GDAEman: Daily Kos' Marcos Moulitsas Asked to Recant

As you might have heard on the DemocracyNow! daily program, "progressive" blogger Marcos Moulitsas blasted Congressman Dennis Kucinich's principled position on healthcare.

MARKOS MOULITSAS: [I’m going to hold] people like Dennis Kucinich responsible for the 40,000 Americans that die each year from a lack of healthcare. And I don’t care if you’re a Republican or you’re a conservative Democrat or you’re somebody like Dennis Kucinich. The fact is, this does a heck of a lot for a lot of people. And like I said, it’s not perfect, it definitely needs to be improved, but it’s a first step. And God knows, it’s taken us a long time to even get our toe in the door, given the corporate interests that are arrayed against any kind of real reform. So I think this is a first step. It’s definitely not the end of the path. It’s not the ideal solution. But we are—our foot’s in the door. And if somebody like Kucinich wants to block that, I find that completely reprehensible.

And he’s elected, not to run for president, which he seems to do every four years. He’s not elected to grandstand and to—and to give us this ideal utopian society. He’s elected to represent the people of his district, and he’s not representing the uninsured constituents in his district by pretending to take the high ground here. What he’s doing, he’s undermining this reform. He’s making common cause with the Republicans. And I think that’s a perfect excuse and a rationale for a primary challenge.

Rep. Kucinich explained his steady principled position, explained that he has not been intransigent and had struck compromises throughout the process. Without showing any angst toward Marcos Moulitsas, and in his steady way, Kucinich explained that the ball remains in play and that tactics are involved that Moulitsas appears not to have considered:

I have a responsibility to take a stand here on behalf of those who want a public option. There’s about thirty-four members of the Senate, at least, who have signed on to saying they support a public option.

If I were to just concede right now and say, “Well, you know, whatever you want. All this pressure’s building. Just forget about it,” actually weakens every last-minute bit of negotiations that would try to improve the bill.

I hope you'll join me in telling Marcos M. of the Daily KOS that you support Kucinch's principled position. Here's what I had to say:

I'd like to register my solidarity with Rep. Dennis Kucinich in his principled stance on healthcare reform. He has enough pressures from the corporate wing of the Democratic Party that he doesn't need to receive it from Marcos Moulitsas.

From a strategic standpoint, we need Kucinich to stand on the end of the lever during these final days and weeks of negotiation.

I think it would be a good tactic for Marocos to publicly recant what he said about Kucinich. It would keep the issue alive, and maybe we'll get something other than a huge stream of dollars to the insurance industry that they will use to lock in the status quo.

For Your Convenience: