Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), often a proponent of very liberal, unlikely ideas such as the creation of a “Department of Peace” and the impeachment of then-Vice President Dick Cheney, has found his pragmatic streak.

On Wednesday morning, the Ohio congressman announced that he would back the health-care bill Democrats are trying to push through Congress this week under pressure from both President Barack Obama and liberal groups. Last November, Kucinich, long an advocate of a Medicare-for-all health care system, voted against the House version of the legislation, arguing it “incentivizes the perpetuation, indeed the strengthening, of the for-profit health insurance industry, the very source of the problem.”

In a 30-minute press conference on Capitol Hill where he detailed his vote change, the longtime congressman said, “I know I have to make a decision, not on the bill as I would like to see, it but on the bill as it is. I have doubts about this bill…. This is not the bill I wanted to support.”

(article source: The Washington Post, photo source: Monsters & Critics)