Attacking Dennis

Reading over the dishonest attack on Dennis Kucinich at Daily Kos, I got the distinct feeling that the writer knew more than he was letting on. To sum up: Congress wanted to extend the coverage of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to a larger number of children. This actually turned out to be something of a bipartisan effort, because a significant number of Republicans joined in (understandable, with an election year coming up in which the GOP is scared to death of losing even more seats than it did last November).

The problem came in when the shrub, never one to pas sup a chance to deny help to those in need, threatened to veto the legislation. His reasoning: he doesn't think children ought to have "government" health care. And so, with the dictator threatening a veto in order to prevent kids from getting desperately needed health care, the Senate watered down the House version of the bill -- HR 3612.

Kucinich had voted for the House bill, but the watered down version tossed too many kids -- namely, children of legal immigrants -- off the program, so he voted against the Senate's gutted legislation.

"Legal immigrant children deserve the same quality health care as other children receive. It is Congress’ responsibility to address the main difficulties that prevent legal immigrant children from gaining access to health care. Today, we did exactly the opposite," he explained in his official statement.

Okay, understandable. Dennis voted against a watered down version of a bill he had supported. In this, he is no different than most members of Congress in either chamber. It's a very common occurrence. But, most members of Congress are not running for president -- nor are most members trying to pass universal, single-payer health care (Dennis is). So why was this fact left out in yesterday's Kos entry?

I suspect it's because it's because the writer had an agenda to press against Kucinich, and was therefore not inclined to explore the nuances of the vote or present the full range of facts so readers could make up their own minds. A lie of omission is still a lie. Daily Kos has a duty to be honest with its readers. In yesterday's diary entry blasting Dennis Kucinich, it failed in that duty.

P.S.

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