KUCINICH'S CAMPAIGN PICKS UP STEAM OR IS THAT SMOKE?

Dennis Kucinich's presidential campaign recently hit several highs:

It reported receiving about $1 million in contributions, many of them
via the Internet.

Musician Willie Nelson endorsed the campaign.

Marijuana users helped organize supporters to march with Kucinich on
July Fourth.

Such success means the congressman, who has traditionally handled his
own campaign duties, needs some outside help. He hired former media
critic Jeff Cohen as his spokesman.

Cohen, who lives in upstate New York, founded the progressive media
watch group FAIR. An author of several books on media bias, Cohen said
Kucinich asked him "insistently to come on board."

Formerly a senior producer at MSNBC's now defunct "Donahue" show,
Cohen said he first met Kucinich when the congressman invited him to
Capitol Hill in the 1990s to tes tify on media coverage of the war in
Bosnia.

Kucinich might also be beating the bushes - or rooting through small
leafy plants - for help. He recently extended an invitation to people
who use marijuana for medical purposes to join him in Lakewood's July
Fourth parade, according to an e-mail circulated by the Ohio Cannabis
Society.

"I know nothing about it, and of course, any group can try to get its
people out to a march," Cohen said.

Deirdre Zoretic of the Ohio Patients Network, which advocates medical
use of marijuana, said Kucinich's campaign invited her to recruit
people for the parade.

Zoretic, who also is active with the Cannabis Society, said she likes
Kucinich because he supports legalizing the use of marijuana for
medical purposes.

As for Nelson, he plans to do more than just lend his name, according
to a statement issued by the campaign.

The music star, an advisory-board member of the National Organization
for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, will hold benefit concerts for the
campaign.

Kucinich "stands up for heartland Americans who are too often
overlooked and unheard," Nelson said in the statement.

Kucinich's response in the same statement: Nelson symbolizes "the best
values of America."