the very few uncorruptibles that engage that game. And as can be seen, the standard "astroturf" or what ever character assassination attempt by the corrupted (must be on some talking point list ) is to make target's freedom of expression and discussing his convictions and common problems - as we all are supposed to do on DU - all about "big ego"...

[coalition_unwilling]

70. I saw him in Santa Monica in early 2004 (during the Dem primary). At the time, I was firmly

behind Howard Dean. After Dean's campaign imploded, I switched to supporting Kucinich.

He was very soft-spoken and unaffected when he spoke on the Santa Monica beach for peace.

[coalition_unwilling]

69. The Republican Lite Democrats are out in full force on this thread. It's despicable

and makes me feel even better about having voted Green this past November for the first time since I first voted in 1980.

[moondust]

37. Another angle,

which has no doubt already been mentioned, is that they may just use Kucinich for a punching bag, repeatedly beating up on him to show their viewers how "powerful" they are compared to that wimpy Democrat. I actually think that's part of the reason for all the RW obstructionism: brazen show of force to impress their tough-guy followers, regardless of the issue.

[patrice]

11. I hadn't thought about that, but you're right, he fits their stereotype of Liberals & they get

to characterize him as in-effectual, "obviously because he's a Liberal," to boot.

[Fumesucker]

12. Fox has been assiduously pursuing epistemic closure for over a decade now

Their intellectual-fu is remarkably weak, so weak in fact that it's starting to hurt Republicans in general. You might recall Romney thought he was going to win right up until election eve, epistemic closure.

I have this sneaking suspicion that the Fox brain trust may have misunderestimated Kookinich, he's not a fool and he's not really meek either, don't judge the book by the cover.

Wait and see, predicting is hard, especially about the future.

[cthulu2016]

13. It's possible... but if he doesn't work out they just won't put him on

It's FOX. If Kucinich is an effective advocate for his side he won't be on much. He'll be paid either way, of course.

[Fumesucker]

17. Oh the hard core Foxies will love to hate him

He's perfect for that, but Fox is shown a lot of places where it's not just the hard core Foxies watching, sometimes it seems like Fox is on everywhere you go that has a TV.

Conservatives seem to have a blind spot for satire, some of them still think Colbert is a conservative. Conservatives also don't realize yet I think that they are starting to sound fairly odd to people who don't share their particular viewpoints and obsessions, more epistemic closure.

It'll be interesting to see what happens.

[B Calm]

14. They hired him to make fun of him,

just like they did to Nancy Skinner.

[Vic Vinegar]

15. ows

Just a thought: OWS thought Kucinich was amazing. I was arguing with many members of OWS over this fact. From what I remember Ron Paul and Kucinich were always praised as peace bringers.

What we need are REAL politicians with REAL economic views. The Economic depression we are in is far more important than anything else and having monetarist Dems or Friedman Dems is just idiotic. Kucinich may consider himself a New Deal Dem but he has a lot more bark than bite.

We need politicians who will proudly call out the sick reactionary reporting of Fox News and defend to the death a New Deal plan. We need politicians who can present solutions to the pertinent economic crisis. Therefore, people like Kucinich better start talking up a New Deal financed by low interest Fed credit and a 1% Wall Street Financial Transaction Tax!

[graham4anything]

19. There we go, another Ron Paul is great fan. Not here he isn't. Ron Paul is a fraud and a racist.

you do know Ron Paul is making $50,000 a speech now.
And that Ron Paul (like Ralph Nader) was propped up by Republican big wigs like Tom DeLay
(who's district was right next door.)

If Ron Paul wasn't doing what Tom DeLay wanted him to do, Ron Paul would have been given major primary challenges.

Ron and Rand Paul both are racists, are friends with neo-nazi's and John Birch Society members (like David Duke who was all over his literature), and if you ever saw any of Ron Paul's literature, you would know how vile it was.

Ron is a mega millionaire, he is laughing all the way to the bank.
Ron has nothing to do with liberals or democratic view point at all.

Fox, the station where Rand Paul goes to promote as does every single republican/tea party/libertarian.
Home of Sean Hannity (who days after calling Tom Daschle the devil, Daschle got an envelope that contained 'thrax a few years back and was almost murdered from it).

That is what Fox and Rush Limbaugh and Drudge do.

Fox and Drudge.
Wasted billions on who knows how many witchhunts against President Clinton and continuing with the birthers and the Orly Taitz and Daryl Isaa witchhunts against President Obama.

Dennis Kucinich is NOT good at debates.
Anyone who saw the presidential debate where the late Tim Russert spent all of Kucinich's airtime talking about UFOs and aliens, knows Dennis is easily sidetracked.

Besides, Fox is great at asking half questions that always lead to anti-President Obama speech.
And they mislabel people in the printed crawls under ones name.

I am glad Dennis is going to make money, we all are allowed to make money.
However Fox is on its way out.
Ratings after elections dropped 50%.
Someday they will be a sports network

but it may take a few years

and Fox just rehired Karl Rove for another 4 years, so Rove can have a forum attempting to elect Jeb Bush in 2016.
Yeah Dennis, Jeb Bush will get you what you always wanted (sarcasm) won't he?
And Karl Rove.

