Bernie Sanders Accuses Liberal Think Tank Of Creating 'Smears' Against Progressive Candidates

[Uncle Joe]

(snip)

“Last week, you published an article on ThinkProgress criticizing me for my appearance and for the income I earned from writing a book,” Sanders wrote. “Then, a day later, you published a video that dishonestly attacked me for hypocrisy in my effort to address income inequality in America – a video that was excitedly discussed on many conservative websites.”

(snip)

His criticism didn’t stop with how ThinkProgress treated his own campaign in its reporting. Sanders also took issue in his letter with reporting the site had done on Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren’s claims of Native American ancestry, as well as the site striking a critical tone toward New Jersey Senator Cory Booker “for moving in a progressive direction and joining with me on a prescription drug importation bill,” Sanders wrote.

(snip)

Sanders added in his letter his hopes that ThinkProgress and its parent organization, the Center for American Progress, would change their ways.

“The Democratic primary must be a campaign of ideas, not of bad-faith smears,” Sanders said. “Please help play a constructive role in the effort to defeat Donald Trump.”

(snip)


https://hillreporter.com/bernie-sanders-accuses-center-for-american-progress-creating-smears-against-progressive-candidates-31013

[TwilightZone]

1. "Please help play a constructive role in the effort to defeat Donald Trump."

Oh, the irony.

[Uncle Joe]

4. In a world where irony reigns

In a world where irony reigns, where you have to separate, protect and laugh at anything that is honest or has an emotional charge, I bet for catharsis. I like to invest emotionally in things. And catharsis, when it touches the emotional vein, can open the doors of even those who protect themselves. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/alejandro_gonzalez_inarri_691117?src=t_irony

[MineralMan]

2. Oh, careful, Bernie...

Your strongest fans are also fans of ThinkProgress. They might think you're not on their side if you attack their information source.

Dangerous territory ahead, Senator...

[SHRED]

3. Victimhood

It's not just for Republicans.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

10. Speaking of irony

[comradebillyboy]

5. David Sirota's employer complains about bad faith smears?

Mild criticism from a long time liberal outfit certainly produces disproportionate outrage from the person who thinks he is above reproach in all things.

[riverine]

6. Was telling voters that Hillary was corrupted by Goldman Sachs in 2016 a "bad faith smear"?

We need to set some standard for the term.

[Skidmore]

7. Reminds me of

all the whining he did last time around. It was always someone else's fault. Not a good look for a president. Cast your eyes to the current WH occupant.

[Gothmog]

8. Washington Post-Opinion: Sanders's testiness will revive long-standing concerns

Link to tweet

One of the “digs” on Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the 2016 presidential campaign was that he was all about himself — insufficiently attuned to concerns about unity, quick to lash out at critics and exceptionally thin-skinned. Those concerns surfaced again in Democratic ranks when he hired a rabid social media hit man, David Sirota (who hadn’t initially disclosed his affiliation with the Sanders camp).

Now he has gone into full attack-and-destroy mode, targeting in a vitriolic letter the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank that has advanced, for example, a health-care plan that expands Medicare but is distinct from the Sanders Medicare-for-all plan, and CAP Action Fund, CAP’s political arm.....

What’s the reason for his letter? One can surmise it’s about “working the refs,” trying to intimidate others from criticizing his ideas or him. Sanders’s effort is downright bizarre, when you think about it. Imagine if Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) railed at the New York Times editorial page, demanding more praise, or if Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) demanded the Nation be more friendly. A Democratic veteran of many campaigns (not associated with CAP) observes, “This is disgracefully Trumpian, as Sanders desperately tries to create a fake controversy to change the subject on the eve of the release of his tax returns. … If he can’t take some accurate, fairly lighthearted ribbing from a progressive source, he’s proving that he’d be incapable of weathering the general election hurricane that Trump would unleash.”....

We already have a president who can’t take the rough and tumble of politics and wants to silence critics. I find it hard to imagine that Democrats want someone who might be just as touchy and intolerant of criticism.

[Uncle Joe]

9. I don't expect anything positive regarding Bernie to come from Bezos' paper. n/t

[Hassin Bin Sober]

11. Of Jennifer Rubin and her "Right Turn" column

Jennifer Rubin (born 1962)[1] is an American neoconservative[2] journalist[3] who writes the "Right Turn" blog for The Washington Post. Previously she worked at Commentary, PJ Media, Human Events, and The Weekly Standard. Her work has been published in media outlets including Politico, New York Post, New York Daily News, National Review, and The Jerusalem Post.

[Uncle Joe]

13. "Right turn" as if they hadn't already veered to the extreme Reich..I mean right.

[sheshe2]

41. You never post links.

That is a no no.

[Gothmog]

12. This is from Prof. Tribe

I subscribe to the Washington Post and really enjoy this publication

Link to tweet

[Cha]

14. Excellent response from Prof Tribe, Goth!

Link to tweet

Mahalo!

[Uncle Joe]

15. Tribe is an active booster of the Palmer Report, the same organization that says Snopes

is the equivalent of the National Enquirer.

