Curious what has Kucinich accomplished toward the progressive

Agenda to render him immune from criticism.

You can't hold him responsible for his colleagues lack of integrity.

Hell I disagree with that statement. He was wrong last night.

I would question his opposition to this bill, too, but it seems to be based on a principled stance. Us usual.

Ted Kennedy was right on most things, but he fought for and accomplished many things for working and middle class peoples.

I wonder how many who accuse him of "purity" and nefarious motives have actually read and digested his actual stated reasons for voting no.

Agree or disagree with him. Like him or loathe him. Or whatever in between. Fine

But it is sad to see some of the knee jerk attacks on him simply because he chose not to support a bill that he (and many others) consider counterproductive by further entrenching a rotten system.

It would be refreshing if some of the attackers would at least consider and calmly discuss the points he raises.

on the ground democrats. They agree with his positions, and are rather vocal. Do you want them to shut up? That's not very constructive.

Dennis can now encourage this group to bend the ears of the Senate in favor of his position - I assume that would be related to his amendment. I don't know what the numbers and potential trade-offs look like in the Senate ATM - but there's a chance. There are also fewer ears to reach in the upper body. It's worth a shot.

His record isn't 100%, BTW. He voted for the war in Afghanistan. You don't bomb women and children to apprehend a handful of thugs. I'm assuming he had really bad information.

Dennis is a progressive voice, and I wish we had more people like him in Congress that speak up like he has. He has a spine. He has balls. Speaking one's mind for the causes, beliefs and policies that I believe in is very important to me.

Voting record, and other information
http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=318

On the issues
http://www.ontheissues.org/Dennis_Kucinich.htm

Of course, Google is your friend! :P :)
He's not perfect, neither is his record. But no one's is. But Dennis continues to fight for what I strongly believe in.

It's a useful skill, but it ends in fairly little other than a feeling of satisfied superiority.

Isn't that what we want the Congress to do, rather than side with what's politically expedient? He told us why he did this, and it wasn't for any of the asinine reasons the Republicans gave. No. I wish there were 100 more Democrats like him.

It was a tough vote for a lot of people who voted either way. If the bill was 90% of what we wanted, I could see your point. But it wasn't even close. It took guts to do what he did.

Self-righteous nonsense.

Never been accused of THAT before.

Centrist! :rofl:

That's too rich!

:evilgrin:

As even a cursory look at my posting history would suggest.

The point is not to become a useful idiot to the other side. Sheesh. If Kucinich is their version of leftism, it's no wonder WE on the left are in the wilderness on virtually everything.

:hi:

Just spoutin' off.

:-)

that's heavy.

usefullness.

i mean really, the guy hasn't acomplished jack shit in office.

he has good principles, talks a great game... accomplishes nothing.
:shrug:

the knee jerk dismissal of his positions that so many express.

On most issues, IMO he makes a great amount of sense. And I consider myself to be a moderate progressive.His positions are not some flaky far left utopian dream, but what were once considered mainstream bread and butter liberalism.

Despite his personal flaws,what is so sad to me is that the Democratic Party has moved so far to the right over the last 30 years that he is in a position of having to be a gadfly.

That's the question. Voting your conscience is great. But do we elect people to just go vote their conscience or actually get things done?

If the Democratic Party had not become so cowardly and/or corrupt, the common sense policies that Kunicich often has to fight for could be advanced.

All or nothing oft times gets nothing. DK's record of accomplishments is proof of that.

I'll contribute. He has done as much or more harm as as the Blue Dogs.

It's the truth.

He's a waste of time and a waste of a congressional seat.

All he's ever done is increase opposition to progressive causes wiht his self righteous bullshit.

He needs to be primaried.

theme.

Had LBJ been in the Congress or in the Presidency and Dennis Kucinich voted against his bill, DK would have had a primary opponent who was guaranteed to win in the next election.

and Obama is being exactly like Obama.

Just tired of hearing "what LBJ would have done", when the first thing he would have done is get rid of Kucinich. Which doesn't mean that I think Obama should do that.

Simply that these are different times--which makes throwing around LBJ's name is mostly just silly.

Was he responsible for a bill or law that brought rights or protection to people or was a great accomplishment? Do his opinions carry a lot of weight with other members of Congress or is he able to work with others the way Ted Kennedy was able to do to bring about results? :shrug:

"Everyone" and "no-one" are generally useless terms because 1 exception blows it out of the water.

and being right and uncompromising means we likely won't get anything done.

Besides being bad for many Americans that would also make it much more difficult for President Obama to get anything done for the rest of his term. Besides lobbyists "donations" that's why the Group Of Psychos are so vehement in their opposition.

I think he made a diplomatic mistake. But who the hell wouldn't be tired of a nation that doesn't want what is good for it.

Dennis authored legislature to impeach Cheney. I'll give him a lot of longitude just for that.

His health care bill was endorsed by Michael Moore.

I think Dennis just got sick and tired of the bullshit last night. The problem with Washington is that too many are just not human. It's all business. But it's the human part that the health care debate is all about. Not to mention the size of our military budget and the people it is killing around the world.

That bill would have passed without Dennis Kucinich. Regardless of how people feel about his vote, he's right about the principals.

Dennis Kucinich wasn't the person who invented Single Payer. He's just the person telling his followers that it is politically possible rather than the reality which is that it isn't possible in this country right now because of our political climate.

But quite typical. :thumbsdown:

Those make up his "team" yesterday.

:evilgrin:

he's a backbencher. he wouldn't even be able get elected to the senate...

He has always voted the purity line on most things and I expect him to continue to do so. Now, I don't know that I would do that as I have some reasons I wanted this bill to pass.

his followers here started their unrelenting criticism of everything Obama does.
As you can see from the posts today, Dennis may not be held accountable for anything but Obama gets his feet scorched constantly.

criticism of their favorite politician but like to dish it out to other posters and politicians.

:shrug:

Some would not handle it well. This is a discussion board and legitimate criticism can be on anyone and everything, last time I looked at the rules.

:spray:

you can tie yourself to a grandstanding clown with a bad toupe, while the adults try to save millions of lives by actually doing something productive.

...so he must have done something right somewhere along the line - though I can't think of anything right now that wasn't just symbolic in nature.

Kucinich's whole appeal to them is that he would gladly go down with the ship rather than compromise on the color of the lifeboats. And since we live in a democracy, where "accomplishing" something means working with people who don't agree with you to reach a compromise, it's pretty much guaranteed he will accomplish nothing.

I don't hate him. I don't dislike him. I am bored by him. He means well, has good values and cares about people that don't always have a voice. But he also refuses to give in when sometimes smaller progress is made instead of the huge, fundamental change he wants. By wanting to stop the smaller progress, the bigger change will never come. Or it will come and he will have missed the boat.

He gives a good speech about what should be, but he's never shown an interest in getting anything done.

Wrong on two counts!

Although they differ on issues, both support liberty, are honest, and care the utmost about the Constitution (although I can't explain his support for a nationwide handgun ban). Both are also well aware of the Hidden Government, yet neither would ever bow to it. Both despise the Federal Reserve as well.