Dennis-are you going to on camera ask Karl Rove about any role he might have had in the Scooter Libby leak?
I will not be holding my breathe.

Wouldn't it be better to find a position you could run for? Mayor somewhere in Nov. 2013 perhaps? House in 2014 in a different district.

If you are moving to NYC, is there not a district you could run for here perhaps?
How about running against Republican Peter King?

There would be a great seat to take over.

BTW, why not while you have airtime, bring up the fact that CBS took down Dan Rather for no reason at all.Being that the memo was never proved fake, and the info was never denied by the Bush's.
Ask Karl Rove about that. Also as you will be in NYC, ask about Roger Stone while you are at it.

and maybe Joe Leiberman can be your new BFF.
Has Fox called him yet?
They could use a voice from CT after the shooting there.
Call it the Dennis and Joe Whiner show. Hey, maybe Russ Feingold and Bill Bradley, two other whiners who left the arena too need work. Though Russ is busy with the Pac he is working on.

They will, like Rush and Sean, have fun the next 4 years, and the 8 ones after with Hillary45
in office.
Why, for them, it will be like 1993 all over again
Especially with Karl Rove going to again be so bitter after Hillary kicks Jeb's ass in 2016.

Yeah, Ron Paul and Rand Paul and Fox. 3 Frauds in one.

[patrice]

30. Rand Paul was also pushing this piece of legislation before he lost his seat. Sen Moran has it now:

I am concerned about this because it uses domestic gun issues to interfere in UN gun control treaties around the world, setting US troops up for more involvements as Policemen to the World, something else besides sales that those makers of the Bushmaster probably support pretty strongly. Here's the info about S. 2205 which I believe that Rand Paul had sponsored in the House before he lost his seat:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022193033

[randome]

40. You're not a REAL politician when you sell out to Fox News.

Or maybe that's actually true. Hmm...how about this? Kucinich is an ass!

[MotherPetrie]

16. Sounds like you nailed it.

[alittlelark]

20. 3 divorces.... enough said. He's a joke

Faux will pay $$$ to make him their (insert noun/verb of your choice) whore.

He made his choice.

[stultusporcos]

35. Unless one is spewing the Family Values Nonsense who cares about marital status or

how many times one has been or has not been married or to whom.

[alittlelark]

49. Anyone looking at choices that are made by an individual.

1 failure sucks
2 failures make you think twice
3 failures................ puhleasssse.

[oldhippydude]

23. a Friend used to joke.... that he looked like Alfred E. Nueman...

think there may be something to that..

[whatchamacallit]

27. Ok

So what?

[Tarheel_Dem]

28. E-x-a-c-t-l-y!!!!!

[awoke_in_2003]

29. Say what you want about DK...

But "meek" doesn't apply.

[Captain Stern]

33. I agree

Well said.

FOX didn't hire him to even halfway appear to be "fair and balanced".

They are paying him to be a "Democrat Party" monkey on display. "See this, loyal viewers...this is what we've been warning you about all these years" Now to present the Democratic counterpoint is Mr Kucinich...blah blah blah."

Either Mr Kucinich is so delusional that he actually thinks he's being hired so FOX viewers can hear his viewpoints, or he's such a sell-out that he's willing to show that he doesn't give a damn, and that he doesn't care who knows it.

[Spider Jerusalem]

36. You know...

I realise that, for quite a lot of people...circa 2002, or 2003, Kucinich was probably the only person with a "D" after his name in elected office who stood up and said what a lot of people were thinking; calling for impeachment and an end to the illegitimate wars were all well and good, but...he's a kook who believes in UFO's, chemtrails and 9/11 conspiracy theories. The fact that he ever had a serious constituency within the Democratic Party (even if it was, what, 5, 10%?) says more about the paucity of genuinely leftist/social-democratic alternatives in the present Democratic Party than anything else.

[lamp_shade]

38. Fox's very own clown. Yup. That's how it looks to me. n/t

[RandiFan1290]

39. Dennis makes you guys feel stupid, eh?

He reminds you of standing shoulder to shoulder with Bush after 9/11 and falling for all of his bullshit. He reminds you that you were all for invading Iraq because the shiny TV box said it was OK.

Those were the "meek" ones. The chicken shits that were afraid to stand up for what was right even though it wasn't popular at the time.

Can't change history no matter how much dirt you try to shovel over it.

Go get em Dennis! You were right all along!

[Fumesucker]

53. I don't think I've seen that amazingly nauseating picture of the Deciderer and Nancy SMASH before

[RandiFan1290]

56. Oh yeah

Nancy's little buddy was always safe with her in charge

[napoleon_in_rags]

54. Hehe! Good post. I always liked Dennis.

And I don't like the spirit of this OP particularly either: Its not disagreeing with Dennis, its the image consciousness of it all: What will Fox news viewers think of us if we are represented by him! Oh my!.
And its not even image consciousness itself that really bothers me, its the diversion it represents from things of substance.

