The internets are all abuzz with the smackdown Mike Gravel gave to his fellow Democratic candidates during the latest debate.

You can watch a compilation of his performance here:

http://weazlsrevenge.blogspot.com/2007/04/mike-gravel-busting-all-of-lackey.html

A Democratic Blogger writes:

"Dennis Kucinich just lost nearly all of his support. He is now completely irrelevant. Gravel adopts the same positions, but has passion and power."

Not EXACTLY the same positions, as we here on blogger are aware. Kucinich is the only Democratic candidate who has dipped his toe into 911 truth. Gravel has not and, judging from his speech at least, supports the official fairy tale.

However, politics nowadays is not about what position you take on a particular issue, it's how well you present yourself. On that basis, Kucinich may well be finished. Many here are fans of Ron Paul, but unless he is able to pull a Perot he may not get any media coverage whatsoever, and therefore be relegated to "Green party" status.

Here’s antiwar.com:

“Kucinich took a fairly strong antiwar position, as always. But I do have a problem with his call for other nations to take over the occupation of Iraq. Calling for continued occupation of Iraq by any foreign nation is not only wrong, but it can be easily used to justify continued US occupation if other nations are unwilling to do so. I also feel his delivery and persona are unimpressive and getting quite stale. (I know I will get some letters from fans, but that’s my opinion.)

Gravel, on the other hand, got the issues of war and peace exactly right.

“Some of these people [the other candidates] frighten me. When you have mainline candidates that turn around and say “there’s nothing off the table with respect to Iran. That’s code for using nukes, nuclear devices. I’ve got to tell you, if I’m President of the United States, there will be no preemptive wars with nuclear devices. In my mind, it’s immoral, and it’s been immoral for the last 50 years as part of American foreign policy.”

Gravel continued:

“You know who the biggest violator of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty is? The United States of America! We signed a pledge that we would begin to disarm and we’re not doing it. We’re expanding our nukes. Who the hell are we going to nuke?”

Gravel certainly appears to be a principled man:

"A native of Springfield, Mass., Gravel served two terms in the Senate, representing Alaska from 1969 to 1981 . He made his mark as a fierce Vietnam war critic who staged a one-man filibuster that led to the end of the military draft. He drafted legislation to end funding for the war and released the Pentagon Papers, which detailed government deception over Vietnam, at the end of June 1971."

"The Nixon administration decided not to prosecute Gravel for having Beacon Press in Boston publish the papers, though the US Supreme Court ruled that Gravel could release them only inside the Capitol, based on the Constitution's speech and debate clause."

""People are talking about him," Zogby said. "And they are going to hear from him over the next few months as long as he's got money for a bus ticket."

But a truly principled man would have already embraced 911 truth.

I did not make this blog to prop up Gravel, or Kucinich, or Ron Paul for that matter. I agree with Gore Vidal that "Any American who is prepared to run for President should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so.”

The point is here is that cannot we rely on this or that politician. Politics is a game and they're players. They're fickle creatures who can change overnight. The countless hours we devote to campaigning for this or that individual is better spent in the streets. We have to MAKE them respond by getting out en masse, regardless of who is in office.