Bernie's Excellent Adventure

[Fla Dem]

As Bernie Sanders Heads to Vatican, a Visit With Pope Francis Seems in Doubt
By JASON HOROWITZAPRIL 15, 2016

>>>snip<<

As recently as Wednesday, Mr. Sanders said he was hoping to see Pope Francis. Though the possibility of that meeting was always a stretch, the Vatican seemingly put the matter to bed on Thursday.

“There won’t be a meeting with the Holy Father,” a Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said. The pope, who is leaving for Greece on Friday some time after Mr. Sanders’s arrival, would not be meeting with any participants of the conference, Father Lombardi said.

But that was not the final word for Monsignor Sánchez Sorondo, who has a reputation among some in the Vatican for attracting attention to his conferences with star-studded names. (Last year the academy screened a movie directed by Angelina Jolie, who did receive an audience with the pope.) He dismissed the Vatican statement on a potential papal audience as “all the Roman gossip” and suggested Mr. Sanders could bump into the pope at the Vatican dormitory where he keeps his apartments.(LOL, I hope not in his bathrobe!)

>>>>snip<<<<

“Anybody even coming to see St. Peter’s Basilica, they say is coming to the Vatican,” said Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, who oversaw the drafting of Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical about climate change. Cardinal Turkson added that the academy, like any other of the Vatican ministries, “can invite anybody.”

“Just like they welcomed de Blasio, the mayor of New York, to their meeting once,” he said. “That does not mean de Blasio came to see the pope. He came to an event of the academy.”

More at link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/16/us/politics/bernie-sanders-vatican.html

Bernie Sanders Brings His Family on Trip to Vatican
By MARYALICE PARKS Apr 15, 2016, 3:35 AM

Directly following his Thursday evening debate with Hillary Clinton, Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders traveled from New York City to Rome on an overnight flight to attend a Vatican-hosted conference on the urgency of building a “moral economy."

The Vermont senator was joined by all four of his children and four grandchildren, as well as his wife Jane. A small group of staff, Secret Service detail, and members of the press were also accompanying him for the trip on a chartered plane.

Sanders is expected to land midday on Friday and address the conference around 4 p.m. local time. Other speakers for the conference include former Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa and climate change activist and professor Jeffrey Sachs.

>>>>>snip<<<<

The trip was organized and paid for by Sanders’ campaign.

More at link:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/bernie-sanders-brings-family-trip-vatican/story?id=38416805

So this is essentially a campaign trip.

Bernie the socialist is taking advantage of the perks all those $27 contributions of his millions and millions of fans to take his family on a trip to Rome.

[Kber]

1. Wait - this is an official campaign event - complete with grand kids?

Huh.

[pandr32]

6. Yes---so many voters and contributers in Italy

Sanders even managed to insert himself into a minor speaking slot.

[IamMab]

8. I saw that too. Campaign funds to pay for the family to travel??

That seems like a clear violation of campaign finance regulations.

Then again, Bernie is already receiving and ignoring monthly letters from the FEC, so what's one more violation, right?

[SunSeeker]

2. What a boondoggle!

[2naSalit]

3. Hope the Pope

gets that he's being set up to be a campaign prop.

[DemonGoddess]

4. I'm quite sure he does

and won't allow it.

[yallerdawg]

5. Angelina Jolie - visit with the pope.

Senator Sanders (I-VT)* - meh.

[IamMab]

7. Gatecrashing the Pope? New low, Bernie. New low.

The stench of desperation off of Sanders these days is oppressive.

[LisaM]

9. Jane likes the trips.

I was listening to one of her painful interviews the other day and that was my takeaway. I guess El Cheapo doesn't take her out much.

[stopbush]

13. Yep. Sanders will stay in for the CA primary

just so the family can hit all the amusement parks on the campaign dole.

[Tarheel_Dem]

10. So basically the family gets a day out? And his donors get to pay for it?

[stopbush]

14. That's a YUGE number of $27 donations to pay for this trip.

But anything that confirms Sanders' sainthood is wroth the expense.

[Stuckinthebush]

11. What a PR nightmare!

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Doofus.

[KittyWampus]

12. How is this a campaign trip?

[otohara]

15. Maybe He'll Convert

from a secular Jew to a secular Catholic.

[Rose Siding]

18. I don't see how it is at all

I couldn't even figure how he'd get the govt to cover it as Senate travel

[still_one]

16. Bernie and Tads excellent adventure perhaps, or better yet, Bernie and Tad's bogus journey

He had to bring Jane so she could finish their taxes. They are due Monday after all

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

17. They've probably filed for an extension