Dennis The Menace Comes Around

Apparently President Obama's visit to his district on Monday was enough to change Dennis Kucinich's mind.

Kucinich said that ultimately he couldn’t escape the argument that “something is better than nothing.”

“People are looking for some hope that maybe something can be changed,” he said, suggesting that he may have been persuaded by Obama’s frequent argument that passing reform is essential in order to prove to Americans that government is not entirely dysfunctional.

Kucinich conceded that he decided to swallow the bill because failure would be a threat to Obama’s overall agenda. He said he has “a real desire for our president to succeed,” adding that “one of the things that bothers me is the attempt to deligitimize this presidency.”

Kucinich said Obama had offered him nothing concrete in exchange for his vote. “There was no Nebraska or Louisiana type deal,” he said.

Now, I'd like to believe Kucinich maybe reads Nate Silver at Five Thirty Eight and got wind of Nate's analysis that being a Democrat in a blue district voting against five out of ten of President Obama's major pieces of legislation so far means he's actually the least valuable member of the caucus and Dennis had a real change of heart here.

The reality is probably something a bit more mercenary.

He's still a useful idiot for the Republicans and is still the original firebagger, but this time at least he decided not to screw his party and President over.  Oh, and rest of the country, too.