Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-VT) campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, said on Wednesday that the senator will remain a Democrat after the 2016 presidential election.
Weaver was asked on Bloomberg News' "With All Due Respect" whether Sanders would still be a Democrat even if he lost the presidential nomination.
"Well, he is a Democrat. He’s said he’s a Democrat, and he’s gonna be supporting the Democratic nominee, whoever that is," Weaver responded.
And when asked of Sanders was now a "Democrat for life," Weaver said, "Yes, he is."
*heavy sigh*
Some will
insist this is not where his heart lies; that it is only technical; a formality -- and to be clear I
fit this description myself -- but that Sanders and his people have repeatedly insisted it so is unfortunate from my long-held (well,
two-plus years) perspective. His declarations remove a substantial portion of his political leverage IMHO, but avoid his being demonized as a Nader-ish spoiler (sic). I do not expect
Status Quo Democrats to do anything except pretend to be happy about this development, and
not until
post-primary season, and
certainly not for the foreseeable
#StillSanders future.
Clinton's campaign, eager to move past Sanders and focus on the general election, is getting impatient and even angry at some of the attacks.
One in particular has Clinton worried. Sanders' campaign is raising the issue of whether the Clinton campaign is violating campaign finance rules with how it raises money jointly with the Democratic National Committee -- an argument that has the Clinton people "pissed," as one source told CNN.
The concern is that the theme could play into Donald Trump's recent moniker for her -- "Crooked Hillary" -- especially if he is the Republican nominee.
They worry about the impact of such attacks because they're not aimed just at Clinton but also at the DNC and could weaken the nominee in a general election fight.
Jennifer Palmieri, Clinton's communications director, told reporters Tuesday night that the Sanders campaign "has been destructive" to that point that he is "not productive to Democrats" and is "not productive for the country."
Decrying what she described as "false character attacks," Palmieri compared them to criticism Clinton gets from the GOP. "And any time you mimic Republican attacks, we think that is destructive."
Yeah, that tone will be good for post-primary party unity, all right. They just don't care any more, though, especially when they're accusing me of
being buddies with Ted Cruz. Of course this is all just '
fun'. There's a lot of Clinton people that have been removed from my social media timelines as a result of this sort of 'fun' (some are still tethered, if somewhat tenuously). I find I have to prune them on a weekly basis, just like the wisteria that grows on my side fence.
So the invasive species known as
neoliberalism claims another
urban-legend-believing victim. Taken at his word, Bernie Sanders has been assimilated by the collective. Maybe I can just hope he's lying, like I do about Hillary's in-advance
declarations of war on Iran. And Trump/Cruz is the greater evil, which is the best aluminum-siding sales job they can come up with to push Hillary on Bernie's supporters.
Energizing, isn't it?
