DNC members discuss rules change to stop Sanders at convention

[JoeOtterbein]

Politico

The talks reveal rising anxiety over the Vermont senator's momentum on the eve of voting.

By DAVID SIDERS

01/31/2020 05:31 PM EST

Updated: 01/31/2020 06:59 PM EST

DES MOINES, Iowa — A small group of Democratic National Committee members has privately begun gauging support for a plan to potentially weaken Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign and head off a brokered convention.

In conversations on the sidelines of a DNC executive committee meeting and in telephone calls and texts in recent days, about a half-dozen members have discussed the possibility of a policy reversal to ensure that so-called superdelegates can vote on the first ballot at the party’s national convention. Such a move would increase the influence of DNC members, members of Congress and other top party officials, who now must wait until the second ballot to have their say if the convention is contested.

“I do believe we should re-open the rules. I hear it from others as well,” one DNC member said in a text message last week to William Owen, a DNC member from Tennessee who does not support re-opening the rules.

Owen, who declined to identify the member, said the member added in a text that “It would be hard though. We could force a meeting or on the floor.”

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more at link

[DanTex]

1. This is a worse idea than spraying coronavirus in the convention hall.

[JoeOtterbein]

3. Thanks!...

...for making me laugh!

[Fiendish Thingy]

2. The Status Quo don't wanna give up their status

Even if it means dividing the party and losing the election.

[Buzz cook]

4. Reminds me of the past.

This is the same sky is falling from 2016. A story gets tossed up claiming that the DNC or some other group is being mean to Sanders and then when you read deeper the exact opposite is true.

Even proponents of the change acknowledge it is all but certain not to gain enough support to move past these initial conversations. But the talks reveal the extent of angst that many establishment Democrats are feeling on the eve of the Iowa caucuses.

snip

Fowler said, “I think it would be not in good faith if those of us who lost that fight in committee would somehow regenerate that fight in a national convention.” If they did, he said it would result in “the most hellacious fight you’ve ever seen at the Democratic convention.”

Fowler declined to identify members participating in the conversations, and the DNC itself dismissed the idea.

"[DNC Chairman] Tom Perez fought tooth and nail to ensure our nominee would be chosen by pledged delegates, not automatic delegates,” David Bergstein, a DNC spokesman, said in an email. “The DNC passed these reforms unanimously. These rules make our party stronger and help ensure our eventual nominee has the full support of the party behind them."

Any overt attempt to block a candidate would break the party and give the election to the republicans. Only idiots don't know that.

On edit, I should say that salacious stories like this give a fig leaf for Sanders supporters to bolt the party and either not vote or vote third party.

[Steelrolled]

5. I can't believe the DNC could be so stupid as

to try to put in a fix. It would be a disaster - might as well not bother putting up a candidate.

And by the way, I don't think a brokered convention would be all that bad. I think it would vastly increase viewership (including me!). Doesn't America look reality shows involving a contest? Or it could be the worst thing ever.

[KPN]

6. Are these people idiots? Serious question. How

else can this stuff be explained?