What If Ideas Were The Only Things "Too Big To Fail?" There Should Be No Super-delegates

I was... well, happy for Bernie when conservative Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard came out and backed Bernie. After all, the 3 progressive federal officials-- Brian Schatz, Mazie Hirono and Mark Takai-- had all decided to do the safe, easy conservative thing and cast their lots with the establishment candidate. But Tulsi Gabbard... her ProgressivePunch career-long crucial vote score is an "F" and her endorsement lf Bernie won't change that. She votes very mcu on the Hillary side of the coin. It doesn't seem to matter; Schatz and Hirono (though not Takai, one of the least progressive members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus) vote the way Bernie votes. Mixed up, shook up... Even more bizarre, on face value, was when one of the most far right wing DINOs in the House, Minnesota Blue Dog Collin Peterson, announced he would vote for Bernie if he decides to come to the Democratic Convention. He'd probably feel more comfortable at the Republican Convention because he votes with the Republicans on virtually everything. The only reason his ProgressivePunch score is "F" is because they don't have anything lower to indicate DINO.

When incumbents Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Keith Ellison (D-MN), Alan Grayson (D-FL) and candidates like Alex Law (D-NJ), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Eric Kingson (D-NY) endorsed Bernie it was as ideologically sensible as when corrupt, Wall Street-owned New Dems and Blue Dogs like Sean Patrick Maloney (NY), Ami Bera (CA), Gregory Meeks (NY), Cheri Bustos (IL), Steve Israel (NY), John Delaney (MD), Henry Cuellar (TX), Jim Cooper (TN) and Patrick Murphy (FL) endorsed Hillary. Their right-of-center voting records are like her campaign. Where else would self-serving political hacks like Rahm Emanuel and Debbie Wasserman Schultz be other than fighting for Hillary? Where else would reformers like Tim Canova, Maria Chappelle-Nadal, Bao Nguyen and Lou Vince be if not standing with Bernie?

Collin Peterson-- the guy who votes with the GOP on repealing Obamacare every single time they bring it up and who doesn't sound like he and Bernie have ever agreed on one single policy-- explained something worth hearing, though: "I'm voting my district." Peterson's district, basically all of western Minnesota, was a wipeout for Hillary. Bernie won Minnesota 61.6 to 38.4%, but he won Peterson's 7th CD 63.2 to 36.8%. (Bernie won every single congressional district in the state. Hillary's best performance was in MN-03, the very Republican Hennepin County suburbs west of Minneapolis, where she managed to pull 46.7%.) Both the state's senators, quasi-liberal Al Franken and centrist Amy Klobuchar, were campaigning for Hillary. Ever since Franken accepted a bribe from Patrick Murphy's parents in return for the politically awkward endorsement of their right-wing son, his endorsement became meaningless and Klobuchar doesn't care if every Minnesotan from Houston County in the southeast to Kittson County in the northwest and from Cook to Rock votes for Bernie, she's arrogant enough to stick with Hillary and cast "her" super-delegate vote, undemocratically, for Hillary at the convention.

There are already petitions going around in states and districts where Bernie won-- especially in Washington state where he won the state 72.7 to 27.1% and took every single county with over 2/3s of the vote (except for tiny, remote Garfield County, the most Republican county in the state, where Hillary managed to win 40% of the minuscule turnout)-- demanding that lawmakers remember that they are super-delegates not because of their intrinsic characteristics but because they represent their constituents. Right-of-center New Dem, Adam Smith in Washington has already told his own constituents to shove their petition up their asses; he's with the Wall Street banksters and war contractors Hillary. In New Hampshire, where Bernie beat Hillary 60.4 to 38.0%, the centrist governor (Maggie Hassan, a candidate for Senator), and the 2 Democrats in Congress, (New Dem Ann Kuster and centrist Jeanne Shaheen) don't care; they're all sticking with Hillary despite Bernie winning every county in the state and every one of the hundred-plus political subdivisions except for three.

Without the anti-democratic super-delegate institution, Hillary leads Bernie by 268 delegates, mostly from the Old Confederacy. But when you include the super-delegates-- who are there to thwart the will of the grassroots voters to begin with-- her lead increases to 708 delegates. AP reported that Hillary has 469 pledged super-delegates and that Bernie has 29. That leaves 214 super-delegates unpledged at the moment. Yesterday Bernie's campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, told reporters that there are dozens of super-delegates who have privately told the campaign that they will back Bernie against the establishment candidate. Many members have told me they just don't want to hysteria and threats and shenanigans from the Clinton people if they announce they're for Bernie. "These aren't nice people," one congresswoman told me last night, referring to Hillary's team. "And the Clintons don't forget a perceived slight. You know the Nixon enemies list? They have one too. I'll proudly cast my vote for Bernie at the convention... I just don't want to deal with them from now until the end of July. I have more important things on my mind."

Bernie's main appeal to super-delegates is that every poll shows he will beat any Republican with ease and that she's struggling in the head-to-head match-ups. Independent voters-- as much as 40% of the general election electorate-- distrust her and don't want to vote for her, while they admire, respect and love Bernie. No sense in throwing the election away just because Wall Street demands Hillary be the candidate. Which reminds me. Her newest total career-long take from the Finnace Sector is now $42,172,723, far surpassing McCain's lieftime record and closing in on Obama's. At some point Democrats have to start asking why the Wall Street banksters who hated FDR so patiently and detest everything he ever achieved are so adamant to get Hillary into the White House. Don't let them; there's too much at stake. And if you didn't listen to Matthew Grimm's new song up top... please do. It rocks!