Hillary and Uncle Bernie

Michael L.

I sometimes think of Bernie Sanders as "Uncle Bernie."

I do so because he was raised a stone's throw from my dad's house in Brooklyn, back in the day.

His accent is the accent of the adult men of my youth.

Writing in the Times of Israel, Eric Cortellessa tells us:

The DNC email scandal is multilayered. Beyond the fact that a series of exchanges raised ideas of ways to weaken Sanders’s candidacy, there is also the nature of the proposals that were discussed. DNC finance chief Brad Marshall pitched Schultz on portraying Sanders as an atheist who rejected his Judaism in states where candidates’ religiosity holds sway with voters, like in Kentucky and West Virginia.

“Does he believe in a God,” Marshall asked. “He had skated on saying he has a Jewish heritage. I think I read he is an atheist. This could make several points difference with my peeps. My Southern Baptist peeps would draw a big difference between a Jew and an atheist.”

My issue here is not that the Democratic National Committee (the DNC) considered using Uncle Bernie's atheism as a political club, but that they lied to the American public, and their Democratic Party constituents, in insisting upon the neutrality of the designee process.

They weren't neutral.

I do not mind that Debbie Wasserman Schultz sides with Hillary in this presidential campaign. That is to be expected.

What I do mind, however, is that the DNC lied to all of us when they claimed neutrality in the process. There was no neutrality. The thumb was definitely on the scales for Hillary and it's going to take considerable research into DNC media statements to figure out the extent of the rigged game.

But a rigged game it was for the obvious reason that we were lied to and the DNC was not neutral, but put their weight behind Hillary.

According to campaign officials, (Wasserman Shultz) will still keep her leadership role at the convention and deliver her scheduled address. For the rest of the election, she will continue to assist the presumptive Democratic nominee, along with other down-ballot races throughout the country. Longtime Democratic strategist Donna Brazile will take the helm as interim chair.

Donna Brazile, huh? Gee, that name sounds a tad familiar.

It is unclear, though, just how damaging these email revelations are going to be for the Clinton campaign and these rumors of Russian intervention as the source of the leak are exceedingly unusual.

My suspicion is that they will roll out Wasserman Schultz in the convention only if the powers-that-be determine that this story is a non-story and that they will not make any such determination.

Wasserman Schultz will likely play a significant behind-the-scenes role in Hillary's campaign, but she will continue to draw fire from her Republican rivals.

This issue is not likely to seriously hobble the Clinton campaign, but it certainly does not help arriving directly at the beginning of the Democratic Party convention.

We shall see.