As usual, Dennis did what most (if not all) of us want. As usual, there is little or no support

[spindoctor]

And if you believe that any of the front running candidates would have supported him, you are in for a rude awakening.

He is the ONE guy who has the balls to do what needs to be done. Do you see it yet?

[gateley]

1. WHAT HAPPENED????? What's up??

[Dora]

2. He is a true leader.

He has nothing to be afraid of. He's experienced "failure" and thrived. I read Esquire.com's recent profile. It absolutely sold me on him.

[EFerrari]

3. Tweety may not be reporting the support, but it is there.

And I promise you, after today, DK's campaign will feel it.

[Red Zelda]

4. DK is a fool

[Tesha]

6. What a powerful, well-reasoned argument! (NT)

[Red Zelda]

9. The only thing he will gain by this

is his own deepening mastery of the political fringe or the next stage in his journey back to the UFO realm. Everywhere other than here, he is being laughed at. I hate Cheney, but Kucinich is digging a hole Nancy and Steny will just fall right into. We will never remove Cheney from office, so what's to gain????

[Tesha]

10. See, that's the thing.

If the Democrats were willing to actually do *ANY*
of the things we sent them to Congress to do, we
might be in a much better position.

For example, if they were willing to impeach Cheney,
there's no telling what might turn up during the
trial phase nor how the American public might react.
As it is, there's no groundswell of love for Cheney
and it might set nice groundwork for a major
repudiation of the Republicans in '08.

But as it is, the Democrats are looking more and
more like a pack of weak, completely ineffective,
amoral wimps.

Tesha

[spindoctor]

14. Have you concidered the possibility that this isn't about gain?

But it's one item on the long list of things that need to be done.

No, the odds aren't good. Should that be the motivation for not even trying?

[depakid]

5. It's cowardice plain and simple

No other way to describe it- and quite frankly, it's to the point where I don't know who in their right minds would trust the party, as a whole to lead over the next decade.

[Dawgs]

7. So in one post you speak for everyone here and all of the other candidates.

I'm sorry, but Kucinich is not the answer.

[Toasterlad]

12. What Is? Please Elaborate.

I'd love to hear what the answer to this mess is, if not Kucinich. Which candidate will deliver us, and how? Please be specific.

[Toasterlad]

21. *crickets*

[spindoctor]

15. It's not a multiple choice question

So no, Kucinich is not THE answer. But he is part of the solution, where the corporatist frontrunners are part of the problem.

I feel confident that I can speak for everyone here when it comes to Cheney's impeachment, but if you believe his crimes shouldn't even be charged then feel free to say so.

[Hobarticus]

8. Pass them rose-colored glasses around...

Not quite convinced this is a good thing DK has done.

[spindoctor]

16. Why the goggles?

The surreal part is that nobody else has attempted this before.

[MrCoffee]

17. Wexler, who sits on House Judiciary, announced his intent to push 333

DK did a very good thing. if it happened to make the House leadership look bad, tough for them. it's gaining traction where it needs to.

[spindoctor]

23. The house leadership doesn't look bad because of HR 333

They look bad because they are.

[0rganism]

11. Unfortunately, he's too marginalized to have it do any good

Was his act principled? Probably. I tend to give DK the benefit of the doubt whenever it comes to intentions, and if ever there was a veep who deserved impeachment, it'd be Darth Cheney. Kucinich isn't one to calculate and triangulate his positions to death, and he gave his majority party an opportunity to stand with him on a sound principle.

Was it smart politics? Not really -- but that doesn't mean it couldn't have been, in different circumstances. The majority of congressional Dems seem intent on playing footsie with the administration. The GOP used this to put them in an uncomfortable position today. Were the house Democrats to take a sudden, principled, unified stand backing impeachment, then we'd see some action, and DK's resolution would certainly stand on its own merits. As it stands now, Dennis and his co-sponsors come out looking extreme (but principled, to be sure) while the other Dems look like cowards... again.

The congressional Democrats are susceptible to maneuvers like what happened today precisely because of their political ambivalence towards Cheneybush. On the one hand, a safe majority of them loath Cheneybush and despise what the last ~7 years have done to our country. On the other, almost all of them fear what Cheneybush's political machine may do to them. Associating oneself favorably with Cheneybush impeachment resolutions is pretty much the domain of the highly-principled and safely-districted. Kucinich can go down this path all he likes, because he really has nothing to lose and -- as we saw today -- the GOP perceives benefit from publicizing DK's resolution as much as possible.

This scenario illustrates the dangers of letting one's own principles become marginalized to the point that one can no longer stand for them.

[cuke]

13. IMO, it wasn't principled

To me, for someone to take a "principled position" they need to make a sacrifice. DK lost nothing by doing this. He merely burnished his support from the pro-impeachment group.

[warren pease]

20. Principles = personal sacrifice?

So because my principles keep me from murdering people, I'm necessarily enduring some sort of uncomfortable self-denial by stifling my inner mass murderer?

Or because my principles make it impossible for me to identify with conservatives of any stripe, I'm sacrificing the bliss and harmony I might achieve by adopting greed, bigotry and malevolence as my dominant ethos?

Or because I refuse to dignify the phony war on terror by acknowledging that it even exists, I'm therefore sacrificing the opportunity to affiliate with the millions of scared candy asses who look to BushCo for salvation?

Those positions don't make me uncomfortable; they make me proud to be a thinking person in a country increasingly given over to fearful, uninformed suet-heads masquerading as human beings.

They say you gotta suffer to sing the blues, but Cheney's impeachment is an ode to joy, not a slow blues in C minor.

So I don't get it. What the hell does abiding by one's principles have to do with personal sacrifice? That is, unless those principles are so out of line with one's core personality that they create constant internal dissonance, in which case professional help would be recommended.

And in this case, how the hell does standing up before the House and the world and telling the truth require that DK endure some personal sacrifice? Acting on the philosophy that has governed his entire political career doesn't require sacrifice on his part; it's simply what he does.

It's been his life's work to take a stand for ordinary people, which these days also means standing against the reactionaries in his own party's faux leadership who continue to coddle BushCo as if they're under the influence of Stockholm Syndrome.

Or, more likely, they're all members of the same club of rich elites, bought and paid for years ago by the same corporate slime creatures, and who have no intention whatsoever to rock the status quo boat.

Whatever their excuse happens to be, they should be the ones having trouble looking themselves in the mirror. I'd bet that Kucinich is pretty comfortable in his own skin, and that he sleeps quite well and has no trouble with mirrors.

Cheney, on the other hand, can't even see his own reflection. Best to bring hammer and stakes to his impeachment party, along with HR 333 and a wheelbarrow full of garlic.


wp

[in_cog_ni_to]

18. Yep. I saw it and decided to donate to him last night! He deserves our support!

:)

[ecstatic]

19. I think it's ingrained in us to support "winners"

Kucinich is technically my first choice, but I don't know if I could actually vote for him in real life. It would feel as if I was wasting my vote or something.

[nadinbrzezinski]

22. and that is why he will go nowhere

I will

But you know what?

This is also why national strikes go nowwhere

And other matters go nowhere

And as long as people just complain... but are not willing to do things on principle...

Oh well