Posted on 03/30/2006 11:11:38 AM PST by 300magnum
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Almost two years after the videotaped beheading of U.S. contractor Nick Berg in Iraq, his father is running a third-party race for the U.S. Congress on a platform seeking a complete withdrawal of American troops.
Michael Berg, a veteran anti-war activist and retired schoolteacher who campaigns in jeans and a T-shirt, is the Green Party candidate for the Delaware seat of seven-term Republican Rep. Michael Castle (news, bio, voting record).
Berg, 61, acknowledges that his late entry into politics is a result of his son's grisly death at the hands of hooded captors in May 2004. The event brought the elder Berg worldwide media attention, especially after he publicly blamed U.S. President George W. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
"Other than stopping this war, I have no political ambitions," Berg said. "Let's face it, I would not be running if my son had not died in Iraq. People would not have known my name, and the Green Party would not have asked me to run."
His low-budget campaign comes as Democrats have enlisted Iraq war veterans in the battle for Congress this year in a challenge to Bush on Iraq. At least nine veterans of the Iraq war are running for Congress, all but one as Democrats.
Berg said he was more than a protest candidate with no serious prospect of unseating Castle, who won about 70 percent of the vote in 2004.
"I'm in this to win," Berg told Reuters in an interview.
If elected, Berg would be the Green Party's first representative in Congress. In the 2004 general election, the party won 0.3 percent of the national vote.
Berg chose to run against Castle because of the Republican's support for the war and said Castle's loyalty to Bush will harm the incumbent in the November election. Democratic lawyer Dennis Spivack is seeking that party's nomination for the race.
Berg cultivates his status as a political outsider, railing against corporate interests, riding his bicycle to campaign speeches, and habitually wearing an anti-war T-shirt.
He owns a 13-year-old car. "If I took the anti-war stickers off, it would probably fall apart," Berg said in a telephone interview.
Berg pledged that he will keep wearing his trademark attire if elected. "If I get sworn in wearing a suit and tie, I have lied to people," he said.
BUSH SEEN AS LIABILITY
Voter opposition to the Iraq war and Bush's growing unpopularity mean that any candidate who has supported both will be vulnerable, even to a maverick with no previous political experience, Berg said.
"This is the year that Castle can be beaten," Berg said. "He has allied himself so closely with President Bush that he will go down with the president."
He said the war not only kills U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians, but increases the risk of terrorist attacks on American soil.
Elizabeth Wenk, a spokeswoman for Castle, said the congressman differs with the White House on several major issues and that "Mr. Castle is arguably the most independent member of the House of Representatives."
Berg did not consider running as a Democrat, even though that would have meant more funding than his meager campaign resources, currently about $5,000.
"I would rather run on my shoestring budget than on the silver slipper of the Democrats," he said.
Prominent Democrats such as Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. John Kerry want to "escalate" the war in Iraq by sending in more troops, Berg argues.
No class
Is he a head?
These people have no shame. Well, he may get .001% of the vote.
Useful idiot.
"Anybody see the polling?
Is he a head?"
The video was a beheading not a polling... and he is short 1 head.
Same age as his brain.
Well, Ted and Patrick Kennedy have shown that wrapping the corpses of murdered relatives can get you into office and keep you there.
I think Cindy Sheehan just found her Match.com soulmate.
LOL!
Hell, he's not even useful........
Such courage in the face of opposition demonstrated by Castle.
Wouldn't want to share a foxhole with him.
I understand it's neck and neck...
Hey, he can't be any worse than that girl who punched the cop.
What's that up on the road . . . ?
Yeah, that's why he's running under the Green ticket instead of Independent.
He owns a 13-year-old car.
He's going to have to come up with a better platform than that if he expects to get any votes.
LOL -- send me away.
Cindy Sheenhan will be his running mate.
I KNEW if I didn't, someone else would.
Good. The only votes he will get would have voted Demoncrat otherwise.
This is somewhere between irrelevant news and good news for the Republican candidate.
It is good news because Berg will pull some of the Democrat votes away from the Democrat candidate.
It is almost irrelevant because he will not pull more than a dozen or so votes away.
..Cindy Berg--has a nice ring to it...
This race will be short of "neck and neck."
Berg will loose by more than a head.
I bet it pollutes the air something awful!
I don't know about that. He may become very useful if it is a tight race between the Pub and the Rat. He could draw enough votes out of the rat camp to give us a win.
Liberalism is indeed a mental disorder. He cannot (or refuses) see the true enemy.
You're "sharp" today. :-)
Castle will stand head and shoulders over Berg.
political cannibalism.
pacifists are such wonderful people, eh?
You never know. He might pull a head at the last minute...
A bit macabre but he will likely get his son's (illegal) vote.
Gee him and Cindy banSheehan should form their own party.
Honoring his sons death by caving in to his beheaders.
THANKS, DAD!
Thanks, I'm going to hell for laughing at that.
There. Fixed.
More like "Ice-Berg".
"pacifists are such wonderful people, eh?"
Democrats Want To Censure President Bush For Fighting The War on Terror
http://www.gop.com/MultiMedia/VideoPlayer.aspx?ID=1065&TypeID=3
March '06 Radio Ad
Pass this "white flag" ad from Dec 2005 around on the internet, it's from gop.com
http://www.gop.com/Media/120905.wmv
Dec '05 TV Ad
At least gop.com has not been taken over by the RINO's!
Too bad the RINO's allow the attacks on President Bush.
Too bad the RINO's refuse to acknowledge the connection
between Iraq and WMD and al queda.
Too bad the RINO's allow the likes of hanoi kerry to remain in the US Senate
while the dim's call for the impeachment of President Bush.
Too bad the RINO's won't allow the "white flag" ad to be run again on TV
I still think something stinks about the Berg beheading. Why in the world would a young jewish american travel around war torn Iraq like Qai Chang Cain in Kung Fu? A suicide mission for sure.
He probably would have been hired immediately if he had contacted the US companies that had the contracts for the telecommunciations work. Was he looking for a gazillion dollar payday or was it a crazy antiwar martyrdom operation?
No, he's an ass. This one is (almost) as bad as the sheehag.
The Honorable Cynthia McKinney? She's no girl. She's a byotch.
If it was my kid murdered, I would be advocating hitting those cowardly terrorists with everything we got. And then some. So there.
Green Party?
I thought the man was a known socialist?
I can't wait for Gore to announce he's running at the head of the Green Party ticket in '08. We could run a pumpkin and win after that; Hillary will be triangulated down to 38% max.
He wants to reward the terrorists for the murder of his son? That is an example of how much the social libertine left cares.
I do not know if he smokes dope.
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