Democratic Leaders Willing to Risk Party Damage to Stop Bernie Sanders

[Dennis Donovan]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/27/us/politics/democratic-superdelegates.html

Interviews with dozens of Democratic Party officials, including 93 superdelegates, found overwhelming opposition to handing Mr. Sanders the nomination if he fell short of a majority of delegates.

By Lisa Lerer and Reid J. Epstein
Feb. 27, 2020
Updated 7:31 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, hear constant warnings from allies about congressional losses in November if the party nominates Bernie Sanders for president. Democratic House members share their Sanders fears on text-messaging chains. Bill Clinton, in calls with old friends, vents about the party getting wiped out in the general election.

And officials in the national and states parties are increasingly anxious about splintered primaries on Super Tuesday and beyond, where the liberal Mr. Sanders edges out moderate candidates who collectively win more votes.

Dozens of interviews with Democratic establishment leaders this week show that they are not just worried about Mr. Sanders’s candidacy, but are also willing to risk intraparty damage to stop his nomination at the national convention in July if they get the chance. Since Mr. Sanders’s victory in Nevada’s caucuses on Saturday, The Times has interviewed 93 party officials — all of them superdelegates, who could have a say on the nominee at the convention — and found overwhelming opposition to handing the Vermont senator the nomination if he arrived with the most delegates but fell short of a majority.

Such a situation may result in a brokered convention, a messy political battle the likes of which Democrats have not seen since 1952, when the nominee was Adlai Stevenson.

</snip>

[Iliyah]

1. The soil of misinformation continues with the NYTs . . .

Just my opinion . . .

[brooklynite]

3. So, by "misinformation", you're saying the story isn't true?

[evertonfc]

2. or risk party damage by nominating him?

A large majority of Sanders supporters are not Democrats. If he is nominated and loses ( and I think he will quite handily) the party is forever branded as Democratic socialists. If the delegate count is close but no one has 1991- all bets are off. If we lose some in General so be it. We will still win.

[Dennis Donovan]

7. "A large majority of Sanders supporters are not Democrats"

Last edited Thu Feb 27, 2020, 09:47 AM - Edit history (1)

That's simply not true. They're by-and-large Democrats. Maybe a few high profile supporters don't claim to be Dems (like Sarandon), but the vast number of his supporters are Democrats.

[Magoo48]

25. Yes, yes so the campaigners are campaigning. It's primary season.

What is your candidate proposing that is new and exciting?

For example, Liz is reassuring her followers that corporate America will be consistently scrutinized and brought to task by her administration, and she has a track record of attempting to do just that. I find that exciting.

[Mariana]

26. "A large majority of Sanders supporters are not Democrats."

Please provide some evidence for this. TIA.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

40. Bingo

[brooklynite]

4. I'm not opposed in principle, but this would require some really top-notch political strategy...

...which I'm not sure is in place at the DNC.

[TwilightZone]

5. A majority of delegates is required, whether in the primary process or at the convention.

That's how it works. That's how it's supposed to work.

If they believe the alternative is losing the general election and potentially the House, then it's an understandable risk from their perspective. Since Sanders has never meaningfully been vetted (just starting now, perhaps), it's difficult to predict whether or not that's a reasonable assumption.

What we do know is that Democrats in a lot of purple and red-leaning districts would likely have to distance themselves from Sanders to be successful in those particular areas. The same wouldn't be true with most of the other front-runners.

[BeyondGeography]

6. So many stupid ideas in there

This is my favorite:

Representative Don Beyer of Virginia cast an even wider net, suggesting senators from Virginia and Delaware, along with Ms. Pelosi, as possible nominees.

“At some point you could imagine saying, ‘Let’s go get Mark Warner, Chris Coons, Nancy Pelosi,’” he said, while preparing to introduce the former Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend., Ind., at a campaign event near his home on Sunday. “Somebody that could win and we could all get behind and celebrate.”

Celebrate Coons! Unstoppable I say.

[Dennis Donovan]

9. Pete, standing feet away, after Beyer said that:

[Steelrolled]

16. Yeah, what an introduction.

I wonder what Pete had to say.

[TwilightZone]

12. He's pretty clearly just brainstorming.

In brainstorming, pretty much anything goes. It doesn't mean that all ideas are equally valid.

He probably threw Coons' name out because Coons is known in DC as a deal-maker. I guess that would only be appropriate since his nomination would require a very outside-the-box kind of deal.

Of course, a lot of people profess to hate deal-makers, perceived or otherwise, so that one probably wouldn't go over too well.

[brutus smith]

8. And now we know who the party's establisment is.

Democratic megadonor Bernard Schwartz has started reaching out to party leaders, particularly House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, to encourage them to back a candidate for president in order to stop the surge of Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Schwartz, the CEO of BLS Investments, told CNBC that in recent days he's been trying to speak with Pelosi and Schumer about making a pick out of the hope that voters will follow their lead and end up denying Sanders the party's presidential nomination.

[TwilightZone]

17. "Establishment"

Well, according to some, 99% of the party's elected officials and leaders are basically the establishment, so I'm not sure why they shouldn't have a say in the process in the case of a lack of majority consensus. SDs are members of Congress, governors, mayors, former POTUS/VP, former party leaders, labor leaders, committee chairpersons, leaders of groups like Young Democrats and the National Federation of Democratic Women, etc. They've probably earned the right to be involved.

It might not even require SDs. If Sanders comes in with, say, 30% of delegates, a majority of delegates is relatively attainable if delegates from the other candidates agree to mostly support one other candidate.

Welcome to democracy. A majority is required either way - through the primary process or at the convention.

[brutus smith]

21. I'm not sure what part of what I posted you didn't understand.

[ehrnst]

28. That's your response to anyone who calls our your insinuations.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1287&pid=590156

[brutus smith]

31. Tell me what you don't understand.

[ehrnst]

33. Why you think it works.

When it clearly doesn't.

