Remember the Pentagon Papers? Some senator from Alaska had the balls to read a classified document, word for word, into the Congressional Record, and all hell broke loose . Remember some guy who filibustered to end the draft? Same guy.
Mike Gravel has been in some political cocoon since he left Congress in 1980. He's worked on tax policy and a system to establish national referenda, but he hasn't run for office.
Hearing that famous call: "Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country," Mike Gravel is declaring his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for president at the National Press Club. Officially he's the first.
How 'bout that? Someone with a few gray hairs and less to lose than Feingold to speak out against the war, and for a little spunk in the electorate. I could live with that.
You have to say something for a guy who, rather than leaking a classified document, takes his senatorial perogative and reads the thing into the record. Did you know the Pentagon Papers case went to the Supreme Court, and Ellsberg and Gravel were exonerated? Grist for the mill, in the face of our various leaks lately.
Oh, but it's April, the flowers are in bloom, and the candidates for 2008 are declaring! The horses are on the track.
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Comments: 7
If his campaign takes off, it'll hurt the campaign I want to support, and draw off our supporters. We can't effectively work together. And strategically, it even makes sense for candidates to decide not to run for this reason. It shouldn't make sense. Yuck.
At this point in the 2008 presidential race, the more voices we hear, the more ideas we hear (we hope).