Disappointingly, Bernie Sanders is trying to manipulate his own scandal for political gain:
By Bill Palmer
Bernie Sanders has handled his entire congressional career with a level of integrity rarely found in political circles, and he’s run his campaign for President with that same kind of integrity. So when it surfaced last night that one of his staffers had taken advantage of a computer glitch to study Hillary Clinton’s private campaign data, I wrote an op-ed essentially giving him a free pass and suggesting that Hillary go easy on him. But instead he’s suing his own party and playing the victim.
All that Bernie had to do was to say something along the lines of “Yeah it happened, we fired the guy, we invite a swift investigation by the DNC and then we’d like our access restored soon please.” It would have been as simple as that. Hillary would have had little choice but to go along with such a forthright position, the DNC would have put him back in business within days, and everyone would have forgotten about the whole thing within a week. But instead Bernie decided to play the victim. And now he’s suing the democratic party in a stunt which is clearly aimed at manipulating his own scandal.
It’s taken me all day to figure out how to write about this development because I still can’t believe it’s happening. Suddenly Bernie Sanders, the guy whom everyone has had to acknowledge as being the most moral guy in politics whether they like him or not, seems to be playing the dirtiest pool of all. He’s trying to create the perception that there is somehow a democratic party conspiracy against him and his campaign, in the hopes of getting liberals to blame Hillary and support him instead.
Bernie is taking an issue which could have been resolved quickly and easily, and he’s blowing it up on purpose. I suppose it’s the kind of desperate stunt any other candidate might pull when he’s losing by a two-to-one margin this late in the game, and he gets caught up in an embarrassing scandal on top of it, and has no other hope of getting a leg up. I just never thought it’s what Bernie would do. This is simply not why he got into the race. It’s not who he is.
I can’t imagine that Bernie feels good about this sudden change in moral trajectory. It says a lot that he remained out of the public eye today, while his campaign manager went before the cameras to completely misrepresent the facts for political gain. I suspect that Bernie’s advisors have talked him into letting them try this stunt by pointing out that it’s the only faint chance he still has of winning, and I suspect that he’s only going along with it with a good deal of trepidation, because this stunt is completely incompatible with everything we know about his character. Bernie Sanders is much better than this. For his sake I hope he remembers that quickly, because he was never going to win this primary anyway, but now his legacy is in doubt.
Sanders supporters think they have “won” (despite the fact that the Bernie camp finally agreed to the conditions asked for by the DNC — so I’m not sure how this is a “win” for them!?!?)
I guess “winning” means doing something wrong, throwing a temper-tantrum, and black-mailing the DNC with a lawsuit, a lawsuit meant to turn your supporters further against Hillary due to the implication of a conspiracy theory between Hillary and the DNC. I hope Hillary calls out Bernie for using a conspiracy theory to yet again impugn her integrity.
Why hasn’t Bernie personally apologized for his campaign? He should have done so yesterday morning.