[CentralMass]

29. ...

[ehrnst]

36. You left out this...

Schwartz noted he has yet to hear back from them but insisted that, with Super Tuesday under a week away, party leaders have to take a stand now before Sanders captures the nomination.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/26/megadonor-urges-pelosi-schumer-to-pick-candidate-to-stop-bernie-sanders.html

Looks like Schumer and Pelosi aren't quite as nefarious you seem to hope.

You're welcome.

[brutus smith]

38. You left this out.

The New York Times reported in April that Schwartz was organizing dinners on how to handle Sanders’ run for president with Pelosi, Schumer, former Gov. Terry McAuliffe of Virginia; presidential candidate former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Neera Tanden, the president of the Center for American Progress.
Your welcome.

[ehrnst]

39. And you left this out...

Representatives for Pelosi and Schumer did not respond to a request for comment. Both publicly signaled on Wednesday that they would be comfortable with Sanders leading the Democratic ticket in November.

I think you need to select new "bad guys."

[Autumn]

10. Bookmarking.

[myohmy2]

11. "..willing to risk intraparty damage to stop his nomination..."

...if Bernie loses the nomination through cheating or shenanigans, we will lose everywhere in November, IMO...

..I'm going to vote a straight Democratic ticket in November no matter who heads the ticket, but many People around me are not so willing...

...if I had to predict today, I'd say we'd lose the Presidency, House and Senate if Bernie were to lose due to cheating or shenanigans...

...now if Bernie loses fair and square, that's different...

[TwilightZone]

18. "cheating or shenanigans"

Rules that Sanders was involved in writing and readily agreed to when he chose to run as a Democrat are not "cheating or shenanigans".

[ehrnst]

37. Smear by passive inference.

[ehrnst]

34. ....What cheating or shenanigans?....

[CousinIT]

13. Correction: To stop DONALD TRUMP

Who will get a 2nd term if BS is the nominee. And we’ll likely lose the House, too. That’s what they’re trying to prevent.

[dchill]

15. It's all so very...

...democratic. Who is tearing the party apart? Which faction will do the most damage?

[TwilightZone]

19. Probably the faction that already spends the most time hacking away at the party and its leadership.

Just a thought.

It's the same faction that has seemingly made "Primary Warren" a thing simply because she had the nerve to explain how the process works to an apparent Sanders supporter.

[DanTex]

20. And people complain when Bernie talks about the Dem establishment trying to stop him...

Not only is the establishment trying to stop Bernie, but per this article, they are willing to damage the party in order to do it. I really hope someone talks some sense into them, because I don't want a damaged Democratic Party going into November. We need to be united to defeat Trump.

[TwilightZone]

22. He was involved in writing the rules and readily agreed to them when he chose to run as a Dem.

But you knew that.

Welcome to democracy. It takes a majority of delegates to win, whether it's during the primary process or at the convention. If Sanders has known all along that he might need to build a coalition to win the nomination, why does he spend much of his time burning bridges? If it happens, he has no one but himself to blame. Ditto his supporters.

[DanTex]

24. LOL. He was "involved" to the extent that he wanted to get rid of superdelegates, and the

DNC refused. Blaming the existence of superdelegates on Bernie is beyond parody.

[ripcord]

27. Glad to see you are good with the Electoral College

After all that's the rules right? Seems the party elite are set to dismiss all of Bernie supporters. If Sanders goes into the convention with a commanding lead and is fucked over there is no chance of defeating Trump in November.

[disndat]

23. We shouldn't take a chance

with Trump/Putin pushing hard for Sanders, probably with dark money.

[Progressive dog]

30. It's the right thing to do

our country has a long history of not supporting socialists , even if they call themselves liberals or progressives. FDR dropped V.P. Henry Wallace from the ticket in 1944 and ran with Truman instead. Wallace came back in 1948 to run against Truman as a "progressive."
IMO The majority of this nation still believe in the government installed by the Constitution.

“nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation”.

Doctors usually own shares in their practices, about half of hospitals are privately owned. Think about what will happen in the courts if doctors don't like the idea of having their property taken and their income cut by 17% or more (unless they can work more than the 59.6 hours per week they average now).
This is what happened in the UK (which still has socialized health care) in 2019.

The election resulted in a Conservative landslide majority of 80 seats,[n 5] the party's largest since 1987. It made a net gain of 48 seats and won 43.6% of the vote — the highest percentage by any party since 1979.[4]

and this is why https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-election-labour-companies/nationalization-in-the-uk-labours-plans-for-companies-idUSKBN1XV19X

[NurseJackie]

32. Good!

The Camel's Nose In The Tent!

One cold night, as an Arab sat in his tent, a camel gently thrust his nose under the flap and looked in. "Master," he said, "let me put my nose in your tent. It's cold and stormy out here." "By all means," said the Arab, "and welcome" as he turned over and went to sleep.

A little later the Arab awoke to find that the camel had not only put his nose in the tent but his head and neck also. The camel, who had been turning his head from side to side, said, "I will take but little more room if I place my forelegs within the tent. It is difficult standing out here." "Yes, you may put your forelegs within," said the Arab, moving a little to make room, for the tent was small.

Finally, the camel said, "May I not stand wholly inside? I keep the tent open by standing as I do." "Yes, yes," said the Arab. "Come wholly inside. Perhaps it will be better for both of us." So the camel crowded in. The Arab with difficulty in the crowded quarters again went to sleep. When he woke up the next time, he was outside in the cold and the camel had the tent to himself.

Author unknown

[honest.abe]

35. "party damage" vs "party annihilation" if Trump wins again.

An easy choice.