NBC Will Go To Any Length To Exclude Dennis Kucinich From Nevada Debate

Dennis Kucinich may be currently drawing only one percent in the polls, but what a percent! It's apparently sufficient enough to drive all sorts of media organizations to hopeless distraction in their attempts to exclude the candidate from debating.

Kucinich has run afoul of the debate gatekeepers before. In Iowa, the Des Moines Register kept Kucinich from the dais using a set of regulations that somehow, perplexingly, failed to exclude the grandstanding paleocon fop Alan Keyes. That's sort of like having a set of rules that ban birthday cake while requiring people to stick their faces inside a bag of wild, fearful voles, but, whatever! As far as the Des Moines Register was concerned, democracy was served.

Now, in Nevada, Kucinich has had to file suit against NBC, who rescinded their previous invitation to tonight's debate. Judge Charles Thompson ended up deciding the matter in Kucinich's favor, threatening to shut the debate down if Kucinich is disallowed from participating. But NBC must have heaps of money to burn in pursuing this absurd matter, because today, they've filed an appeal and will take this matter before the Nevada Supreme Court, which is surely the best possible use of their time ever!

Why is NBC taking such extreme measures to keep Kucinich from the debate? Does the network think it would be bad for the democratic process to have at least one candidate onstage who's neither enmeshed in the nonsensical racial animus the race has become steeped in, nor likely to be to help perpetuate the asinine gender politics expressed by their employee, Chris Matthews? Probably!