Kucinich Angering Left Over Health Care Reform

I never expected the health care debate to wind up pitting the liberal blogosphere against Dennis Kucinich. The House faces a close vote on adopting the bill passed by the Senate but Kucinich plans to vote against this, protesting that the bill does not go far enough. There is a cost to such ideological purity which extends beyond health care. Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos has pointed out that Kucinich has a very poor track record at actually accomplishing anything.

Markos even threatened a primary challenge (despite the fact that it is too late for anyone to actually challenge him):

Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas warned on Tuesday night that if Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) plays a role in killing health care reform, a Democratic primary challenger would almost certainly await him in the next election.

In an appearance on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Moulitsas conveyed pointed frustration with the Ohio Democrat’s pledge to oppose reform on grounds that it doesn’t go far enough. He said Kucinich was practicing a “very Ralph Nader-esque approach” to politics.

“The fact is this is a good first step and he is elected not to run for president, which he seems to do every four years,” he said. “[Kucinich] is not elected to grandstand and to give us this ideal utopian society. He is elected to represent the people of his district and he is not representing the uninsured constituents in his district by pretending to take the high ground here.”

3 Comments

  1. 1
    Ken Schaefer says:

    » Kucinich Angering Left Over Health Care Reform Liberal Values: http://bit.ly/aAMPjc via @addthis

  2. 2
    Ken Schaefer says:

    » Kucinich Angering Left Over Health Care Reform Liberal Values: http://bit.ly/aAMPjc via @addthis

  3. 3
    abi says:

    I hate it when liberals start to eat their own, like Kucinich and Ralph Nader.  Without people like this, the “center” in this country would be much further to the right than it already is.
    If Kucinich’s vote is the deciding one that kills the health bill, I won’t fault him for it.  The bill as is (or is likely to be presented by the House early next week) will probably help some people in the short run, but it will be damaging to America overall because there simply is no “reform” in this reform bill.
    There won’t be conditions like this (strong Dem majorities in Congress, a hope-and-change Dem president) for a long, long time.  If there were more Kuciniches and less equivocators in Congress, we’d be looking at true health care reform right now.

Leave a comment