by Jules Witcover

Over the last two presidential cycles, Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio has been a fly in his party's soup. Not content with seeking its nomination himself as the longest of long shots, he has been Dennis the Menace by constantly reminding its other members of their failure to live up to what they profess to believe in.

His seemingly endless lectures in past Democratic presidential primary debates to so-called serious fellow candidates about these failures have served mostly as irritations to them while doing little good for himself, except among diehard antiwar liberals.

In both 2004 and 2008 he was the last man standing of the labeled third-tier contenders to drop out of the race. That fact did not prevent his loyalists from appearing at the party's national conventions in a show of their meager force but indomitable persistence.

Kucinich, never one to dodge the spotlight, grabbed it the other day, accepting an invitation from President Obama to fly with him to Cleveland, and to attend a local rally at which the president made a hard pitch for his health-care reform plan.

Last November, Kucinich was one of 37 House Democrats who voted against another version as insufficient to the needs of poor Americans, and he was still holding out. But en route to Ohio aboard Air Force One, Obama treated him to a personal sales job on the bill.

Then, at the rally, as Obama was praising Kucinich as a tireless champion "on behalf of working people," a voice in the crowd interrupted him, shouting "Vote Yes!" in obvious reference to the health-care fight. Whereupon the president turned to Kucinich and asked: "Hear that, Dennis?"

Subsequently, the Ohio congressman announced he would indeed be switching his vote, after having talked four times with Obama as well as with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "This is not the bill I want to support," he said, "however, if my vote is to be counted now, let it be counted in favor of comprehensive health care reform."

Kucinich said Obama had not offered him any special inducement for his vote, and the president, thanking the congressman, called his vote switch "a good sign." Kucinich, heretofore the House's strongest advocate for a Canadian-style government takeover of health care, observed: "If I can vote for this bill, there aren't many people who shouldn't be able to support it."

It's unlikely that Kucinich's switch in itself will start any Democratic stampede. But in arguing that the Republican opposition was out to "delegitimize" the Obama presidency, he provided a persuasive reason to fellow Democrats to resolve doubts about the health-care bill in Obama's favor. House Democratic Whip James Clyburn's earlier acknowledgment that his caucus did not yet include the 216 votes required to get the bill passed by whatever parliamentary path is chosen was an additional prod.

The physically diminutive and somewhat quirky Kucinich, now serving his seventh House term, has generally been regarded as an odd-man out with a mind of his own. His insistence on being heard in the earlier presidential debates drew many impatient sighs, but his pointed and informed comments often contributed to the seriousness of the exchanges.

Kucinich has been about the closest thing to a pure peace candidate and congressman over his years on Capitol Hill. Elected to the Cleveland City Council in 1969 at only 23, he was elected mayor in 1977 at 31, still looking like a teenager. After a brutal fight over sale of the local power authority, Kucinich survived a recall effort but lost reelection in 1979. In 1994, he got back into elective office as a state senator.

In 2002 and 2003, Kucinich was an unyielding critic of the invasion of Iraq as an illegal and deceptive act of executive power. Though often the brunt of ridicule as a self-styled David against various political Goliaths, his principled stands have offered sharp contrast to those of more moderate and timid fellow Democrats.

His one vote for health-care reform may or may not prove critical, but for once his nickname of Dennis the Menace doesn't apply as far as Obama and Pelosi are concerned in the legislative fight of their careers.

 

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Dennis Kucinich: A Relevant Outsider | Jules Witcover

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