Last fall, Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos took the very wrong-headed (to me) position that the House's health bill was so bad people should vote against it.
I'm happy to see he's now come around to a more sober view, which can't alas be said of Dennis Kucinich, the left-wing Ohio congressman. He voted against the bill last fall and recently said he'd vote against it again even if he were the deciding vote.
Last night on teevee, Markos said that if he helps kill reform, Kucinich should face a primary. HuffPo:
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."
Pressed by fill-in host Lawrence O'Donnell as to whether a Kucinich would get a Democratic challenger for his seat if he didn't support health care legislation -- and in the process kill it -- Moulitsas replied, "Yeah, absolutely."
"What he is doing is undermining this reform," he added. "He is making common cause with Republicans. And I think that is a perfect excuse and a rational one for a primary challenge."
The boy mayor has been around politics a long time. There's no way he can honestly believe that the defeat of this bill hastens the day that a single-payer system will arrive on our shores. Just no way. Which means that he's probably playing very cynically on the emotions and beliefs of the very people (single-payer adherents) who most strongly back him.
He knows defeat of this bill won't help single-payer, but he knows that it will help him in the eyes of those folks.
Way too many Democrats are playing games like this. Artur Davis from the middle, Kucinich from the left, Massa from both sides, and of course Bart Stupak and his gang, also from the middle. It's really nothing short of sickening to watch these preening jackanapeses flush their constituents' needs down the toilet so they can get attention or some personal gain.