The best friend of Muammar al-Gaddafi and Bashar al-Assad lost tonight

[ButterflyBlood]

Yeah I'm not shedding any tears over the defeat of Kucinich. It's bad and vile in the sense that a Democratic incumbent was done in by a vile GOP gerrymander but Kucinich really went off the deep end and went far beyond simply opposing US military action. He actually met with the Gaddafi regime and spoke about assisting in keeping Gaddafi in power: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2011/08/2011831151258728747.html

And while we're at it he also chose to meet with Bashar al-Assad once he started making the news by gunning his own people down in the streets while praising Assad as a fine leader: http://www.salon.com/2011/06/28/kucinich_in_damascus

Yes there is a line between opposing US military action (although there was not at the time and still today has never been any military action in Syria) and actively supporting dictators. Kucinich crossed it.

[David__77]

1. That raises my view of Kucinich. He is a man interested in peaceful international relations.

I hope he will be back, and soon.

[Odin2005]

5. Here come the usual suspects.

[David__77]

10. Oh no - the leftists!

Now my impression of myself is similarly raised.

[Odin2005]

11. I am a Leftist.

I'm just not a doctrinaire Stalinist who thinks everything the West does is part of some evil conspiracy and that brutal dictators are good people.

[David__77]

12. So you're a nondoctrinaire Stalinist?

Stalin thought the US did dome great things - even allied with it for a time.

[joshcryer]

13. Even when "allied" with the US the USSR proclaimed imperialism...

...to their people. It was a very very convenient Emmanuel Goldstein and it sufficed to silence all democratic dissent in the USSR.

[David__77]

16. Sure...

The Soviet Union was an imperialist country. And the ruling party hosted the imperialist ruling class.

[Odin2005]

15. I'm the kind you guys deride as "Utopian Socialists".

My Socialism is based on my ethical beliefs rather than any historical determinist theory of history. Marx was a brilliant sociologist but sucked at predicting the future.

[David__77]

17. Socialism is not inevitable. And capitalism can be profoundly progressive.

I do not support any mechanical "Marxist" interpretations of historical development. Capitalism currently plays, on balance, a very progressive role in the world. Socialism would be the choice of a humanity that has "grown up." But that is certainly not inevitable. So I suppose I would agree with you.

[think]

2. Kucinich wanted things done according to the Constitution. Shame on him...

http://kucinich.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=247902

[Sherman A1]

4. Precisely

Well Said

[joshcryer]

14. That is debatable. In the end his disinformation that it was a "stalemate"...

...that UN Resolution 1973 did "not allow for regime change," that the "allies are weakening" was just Gaddafi propaganda. Complete fabrications.

Stalemate? Well, we see that the war ended.

R2P allows for regime change, and that is one reason many nations condemn it.

The allies never weakened, the war ended.

Sadly, Kucinich was a tool for the Gaddafi regime and they used him well.

[leveymg]

3. BS - AIPAC and the Bluedogs have been gunning for Dennis for a long time

It took redistricting by the GOP state assembly to get rid of him, but you all worked together magnificently to silence one of the last true progressive voices in Congress.

[Odin2005]

7. Kaptur isn't a progressive?

[ellie]

8. Yes, she is

She is very strong on labor. Maybe not so much on abortion.

[Odin2005]

6. Good riddance to Dennis.

[frylock]

9. what an absolute pleasure it will be to put such ignorance on ignore