How Senate Democrats are trying to deal with Sanders
Content-rich article:
Democrats in the room decided the best course would be to let Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) handle the delicate task of talking to Sanders about the increasingly negative tone of supporters of his presidential bid, according to sources familiar with what happened at the meeting....A senior Democratic aide said that thinking reflects an acknowledgement among the senators that Reid is the one member of the caucus who “has an actual relationship with him.”
Sanders is a political independent who caucuses with Democrats. ....The presidential candidate is not chummy with his colleagues.....Reid, however, has always been a helpful ally. He gave Sanders the full benefits of membership in the Democratic caucus after his election to the Senate in 2006, rewarding him with the committee assignments he wanted even though he was not a registered Democrat.
Reid left Tuesday’s meeting early to speak to Sanders on the phone about the caucus’s concerns. But after the two senators spoke, the Sanders campaign released a defiant statement...Feinstein and other Democratic senators see Reid as the ideal peacemaker to close the developing rift....Yet Tuesday’s developments raise questions about the limits of Reid’s influence on Sanders, a fact Feinstein alluded to in saying that Sanders should defer to Reid....Reid expected Sanders to condemn outbursts ....Instead, Reid said he was “surprised” by the defiant response and dismissed it as a “silly” stunt put together by campaign staff and not representative of Sanders’s views.....that explanation looked unlikely hours later when Sanders delivered a fiery stump speech .... eliciting roars of “Bernie or bust!” from the crowd......Reid has some credibility as a fair broker because he stayed neutral in the primary race until after the Nevada caucuses in February....One senior aide described the dynamic between Reid and Sanders as “a really close personal relationship,” noting several similarities between the two lawmakers that may not seem obvious ....Both have strong independent streaks.
Reid is allergic to Washington’s social circuit of receptions and dinners that draw many members of Congress.....Sanders is also something of a loner who shows little interest in hanging out with lobbyists.....
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/280445-how-senate-democrats-are-trying-to-deal-with-sanders
= new reply since forum marked as read
'Suspicion is growing among Democrats that Sanders might be setting the increasingly pugilistic tone for his campaign himself.
“The ‘burn it down’ attitude, the upping the ante, everything we saw in that statement released [Tuesday] by the campaign seems to be coming from Sanders himself. Right from the top,” wrote Josh Marshall, a prominent left-leaning journalist, who cited “multiple highly knowledgeable, highly placed people.”
Democratic senators have given Sanders a wide berth so far, treading carefully on the question of whether he should drop out of the race due to Clinton’s overwhelming delegate lead.'
Sanders IS the one stoking the flames of his supporters' discontent. He knows full well that he won't have more pledged delegates than Hillary, and yet, he continues to attack her. He outright lied on Tuesday when he told his followers at a rally in CA that he could still end up with the majority of pledged delegates. Who is he kidding???
Then there's the outrageous strategy of the two weasels who run his campaign. Devine and Weaver have a lot of chutzpah to suggest that the super delegates should switch, from the candidate they already support, to the candidate who is way behind in both pledged delegates and the popular vote. Their criteria being that Sanders does better in match-up polls against Trump, polls that in May mean absolutely squat in a general election.
This is one crazy election season, with Sanders on the Left and Trump on the Right.
