Curious what has Kucinich accomplished toward the progressive

[Kdillard]

Agenda to render him immune from criticism.

[peace13]

1. Kucinich is right on the issues 100% of the time.

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

[Cha]

39. No, he's hasn't always been.

[Egnever]

56. I am sure I could find lots of people that disagree with that statement

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

[Orsino]

62. Nearly 100%.

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

[Dawgs]

65. What does 'being right' have to do with fighting and accomplishing?

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

[Armstead]

2. He shouldn't be immune to criticism...But irrational responses to some very good points is sad

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.

[Sinti]

3. Dennis has a voice among a group of democrats

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.

[bigwillq]

4. No politician should be immune from criticism.

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.

[alcibiades_mystery]

5. He's done nothing but provide a platform for self-righteous do-nothing losers

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

[tblue]

6. Because he voted his conscience? Because he stood his ground?

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.

[alcibiades_mystery]

7. Like I said

Self-righteous nonsense.

[Armstead]

8. No worse than centrist "pragmatic" self-righteous nonsense

[alcibiades_mystery]

10. Ha

Never been accused of THAT before.

Centrist! :rofl:

That's too rich!

[dionysus]

27. you DLC corporocrat bankster lover, you!11!11!!!

:evilgrin:

[alcibiades_mystery]

35. I'm well to the left of half these cretins

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.

[dionysus]

38. i know. i was kiddin ya

:hi:

[alcibiades_mystery]

40. Oh, I know

Just spoutin' off.

:-)

[dionysus]

42. obama may promise people ponies, but dennis brings the unicorn man

that's heavy.

[Cha]

43. Good point about his

usefullness.

[dionysus]

26. not everyone that thinks kucinich is a do-nothing grandstander is a centrist.

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

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

[Armstead]

53. I can't argue with that assessment except for....

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.

[dionysus]

64. i agree with your last sentence. i just wish he would realize that we can't get what's perfect.

[Drunken Irishman]

14. But what has he accomplished?

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?

[Armstead]

54. Blame the Democrats not him

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.

[Egnever]

57. apparently blame everyone but him

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

[quiller4]

23. It was a harmful vote. I hope he has a primary opponent. If he does

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

[msallied]

36. Voters have more of a luxury to vote their conscience than Congresspeople.

It's the truth.

[HamdenRice]

61. He has issued lots of great press releases!!! Other than that, no nothing.

[WeDidIt]

9. He's a self righteous PRICK who contributes ABSOLUTELY NOTHING

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.

[suzie]

11. Many Kucinich supporters love to throw around the "Obama should be more like LBJ"

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.

[WeDidIt]

12. Obama shouldn't be like anybody but Obama

and Obama is being exactly like Obama.

[suzie]

55. I am totally in agreement.

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.

[ClarkUSA]

13. *crickets*

[elocs]

15. Is there some major piece of legislation where he was the primary sponsor or bears his name?

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:

[dionysus]

28. um...nope. but i think everyone here knows that.

[elocs]

49. Nope, I didn't "know" that, but I suspected.

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

[LatteLibertine]

16. I agree with a lot of his criticisms

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.

[Gregorian]

17. I think Dennis is human. The question is where would America be had we followed his ideas.

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.

[Hippo_Tron]

21. They aren't exactly his ideas

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.

[dionysus]

29. bing

[Egnever]

58. o!

[glitch]

18. Despicable to disparage the fighter for not winning rather than the cowards who won't fight with him

But quite typical. :thumbsdown:

[scheming daemons]

19. You know who fought with him yesterday? 176 Republicans and 38 blue dogs

Those make up his "team" yesterday.

[dionysus]

34. maybe in 2012 he can team up with his buddy ron paul and save us all.

:evilgrin:

[dionysus]

31. grandstanding with no effect or consequence isn't fighting for jack.

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

[Truth2Tell]

20. I for one do not consider him immune from criticism. nt

[Jennicut]

22. Am I the only one who does not care either way about Kucinich?

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.

[azmouse]

24. I never gave him much thought until

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.

[Jennicut]

30. Yeah, that is what I noticed too. Seems to me some cannot handle

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

[dionysus]

32. funny thing is, the very posters who hurl messiah, kool-aid, cult, ect, view the little gnome as god

:shrug:

[Jennicut]

33. Yes. I have seen that. I wonder how well they would do if the roles were reversed.

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.

[azmouse]

44. ....

:spray:

[dionysus]

25. other than getting elected time and again in a safe district? big fat zero.

[earth mom]

37. Kucinich could walk on water and the fake dems around here would still hate his guts. nt

[dionysus]

45. you might be mistaken on who is a fake dem around here.

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.

[HughMoran]

41. He's a hero to many progressive here

...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.

[Azathoth]

46. The instant Kucinich accomplishes something, he will no longer be a hero to his followers

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.

[liquid diamond]

60. This!

[Jennicut]

63. Right on

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.

[geek tragedy]

47. All talk, no walk, Just like his followers.

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

[peace13]

48. Nice smackdown!

Wrong on two counts!

[geek tragedy]

50. What legislative accomplishments does Kucinich have? nt

[bluetrain]

51. He's a voice of sanity in a chorus of psychotics.

[Odin2005]

52. All yapping, no doing, just like his fan-boys.

[Ter]

59. He's a left-wing Ron Paul

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.