I think Fox picked up Dennis to preserve some of its core brands. There is a threat of it collapsing black hole style due to commentator narratives being presented in a vacuum. (I even heard conservatives lately explaining to me that O'Reilly is a liberal so I can't quote him to them!) The mind tends to seek out dialectics, and will find them even when not presented... So viewers who only watch Fox will see some as the real conservatives and others as fakes. This creates a drift toward extreme ideas in some, and an identification with "liberalism" via liking O'Reilly in others, and I think they do not want. So they bring in a punchy progressive for context, and to define the actual dialectic. That's my theory anyway.

[Spock_is_Skeptical]

73. think you hit on a bit of the uncomfortable truth there.

People don't like to be reminded, do they?

[SidDithers]

41. Well said...

Too bad Kucinich isn't aware enough to see that himself.

Sid

[quaker bill]

42. Ya think?

There is a reason they don't hire Chomsky, Krugman, or Stiglitz. They probably haven't offered Bill Clinton a guest spot either....

[Lydia Leftcoast]

47. Bill Clinton would agree with them on a lot of topics

Sad but true.

[stevenleser]

74. No, he wouldn't. If you think so, you have no idea the kinds of things Republicans say. nt

[sorefeet]

45. UNDERCOVER NARC

He is a plant to bust the crooked, lying, hypocrits. Take down Hannity DK

[Rex]

51. They were fools that are going to get schooled

and pay DK cash money to make them look like morans!

WOW, FINALLY Foxnews has hired someone with more than ONE BRAINCELL!

Say what you will about DK, but he is now the smartest person working at Socknews!

Not really a complement, but there it is!

[upi402]

52. disagree

Calling Kucinich vain says a lot about that OP.
Democrats used to be like Kucinich.

Now even Ronald Raygun and Barry Goldwater would be Democrats. Republicans wouldn't have em now.

[Whisp]

57. I think you may be right - didn't look at it that way but

sure. And Dennis needs a job so I can sort of see it from his point of view. We all need to pay the bills and sometimes have to do things we don't like to get that paycheck.

[arely staircase]

58. Fox News Liberals are B-List Celebs of the Left

they are to the Democratic Party what Hollywood RWers are to the GOP. Kucinich is basically Chuck Norris.

[Odin2005]

61. Exactly. They are using him as a caricature of a "loony liberal".

And he's too nice and naive to realize that he's being played.

[whatchamacallit]

64. Style over Substance

It pervades everything we are and do now. Worrying about what asshole republicans are going to think of us is ruining this party.

[Bluenorthwest]

65. The problem with those affecting a problem...FoxNews has long been treated as if it was an

actual news outlet by such entities as the Democratic Party, which allowed FoxNews to co-sponsor a Democratic primary debate in the 08 cycle and President Obama, who sat down with FoxNews for an exclusive one on one in depth interview-solo interview with sitting President is as legitimate as media gets.
I objected to the DNC working with Fox and to Obama's interview and I'd rather Dennis was not in need of the gig, but it is just hypocrisy and fakery to run around hair on fire pretending other Democrats with far more status have not already lent to Fox the ultimate in legitimizing actions. The DNC did a primary with them. Obama interviewed with them exclusively. Last time I saw him interviewed in the LGBT press he was still saying 'Sanctity of Marriage, one man, one woman'. But he sure showed up for FoxNews with a nice suit and lots of time to give....
People need to make money. That's what Dennis is doing, getting paid. But why did Obama go to FoxNews if they are so awful one should not go on FoxNews? Why did our Party throw a primary debate with FoxNews, Biden, Obama, Clinton, Dodd, Edwards, all of them were right there on Fox cameras on FoxNews....
It would have been great if our Party had shunned FoxNews, but that ship sailed in 08. After the Party itself and then the leader of that Party work with and appear on FoxNews by choice, it is too late to whine that some ex Congressman is doing the same for money without letting your situational ethics flag fly far too high. 'If some Democrats do it, that's great, but if that one Democrat does it, he's bad, bad, bad'....

[Last Stand]

67. Republicans make their living out of ridiculing and devaluing common decency.

They want to make you feel like a loser for wanting to help the poor, like a socialist for wanting universal health care, like the anti-christ for separating church and State, like a hippie for wanting peace.

The RW people that I know think DK is some kind of wierdo who represents all that is crazy and radical about progressive politics. He is their political alien, a caricature of what is wrong with the Dam Liburls. And DK is not afraid to disagree with the ever-right-moving, *cough, cough* "moderate" position that gives the DLC their collective boner, even if that means disagreeing with the POTUS and the spineless majority of Dems.

That is why FAUX chose him. That is why I choose him, too.

[Old and In the Way]

76. Lets see how long he lasts.

If it's short-term, I think it means that Dennis didn't follow the script. If he does, he's the new Alan Colmes. Not taking anything away from either, except both will have become Fox News punching bags. Neither "looks" like the person, the typical FN viewer wants to relate to. If Dennis is successful in preaching a core Democratic message that gets the typical viewer to think, he won't last on the network.