FreeSociety has posed the question, Why Did Kucinich Cave In To Obama? Which is fine if you are reporting that Kucinich has capitulated to the Obama administration. But I think it’s more important that we should consider, “What does this mean and how should we go forward from here?”
I refuse to believe Dennis is a turncoat or an evil liar. Instead, what this news means to me is that they finally got to him. To me Dennis Kucinich symbolizes the last bastion of integrity left in congress. The one stalwart figure who had balls to bring an impeachment resolution to congress and read the resolution into the record. And what was the response like? There was a resounding echo of crickets from the news media and from most of the members of the House. Kucinich is just and good man. You can bet that whatever “deal” Obama offered him, he chose “the lesser of two evils”. The problem he faces is that of a crushing and corrupted system.
We will probably never know the full details of this shit sandwich. However, I do think is important that we recognize what this means: Dennis Kucinich, our firewall, our levy, our one true remaining voice in the House of Representatives, has been compromised.
Taking my cues from the past, I can think of two recent occasions where I have seen this before:
The first occasion was right after the 2006 elections on John Conyers blog,
Thus, in my opinion it serve,s no one,s interests but the Republicans for anyone, including my friend James Carville, to suggest dumping DNC Chairman Dean less than three days after the most sweeping Democratic Congressional victory in more than thirty years. As many of you also know, I have agreed with Speaker-to-be Pelosi that impeachment is off the table. Instead, we agree that oversight, accountability and checks and balances – which have been sorely lacking for the last six years – must occur. I have nothing but respect for those who might disagree, but that is where I come out.
And so it was just 8 days after the 2006 election, while while talking about Howard Dean, Conyers in an off-hand manner, tosses out this bomb, “Oh BTW, impeachment is off the table.”
Nevermind that before the election he posted this on his personal blog,
If elected I propose to create a “bipartisan Committee, equally composed of Democrats and Republicans, to investigate pre-war manipulation of intelligence and other matters and, if warranted, to make recommendations to the Judiciary Committee on possible grounds for impeachment”,
This at AgentOrange,
I will be on the panel with Lewis H. Lapham, the editor of Harper’s and recent author of an article I highly recommend “The Case for Impeachment” (the web article is an excerpt, get the magazine for the whole thing).
We will be joined by Michael Ratner, the President of the Center for Constitutional Rights; my former House Judiciary colleague who served with me during the impeachment of President Nixon, Liz Holtzman; and John Dean, a renowed legal scholar and former White House counselor to President Nixon.
And quoted this as a blog entry,
As chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Conyers will have the power to open impeachment hearings against the Bush administration and do so in a rational manner. But his hard work will not do us any good unless we elect Democrats to the Senate as well; the Republicans could simple refuse to hold the trial if they still retained power.
The second occasion I already detailed here in my essay Death of a Blog
So what’s my point?
Don’t spend your time wondering and worrying about why Kucinich is or is not going to vote for this piece of shit. He knows it’s a piece of shit. We know it’s a piece of shit. That doesn’t matter. What matters is that the usurpers have corrupted our system of government far beyond the point of repair. Much like making a decision to repair a car or send it to the junk yard, it makes little sense trying find ways to work within the framework of government anymore.
The system cannot, nor will not, correct itself. Elections are compromised. Our news media is compromised. The funding of campaigns are compromised. The supreme court is compromised. The justice system is compromised. And now Kucinich is compromised.
Electing more and better Democrats will not work. They too will become compromised as soon as they are elected. Electing third party candidates will not work for the same reason.
There have been many left turns at Albuquerque to get here. Failure to start impeachment investigation and prosecute war crimes are just the last nails in the coffin. Even if a decent HC bill was passed, I don’t think it would change the overall scenario. The only way to correct the course and achieve balance is to junk the system and start fresh. We need to reformat the hard drive and do a clean install.
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other thing though, is it would be nice (and very useful) to know exactly what kind of pressure is being brought on Kucinich, Sanders etc…but of course we’ll never know, most likely, barring something like a small plane accident–but whether it’s something like that, or something as mundane as being flattered a bit by the President on Air Force One, we’ll never know.
Kucinch and Sanders main power was in a bully pulpit — that’s entirely gone now, as they have no more credibility at all, but there are others who will take their place.
The main issue of our times though is NOT HCR, not SS, not even accountability for Bush, no maybe not even Global Warming –it’s the on going and ever increasing external multiple wars and internal militarization. That threatens everything directly.
You pretty much expressed my sentiments on the Kucinich capitulation, as well. “. . . there’s nothing left to lose.” The whole system reeks!
Dang, wolverine06, you do amaze me as to how you can remember and pull up stuff from our “past.” Totally amazing, and very, very good!
So good to see you, as well.
BTW, of interest to you and others, please see this post (The P.E.N.) that I just put up! I think it’s right on!
I’m helping to elect a Green to the state legislature here in PA. I’m going to a peace march in DC. I’m creating a school garden at my high school. Not sure what else there is to do. What are your ideas?
This is the language of anarchy that I presume, hopefully, is not intended.
Anarchists declared the ground must be cleared before they could rebuild.
They would accomplish this goal by destroying, by bombing and even poisoning the village water wells.
There was no foundation to build on.
“Junking the system” can have many meanings. I suggest only the most extreme message. It is not my intention to interpret but to question what confuses me. No one is more easily confused than I.
In my own view, the problem is ridding the place of the usurpers who have seized the reins of power rather than destroying all that exists.
Best, Terry
itself, there has been absolutely nothing said about obeying our laws, national and International. We don’t enforce our laws, except on the little guys, like you and me. Why have laws at all if there is no enforcement of them? This, to me, is where we have completely fallen down and the results are now seen from that failure.
You can makes changes to this, that, and the other, but without enforcement, there is no point.
Yes, I think the Constitution could stand some further amendments to curb some of the most egregious aggressions of our own behavior, etc. And, then what?
We have become an utterly lawless nation, doing exactly as it pleases and it could be that one of these days, it will be we who have bombs dropped on us. We’re hated and for good reason. Our invasions in other countries that have done nothing to us, killing and maiming their people, robbing them of whatever resources they have and destroying so much of their countries just might not be sitting too well with other countries.