…you are doing yourself and your country a real service.
Dennis Kucinich has stood fast and strong for the public option. He maintained on TV just one week ago that this bill was a giveaway to the insurance companies and that he would fight for a robust public option.
There is nothing like a pol willing to defy party and president in order to stand up for what he knows is right…
“I know I have to make a decision, not on the bill as I would like to see, it but on the bill as it is,” the longtime congressman said in a 30-minute press conference on Capitol Hill where he detailed his vote change. “I have doubts about this bill,” he said. “…This is not the bill I wanted to support.”
“However, after careful discussions with President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, my wife Elizabeth and close friends, I have decided to cast a vote in favor of the legislation,” he said.
How about that? From Hotair:
Blue Dog moderates who already don’t want to be linked to Nancy Pelosi in upcoming midterms may find being linked to Kucinich even less palatable. We’ll see. In this case, the real test may not be Kucinich’s switch but who will be the first to follow him.
Selling out his progressive principles is worth the 15 minutes of fame.
Plus, ooh, la, lah, President Obama showered with him attention. Kucinich revealed that he met four times(!) with the cajoler-in-chief — the last time on Air Force One.
Contest time: What else did Congress’s favorite UFO/alien-spotter get in return for his vote?
The Other McCain keeps his eyes on the…prize?
This just in – Dennis Kucinich’s wife is still hot. You got to give the guy credit for that, eh?
Meanwhile, CNN reports “no” votes from five other Democrats whose wives aren’t nearly as hot as Elizabeth Kucinich.
Liberal Vales asks a relevant question:
One question is whether Kucinich is changing his votes due to receiving major concessions, or if this is an example of the type of pressure being placed on Democratic Congressmen to support passage of the bill.
Has everybody forgotten that the bill in question is the senate bill? There ARE no concessions to offer yet. The bill being offered is the unamended senate bill and a vote for that bill means neither the White House nor the Democratic Leadership have to deliver on any concession. And if reconciliation on this matter loses in the court and the president ends up with the senate bill. Oh Well!
Finally Firedoglake gives the bottom line:
If on the other hand he settles for some worthless reassurances that “Obama will work toward it in the future” (which nobody but Lynn Woolsey is dumb enough to actually believe), or a meaningless symbolic vote that achieves little more than 15 minutes of futile grandstanding, good luck to him. A thousand people have donated over $16,000 to Dennis since yesterday to thank him for standing up for what he believes in. We’ll be asking him to return it.
I still think this is going down.
Update: Forget last week Bill Jacobson reports that Bold Sir Dennis excoriated Obamacare in an op ed just two days ago.
Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog 