By Tim Shoemaker
In the past, particularly during the ’08 Presidential campaign, people (including myself) often described Dennis Kucinich as the “Ron Paul of the left”. This comparison was shattered today when Kucinich announced he will be voting in favor of the health care bill.
“Some have speculated that I may be, this time, in the position of casting a deciding vote,” he said at a Capitol Hill news conference this morning. “The vote on the final healthcare bill will be close… I take this vote with the utmost seriouness…. I know that I have to make a decision, not on the bill as I would like to see it, but as it is…
“I have doubts about the bill,” he said. “This is not the bill I wanted to support…. However, after careful discussions with President Obama, Speaker Pelosi” and his family, he said, “I have decided to cast a vote in favor of the legisation….”
Read the rest.
If Kucinich were really as principled as he believes himself to be, he would have cast a “no” vote on this legislation for precisely the same reasons he articulated on ‘Countdown’ last week.
Kucinich had a chance to prove that he “walks the walk” but instead let the intense pressure from the powers that be sway his opinion.
(Remember when Dr. Paul voted against his own “Audit the Fed” bill because it was attached as an amendment to the horrendous financial regulatory reform package? That’s the kind of vote Kucinich had the opportunity to make this week.)