I trust Bernie's judgement over Tribe any day.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

16. He's also a "corporations are people" advocate. And a plagiarist.

In 2004, Tribe acknowledged having plagiarized several specific phrases and a sentence in his 1985 book, God Save this Honorable Court, from a 1974 book by Henry Abraham.[24][25] After an investigation, Tribe was reprimanded by Harvard for "a significant lapse in proper academic practice," but the investigation concluded that Tribe's error was unintentional.[26]

Since the mid-1990s, Tribe has represented a number of corporations advocating for their free speech rights and constitutional personhood.[27] Tribe represented General Electric in its defense against its liability under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act ("Superfund&quot , in which GE and Tribe unsuccessfully argued that the act unconstitutionally violated General Electric's due process rights.[27][28]

In 2014, Tribe was retained to represent Peabody Energy in a suit against the Environmental Protection Agency. Tribe argued that EPA's use of the Clean Air Act to implement its Clean Power Plan was unconstitutional.[29] Tribe's legal analysis has been criticized by other legal commentators, including fellow Harvard Law School professors Richard J. Lazarus and Jody Freeman, who described his conclusion as "wholly without merit".[30][31] His advocacy for corporations like Peabody has been criticized by some legal experts.[27]

I can do without his opinions.

[Uncle Joe]

17. "We the Corporations."

[Gothmog]

19. LOL

I would advise that you not consider law school I still have my copy of Tribes treatise from the early 1980s. I amjured (the award for high grade in a class) in several courses due to this treatise

I love the way that Sanders supporters have to attack anyone who is not impressed with sanders.

[sheshe2]

42. Link?

[Gothmog]

18. I disagree strongly

Prof. Tribe is amazing and has accomplished a great deal in the real world. I Haveno faith whatsoever in sanders’ judgment

[Gothmog]

20. I love Tribe's treatment of Carnival Cruz

Link to tweet

[Gothmog]

22. Why is sanders so thin skinned?

You do realize that sanders will be vetted this cycle and his reactions so far are not helping him https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/bernie-sanderss-campaign-escalates-fight-with-establishment-democrats-in-reprise-of-2016-party-rifts/2019/04/15/8d6844cc-5f90-11e9-9412-daf3d2e67c6d_story.html?utm_term=.cf398d0b1cb8

Other Democrats saw Sanders’s denunciation of CAP as a worrying sign at the start of the 2020 campaign, which could herald a potentially destructive path that Sanders intends to pursue for the party’s nomination.

“I think his tone in general is too Trumplike. It’s based on anger,” said Greg Hale, a longtime Democratic presidential campaign adviser who worked for Clinton in 2016. “We all need to be together and we need to have a positive message, not a negative message.”

[Uncle Joe]

23. Because Bernie just doesn't have your grace Gothmog, you should run for President. n/t

[BlueFlorida]

24. I think Gothmog would make a better President nt

[Cha]

28. Of course he would.

[ehrnst]

30. Definitely! (nt)

[mcar]

25. Gothmog would get my vote!

[George II]

26. I'd vote for him in a NY minute.

[sheshe2]

33. Correct.

I'd vote for Gothmog anyday.

[sheshe2]

34. Gothmog has amazing grace.

Thanks for noticing.

[George II]

35. More than that, he's Presidential in the somewhat forgotten tradition of Presidential grace...

...a reminder:

[sheshe2]

37. Woah.

Obama.

Thank you.

Perfect response. Gothmog has grace and so much class.

Dayum I miss my President.

[Gothmog]

38. This video still brings tears to my eyes

I miss having a real POTUS

[lunamagica]

50. I'd vote for Gothmog over sanders in a heartbeat

[NastyRiffraff]

56. Gothmog should!

He'd make a much better president than either Trump or Sanders! Go Goth!!

[Me.]

36. I'd Certainly Vote For You Over Someone Else

I like the cut of your jib and truth-telling finess

[Gothmog]

21. No one took sanders seriously in 2016 and so sanders was not vetted

No one took sanders seriously and so he was not vetted. Vetting is important I amso glad that sanders is being vetted this cycle https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/01/28/why-bernie-sanders-has-an-uphill-climb-ahead/?utm_term=.1b4f90c2a717

Finally, what happens when the oppo dump on Sanders comes? We have no idea, because it never happened in 2016. Clinton was so terrified of alienating his supporters and seeing them vote for Jill Stein in the general election (or not vote at all) that she tiptoed around him for pretty much the entirety of the primary campaign. That doesn’t mean that he’ll be destroyed when stories about the more colorful aspects of his history start cropping up, but there’s just no way to know.

Which is what we could say about the Sanders candidacy as a whole: There’s no way to know how it’s going to go. But he’s got his work cut out for him.

See also https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/19/politics/bernie-sanders-2020-campaign-donald-trump/index.html?utm_source=twCNNp&utm_content=2019-02-20T14%3A52%3A07&utm_term=image&utm_medium=social%C2%A0

2. How will he withstand more scrutiny and more attacks?
One of the secrets to Sanders' success in 2016 was that no one -- most especially Clinton -- thought he had any chance of going anywhere in the race. Clinton largely ignored him for the better part of 2015, allowing some problematic parts of Sanders' record for Democrats -- most notably his voting record on guns -- to go unnoticed. (When the race began to tighten, Clinton gently prodded Sanders on guns and health care.) Sanders, too, largely flew under the radar of investigative reporters for major news outlets who were busy looking into Clinton, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and others seen as more viable candidates. (That reality clearly benefited Donald Trump in the early days of the campaign, as well.)

