Markos Moulitsas Is A Self-Righteous Asshole

Not too long after I wrote that all you had to do to realize why progressives can't get anything accomplished is by looking at what our leaders are saying, Markos Moulitsas, AKA Kos, said this on national television, as quoted by Salon:

"I'm going to hold people, like Dennis Kucinich, responsible for the 40,000 Americans that die each year from a lack of health care. 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 ... It's not the ideal solution. But we have our foot in the door, and if somebody like Kucinich wants to block that, I find that completely reprehensible."

The Liberal Case Against Dennis Kucinich

First of all, while the DLCers and Blue Dogs that Moulitsas has been promoting as the key to Democratic victory these last few years were keeping silent or promoting the Iraq War, the erosion of our freedoms, and the "unitary executive", Dennis Kucinich was one of the few people in Congress who were speaking out against them. He was one of the few congresspeople courageous enough to suggest that George W. Bush should be impeached, since Bush had confessed to so many crimes on national TV. If there is a hell for American politicians, quite a few of Markos's favorites are going to be in line ahead of Kucinich.

Second, if Moulitsas's fave Presidential candidate hadn't done everything in his power to make the health care reform bill as useless to average Americans as possible, then Kucinich and just about every progressive in the country would probably be behind it right now, instead of being terrified that the thing might pass and completely destroy our chances of seeing real health care reform in our lifetimes. Yet Daily Kos was infamous during the Democratic primary for being abusive to anyone who wasn't behind Barack Obama, and it deserved to be.

Kucinich, even though he is a pretty senior member, has little power to affect legislation that isn't drafted in one of his committees. He's also an easy target, because the press never tires of reminding us what a fruitcake he supposedly is. It doesn't take a lot of guts to criticize Dennis Kucinich. He's not going to send Rahm Emanuel to your supporters to tell them they ought to be more careful where they send their money.

Kucinich didn't strip the health care reform bill of the "Medicare for anyone who wants it" provision. He didn't remove the prohibition against lifetime insurance caps. He didn't make it so that people in their fifties would have to pay three times what people in their twenties do for insurance. He didn't include the language that makes it impossible to get financing for an abortion from any federally subsidized insurance plan. He didn't make the rule that the IRS would ensure that we all buy crap insurance. He didn't make certain there were no provisions for enforcing any of the few restrictions on insurance company behavior that remained in the bill, either. That was done by the sorts of Democrats Markos kept telling us we had to elect.

The worthless assholes who did that are the ones who should be blamed for those 44,000 deaths a year. This bill won't prevent more than a handful of them.

If Moulitsas wants to pick a fight with someone, I earnestly suggest that he screw up his courage and pick it with the people who were responsible for making this bill what it is, instead of blaming one of the few congressmen who still spare a thought for the people who elected them, for a opposing a lousy bill he had no hand in creating.

UPDATE: Added the reference to the amendments that effectively prohibit insurance coverage for abortions. Also, those who haven't seen it should check out this Seminal diary by PaulaT. The comments after (including PaulaT's) are actually more interesting than the article itself, for what they show about progressives' attitudes towards Kos, the Democratic Party, and health care reform.