Dennis Kucinich will return money to donors.

[mmonk]

In this from http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2010/03/17/dennis-kucinich-will-return-money-to-donors/">Jane Hamsher :

I spoke with Dennis following his speech, and his campaign will return the money to those who have donated in support of his pledge to vote against any health care bill that does not have a public option. It’s the honorable thing to do. While he shouldn’t be expected to carry the weight of the health care bill on his back when the other 64 members of Congress have abandoned him, it is both disheartening and illuminating to realize that the progressives in Congress have no true commitment to anything but putting on a show. Rep. Edwards and her fellow members of Congress should follow Rep. Kucinich’s lead and return the $430,000 they collected from donors for their part in the House kabuki as well.

A PR blitz by the President may sway liberals to support this bill, but it won’t hold. You can’t fight for Medicare prescription drug price negotiation in 2008 when it has no chance of passing, and then fight against it when it actually can, and hope that nobody notices. This is a deeply corrupt bill that among other things puts lifesaving cancer drugs out of the financial reach of many cancer patients by keeping them from becoming available as generics, even after taxpayers footed the bill for their development

I hear some here saying the public option is not dead. If it isn't what kind of public option is it?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. K&R

[Pirate Smile]

2. He'll get more from people who support his decision.

[Lorien]

10. DLCers and the Insurance industry? Doubtful. nt

[Mari333]

12. yep he is still anti corporate wars and warmongering

something the DLC loves..they loves them corporate wars and big money

[druidity33]

18. yeah, right. that's funny... nt.

[NJmaverick]

3. What a shock more anti-Obama crap from FDL. What's next anti-Obama crap from Drudge?

[mmonk]

11. I posted it primarily for the information that DK would return the

donations concerning his pledge.

[NJmaverick]

21. Then why the second paragraph?

the one where Jane has one of her usual ill informed anti-Obama rants

[mmonk]

23. Because the donors expected it to be honored and there may be some fallout

(DK giving in).

[spoony]

4. Well, we're the public, and our option is which insurance company to buy from. nt

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

5. k&r

[Mari333]

6. well, at least he is doing that. other congresscritters take the money and run

specially from their corporate masters.

[Echo In Light]

7. A stand-up dude, all the way

k/r

[bigtree]

8. Is he going to stop advocating for things like generic cancer-fighting drugs?

I don't take his vote to mean that he's going to stop lobbying for what he believes in. Who put the limits on bills improving on this one that's going to pass? The fight for those things will continue just as they would if the bill was rejected.

[mmonk]

13. I think he will continue fighting.

[bigtree]

15. then he should keep my donation

I wonder how many will ask for theirs back?

[mmonk]

17. I have no idea.

I doubt his regular supporters will. But this was in conjunction with his pledge.

[ProSense]

9. So Kucinich supporters want their money back?

He's free to do so. The elected officials who voted for the bill are free to keep my donations.

[kenny blankenship]

14. "some say the public option is not dead" Hey, there're people who think JESUS is coming back too.

You got to make allowances.

[bamacrat]

24. hahahaha. n/t

[NYC_SKP]

16. Classy donors will not accept a refund. n/t

[ProSense]

19. But then again

Hamsher is classy?

[NYC_SKP]

20. Hamsher is a contrarian, an outlier.

One always has to toss her position out of the data set.

:P

[ShortnFiery]

22. Good. That's the stand up thing to do. eom

[seafan]

25. This is a dark day for progressives.

'....and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.' --- From Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863

On the morning that U. S. Representative Dennis Kucinich announced that he has changed his mind and will vote for a deeply flawed health care bill, Jane Hamsher writes:

.....

If indeed this bill passes, people across the country will have to start examining the basic assumptions with which we have heretofore approached politics. The thing I have learned above all else in this campaign is that the corporate control of government is much more extensive than I ever imagined, and the tools we have to fight its influence are ineffective.

We need to develop new partners in the fight, because there is tremendous public will to resist and the old ones can’t be trusted. We also need a new language to describe it, because the old “right-left” paradigm is firing past the true opponent.

The effort to keep this bill from passing lives on after Dennis Kucinich’s defection, though it did indeed signal the death of the progressive resistance in Congress. In the end, what we learned is that we can’t count on members of Congress in either party to do anything but play their part in “villain rotation” — a game they can only play as long as we let them. It is up to each of us to challenge our old ideas and forge new ways to seek out those who are truly willing to oppose the corporate domination of our political system, and help them to do it.

Always locking her eyes on the real enemy, the corporate domination of our political system.



Thank you, Ms. Hamsher.

[mmonk]

31. Yes, she has been fighting for REAL reform.

That puts her way above any politician that has been playing this system to end up with what we got despite what any of the go alongs who hold these people out to be heroes have to say about her.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

26. So he should.

So they all should.

Frankly, I would like the $150 bucks back I gave to candidate Obama for the "health insurance mandate" and "no public option" he has delivered me.

[G_j]

27. imagine if all politicians did that?

I'm not sure I remember anyone doing this before.

[Toasterlad]

28. How Come Kucinich Is The Only Politician Who Feels Accountable To the Voters?

Obama lied out his ass on the campaign trail, and hasn't returned dime one.

[Mari333]

29. good point!! nt

[mmonk]

32. He has a conscience and through his life, has lived, not as an elite,

but someone who has lived the life of his constituents. That separates him from most of the others along with his not taking the voters as gullible fools.

[AnOhioan]

30. As he should....he made a bad choice today