Markos Moulitsas (Daily Kos) was on Countdown last night condemning Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) for refusing to support the Senate's health care bill as insufficiently progressive. Moulitsas, who was thoroughly unable to pronounce Rep. Kucinich's last name, went so far as to say that he will hold Kucinich accountable for those Americans who die as a result of not having health insurance. He also suggested that progressives should support a challenge to Rep. Kucinich's seat in Congress.

I disagree completely, and I admire Rep. Kucinich for standing up for real progressive health care reform. Moulitsas calls his stand unrealistic, and he's probably right about that. But that doesn't mean that Rep. Kucinich is wrong. What is wrong is that the rest of the Democratic Party didn't pursue single-payer health care from the beginning.

Moulitsas repeatedly compared Kucinich to Ralph Nader. Unbelievably, Moulitsas blames Nader for 8 years of Bush. The problem wasn't Nader, and it isn't Kucinich. The problem is that the Democratic Party continues to alienate their progressive base by moving further and further to the right. Mr. Moulitsas has provided us with yet another example.

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