Kucinich's statement is a good start.    Too bad he didn't do it earlier--maybe these agonizing parliamentary maneuvers--"deeming" the bill passed, etc., could have been avoided if liberals had realized earlier that, as I and many others have said for quite a while, you have to start somewhere on health care reform, and this bill is a start.

It should have been obvious for months, in fact almost a year----as I've said more than once-- that the only way a public option possibility was going to be passed in this Congressional session was Olympia Snowe's "trigger"--which was soundly rejected not only by her fellow Republicans but also by liberal Democrats. She, not Kucinich, is the one who deserves credit for a gutsy stand.

Had Kucinich not given this less than full-throated endorsement, he, to say the least, would have had some explaining to do. Opposing his President's signature program and helping to insure that Democrats had virtually nothing to show for the their obsession with this topic for about a year would have not been seen as a profile in courage. More like a profile in stupidity. Especially since, as David Plouffe, among others, has pointed out, the Democrats will be pilloried for the health care reform attempt--whether or not a bill is eventually passed.

I hope Kucinich has the good sense to help to round up any last liberal holdouts against this bill.

There is absolutely nothing any liberal can gain by the defeat of this bill.