(vid) Hero! Rep. Jim Traficant: “Israel has a powerful stranglehold on the American government. They control the House and Senate. They have us involved in wars of which we have little or no interest. Our children are coming back in body bags. Our nation is bankrupt over these wars, and if you open your mouth, you get targeted. And if they don’t beat you at the polls, they’ll put you in prison… It’s an objective assessment that no one will have the courage to speak about. They’re controlling much of our foreign policy. They’re influencing much of our domestic policy. Wolfowitz manipulated President Bush back into Iraq. They pushed to try and get Bush to move into Iran. We’re conducting expansionist policy of Israel and everybody’s afraid to say it. They control much of the media…”

It wasn’t easy, finding Jim Traficant. Without the help of the American Free Press, (AFP), we never would have found him. Traficant of Youngstown Ohio was running for his old Congressional seat. What sort of campaign could he be running? After all, we’d seen the Greta von Susteren Fox News interview (Sept. 9, 2009, just a few days after Traficant was released from prison). Here’s some of what Traficant had said, “I believe that Israel has a powerful strangle hold on the American government. They control…the House and Senate. They have us involved in wars of which we have little or no interest. Our children are coming back in body bags. Our nation is bankrupt over these wars, and if you open your mouth, you get targeted. And if they don’t beat you at the polls, they’ll put you in prison… It’s an objective assessment that no one will have the courage to speak about. They’re controlling much of our foreign policy. They’re influencing much of our domestic policy. Wolfowitz as Under Secretary of Defense manipulated President Bush #2 back into Iraq. They pushed definitely, definitely to try and get Bush, before he left, to move into Iran. We’re conducting expansionist policy of Israel and everybody’s afraid to say it. They control much of the media…”

WAS IT POSSIBLE somewhere in Ohio someone could say such things and not be ostracized, denounced, trounced? Actually, no. There really was no campaign. Few in the political business dared have anything to do with him, donate to him, invite him, quote him. Only a maverick Tea Party organizer offered him an evening campaign event. Otherwise, the popular sheriff and then Congressman was pretty much shunned. And yet he came in a close third on Nov.2, 2010, with over 30,000 votes.