As promised, this is the transcript of the video linked in the last post:

JACK KEVORKIAN, ASSISTED SUICIDE ADVOCATE: The only qualification you need is what I said, you’re a citizen.

JEFF GOLDBLATT, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He has been called Dr. Death. But soon assisted suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian hopes to replace that nickname with the title of congressman.

KEVORKIAN: I want to run for Congress to make a change. I want to fight for our rights.

GOLDBLATT: Specifically a person’s individual rights, as spelled out in the Ninth Amendment to the Constitution. Though vague and far reaching, the Ninth Amendment protects rights not explicitly specified elsewhere in the Constitution. Kevorkian called it the most fundamental and ignored of all rights.

KEVORKIAN: It says that you have every right in the world, because you’re born with them, as long as nobody gets hurt or threatened or their property is not hurt or threatened, you have every right in the world.

GOLDBLATT: Including a run for Congress, which a 79-year-old convicted felon retains despite serving more than eight years in prison for the assisted suicide of a Michigan man. During the 90s Kevorkian claims to have helped 130 people die, a legacy which makes him a poor choice for Congress, according to disability rights advocate Stephen Drake.

STEPHEN DRAKE, DISABILITY RIGHTS ADVOCATE: Kevorkian has never fought for anybody’s rights but his own. He wants to be the center of attention. That’s what this is about.

KEVORKIAN: Do you think I’m making a mockery of it when I’m fighting for my rights? Goethe said, “No one is more enslaved than the one who thinks he is free.” You’re not free! Look at me. I did something that it should have been anybody’s right to do and I end up in prison.

GOLDBLATT: Kevorkian says on reputation alone, he will collect the 3,000 signatures by mid July to be placed on the ballot as an independent in Michigan’s Ninth District. His opponents, the former Michigan lottery commissioner and Democrat Gary Peters and eight term GOP incumbent Joe Knollenberg, tell Fox News they want to focus on the economy and not Kevorkian. One political science professor says Kevorkian could be a factor in this race, but Dave Dulio predicts that Kevorkian won’t win partly because he won’t take campaign contributions.

DAVE DULIO, OAKLAND UNIVERSITY POLI SCI PROF: He has name identification, yes, but you can’t get elected on name identification alone. You need to tell people why they should vote for you rather than the other candidates. That’s
what he can’t do with no money.

GOLDBLATT: Kevorkian stresses it is an independent message that counts, not the money.

KEVORKIAN: Nobody in any party or any religion really has a free mind.

GOLDBLATT (on camera): Kevorkian says he won’t hire a campaign staff. He will meet voters the old-fashioned way, face to face. Most candidates wouldn’t stand a chance with such a low profile strategy then again the high profile Jack Kevorkian is far from your typical politician. In Chicago, Jeff Goldblatt, Fox News.

Yesterday (April 1), Brit Hume’s “Special Report” featured a story on Kevorkian’s plan to run for Congress in Michigan’s 9th District. I was interviewed for the story as a representative of Not Dead Yet.

I received an anonymous tip that a copy of the story is now online:

I will try to transcribe the video by sometime on Friday to make the content accessible for those people who prefer or need print as their information source. (Update: transcription is done!)

In the meantime, Foxnews.com has a print article with much of the content that is in the video piece – not surprising since the author of the article is also the reporter in the video piece:

Amid Skepticism, Jack “Dr. Death” Death Kevorkian Runs for Congress:

By Jeff Goldblatt

Assisted-suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian Tuesday received the paperwork he’ll need to fill out in order to run for Congress as an Independent in Michigan’s ninth district.

Nicknamed Dr. Death, Kevorkian, who served eight years in prison for second-degree murder, will now see if he can gain the 3,000 signatures he needs by mid-July to get on the ballot.

Before Kevorkian was released early from his 10 to 25 year prison sentence in 2007 for his role in the assisted suicide of a 52-year-old man with Lou Gehrig’s Disease, Kevorkian’s attorneys told Michigan’s Parole Board that their client was in poor health and months away from death.

Fast-forward to today, and a resurrected Kevorkian says if elected he’ll crusade for individual rights.

“Without rights, life isn’t worth living,” Kevorkian told FOX News Tuesday in a rare sit-down interview. “I want to fight for our rights. Prison reform, educational reform. I want to do all that, plus satisfy the desires of my constituents.”

Kevorkian, a retired pathologist who claims to have helped at least 130 people die from 1990 until 1998, jumped into the race last Monday.

He calls the government tyrannical and said if elected he’ll call attention to the Ninth Amendment, which says “The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”

Kevorkian said this is what gives us our natural rights. “It says that you have every right in the world, because you were born with them … as long as nobody gets hurt or is threatened,” said Kevorkian. He interprets this as a protection of the right to die through assisted suicide.

“They never talk about it in school,” he said. “I became aware of it when I was almost 70 years old. And then I read it. Then I realized what it meant: It’s the most powerful amendment in the Bill of Rights.”

But some say Kevorkian’s election bid is nothing more than a publicity stunt.

“Kevorkian has never fought for anyone’s rights but his own,” said Stephen Drake, research assistant of Not Dead Yet, a disability rights organization opposed to legalizing assisted suicide and euthanasia. “He wants to be the center of attention. This is what this is about,” said Drake.

Kevorkian said that on reputation alone he’ll collect the signatures he needs to be placed on the ballot as an Independent.

His opponents, former Michigan Lottery Commissioner Gary Peters (D), the Democrat, and eight-term GOP incumbent, Joe Knollenberg, say they want to focus
on the economy and not Kevorkian.

But Oakland University political science professor Dave Dulio says Kevorkian could be a factor in this race, which the national Democratic Party has targeted in the wake of Knollenberg’s narrow victory two years ago against a relative unknown.

“He has name identification, yes, but you can’t get elected on name ID alone,” said Dulio. Dulio predicts Kevorkian won’t win, partly because he won’t take campaign contributions. “You need to tell people why they need to vote for you, rather than the other candidates, and that’s what he can’t do with no money.”

But Kevorkian stresses it’s the message that counts, not the money. He said that he won’t hire a campaign staff and intends to meet voters the old-fashioned way: face to face. “I’m more honest than they are,” he said, speaking of his opponents. “Nobody in any party or any religion really has a free mind.”

I’ll leave it to others to notice what points I made that are mentioned in the introduction – and that it’s left to a political science professor to assert that Kevorkian might have an impact on the election, although he doesn’t say in which direction.

Needless to say, the quote included in the article and the video segment isn’t the one I would have chosen out of the several points I made when interviewed.

But that isn’t a complaint, really. The fact is, if you’re interviewed for a story, it’s the reporter’s decision as to what fits into the story that he or she is putting together. Sometimes their choices of what’s important will be the same as ours, and other times they won’t.

And certainly, I am in no position to complain – I wasn’t filmed or quoted in a way that made me look stupid or scary. And the reporter thought that I – and Not Dead Yet – should be included in this story. –Stephen Drake