Sanders will get no pass -- from either the media or his fellow candidates -- this time around. He is among the frontrunners -- and will be treated as such. His wife's time as president of Burlington College could well come up. And his opponents will do a deep dive into his nearly 30 years of votes as a member of the House and Senate. This is all very normal stuff in a campaign. But not for Sanders.

Now we can see how sanders reacts to being vetted

Link to tweet

Among some Democrats, there was a sense of bewilderment that the Sanders campaign had gone—as one operative put it—”nuclear” over a mere web video. One Democratic consultant sympathetic to Sanders described the video as being “like a gnat buzzing around your ear,” one which should not have distracted from the candidate’s Midwest tour.

It also raised questions as to whether the senator was ready for the scrutiny that would come from being a frontrunning candidate, after having run as an insurgent against an ideal foil, Hillary Clinton, in 2016.

“When you’re leading in the polls of president of your party you should expect investigative stories to hit at least once a week and to be attacked by your opponents every day,” said Ben Labolt, who served as press secretary to Barack Obama during the 2012 campaign. “An attack on something like ThinkProgress is the sign of a super-narrow-minded campaign that isn’t actually thinking of how the election will be won... They have chosen an establishment force that no one outside of the Starbucks at 16th and K would recognize.”

[BlueFlorida]

27. Anger management is a tricky thing n/t

[Gothmog]

29. I think that anger management is an important quality in a POTUS

[ehrnst]

31. When you have ambitions for the WH, the sunlight on you gets very, very bright indeed.

Going on the offensive and attacking fellow progressives when it happens to you isn't a good look.

[Cha]

40. I want a POTUS who can Unify

Not a divide.

[ehrnst]

53. I want a POTUS who is not a top-down authoritarian style leader.

I want one with the skills to work in a team, and is capable of diplomacy.

[Cha]

57. Oh yeah, that too!

[Me.]

32. Here We Go Again

Poor little Bernie being expected to be accountable

[Gothmog]

39. Vetting is a key part of the process

[Cha]

45. BS wanted President Obama

primaried in 2012.. and badmouthed him weekly on those shows but he can't handle being Vetted now?!

President Obama is strong, tho.

[Me.]

54. It Certainly Is

Time it was done

[namahage]

43. Boy, if he thinks it's bad NOW...

he is NOT going to like it if he actually becomes the nominee...and probably even less if he were to make it all the way to the top.

Jodi Enda, editor for ThinkProgress, nailed it when she said, "Political leaders should not be able to muzzle or stop coverage that they consider critical.”

Unless, of course, he's TRYING to be the Trump of the left.

[sheshe2]

44. Ouch!

That didn't go very well.

[Cha]

46. Aloha, she..

Please check out Michelle Obama's quote..

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1287&pid=72835

[sheshe2]

47. Michelle.

Michelle
The Beatles
Michelle, ma belle
These are words that go together well
My Michelle
Michelle, ma belle
Sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble
Tres bien ensemble
I love you, I love you, I love you
That's all I want to say
Until I find a way
I will say the only words I know that
You'll understand
Michelle, ma belle
Sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble
Tres bien ensemble
I need to, I need to, I need to
I need to make you see
Oh, what you mean to me
Until I do I'm hoping you will
Know what I mean
I love you
I want you, I want you, I want you
I think…

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1QXKF_enUS692US706&ei=CLG2XPCSBc2m_QaHu5OoAQ&q=michelle+my+belle+lyrics&oq=michelle+my+belle&gs_l=psy-ab.1.0.0i71l8.0.0..5579...0.0..0.0.0.......0......gws-wiz.x24TmwWxb3A

Luv ya, Cha~

[Cha]

48. Mahalo for the Beatles singing Michelle, she!

Michelle's quote had it exactly right about strong men

[sheshe2]

49. I miss Flotus and that husband of hers.

She nailed it!

[delisen]

51. weird stuff n/t

[KitSileya]

52. I find it strange that Senator Sanders deliberately disregards his own campaign manager's work there

Faiz Shakir (good of Senator Sanders for hiring the first Muslim American campaign manager, by the way!) worked at Think Progress, and from what I understand, he was instrumental in establishing Think Progress' editorial independence when he was its editor-in-chief.

That Senator Sanders now wants a billionaire to stifle said editorial independence is baffling to me. Is he so against criticism that he would attack journalistic independence in the time of Trump? :shudder: The US was just added to a list of countries most dangerous to journalists in the world - we need to thread carefully so that we do not give Trump any cover in his attacks on journalists who criticize him. Now, anything Think Progress says that is critical of Trump can be completely dismissed by the dumpster fire in the White House. Two steps forward and one and a half steps back, I guess.

[yardwork]

55. All this whining makes me think that Bernie is weak.