Congressional Black Caucus chair blasts proposed superdelegate changes

[Gothmog]

285. Texas is not a red state but a non-voting state

Texas is a great state to live in and practice law. There is a great deal of energy in Texas and we have some great candidates such Sri Kulkarni and Lizzie Fletcher (both of whom were opposed and attacked by Our Revolution). I also like MJ Hegar and Collin Allred neither of whom were supported by Our Revolution.

You refused to vote for the candidate of our party in the general election. In my world, that means that you are not a real democrat. A vote for stein was a vote for trump. Stein voters could have swung Penn, Wisconsin and Michigan with some sanders voters who stayed home. True democrats support the nominee of the party. Heck as part of the national convention delegate selection process, I signed an oath or pledge to support the party's nominee. Evidently many sanders delegates refused to honor that oath as shown by their actions at the convention.

As for sanders supporters, I had a horrible time at the National Convention. The Clinton delegates were carefully vetted and were all real democrats. To get to the National convention, you have to be have worked many years in the party and be vetted. The sanders delegates were only vetted by asking if they hated Clinton. We had one delegate in Texas who was elected to go to the national convention but was removed by the Sanders campaign because he would not state that he hated Hillary Clinton (the state party brought this young man as a guest because he was so poorly treated by the sanders campaign). I was there when Congressman John Lewis was booed by the Sanders delegates as part of planned stunt by the sanders campaign. The Clinton campaign warned the Clinton delegates well in advance of this stunt and sanders was asked to stop this stunt but refused. My daughter was my guest at the national convention and she was called the C-word and attacked by sanders delegates at the hotel for refusing to try to convince me to change my vote to sanders. I was at the Texas delegation breakfast where a group of sanders delegates demanded that we condemn Hillary Clinton and vote for sanders. I know a number of delegates who went to the 2012 and 2008 conventions and they all had a great time. My middle child was the chaperone for a group of high school students who attended the 2008 convention and she had a great time including being at Mile High Stadium for President Obama's acceptance speech.

A candidate's delegates are supposed to represent the candidate. Sanders' delegates hurt him greatly with a large number of real democrats. Again, each candidate gets to vet their delegates and sanders' vetting was limited to finding people who hated Hillary Clinton. That will reflect on sanders but then again I doubt that he will run in 2020. BTW, the Texas delegation shared a bus with the Georgia delegation to the convention site. Sanders angered a large number of Georgia delegates with the John Lewis stunt.

As for Kerry, I was one of 3000 attorneys who went to Florida as part of the Kerry Edwards voter protection program. A total of 11,000 out of state attorneys went to various states as part of this program. As I was getting ready to leave to fly to Florida, I saw the Bin Ladin tape and knew that this was going to help Bush. Bin Ladin did his best to help get Bush reelected. I was in Broward County with 800 out of state Democratic lawyers and got to meet (in a very large room) Debbie Schultz and John Edwards. I have talked to some senior members of the party and it was clear that the Bin Ladin tape really hurt Senator Kerry.

I am strongly opposed to changing the rules on super delegates. I know six or seven super delegates and one person is guaranteed of becoming a super delegate after November (she will be one of the first two Latinas elected to Congress from Texas). I found your attacks on members of the Congressional Black Caucus to be wrong and offensive. Super delegates in general and members of the CBC in particular are not lazy, party hacks or corrupt. I am watching up close how hard these candidates are working and no Democrat who gets elected to Congress is lazy, a party hack or corrupt.

Texas will turn blue. It is going to take a great deal of hard work.