For Bernie Sanders, Party Loyalty Is a Tricky Issue
WASHINGTON—In 2011, President Barack Obama faced the prospect of a tough re-election when his campaign team heard calls from the left that someone should challenge him in the Democratic primary. A leading agitator: Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, who articulated a litany of complaints about the president and argued competition would be healthy for the party. Mr. Obama’s top aides were furious, and some wondered if Mr. Sanders would run against the president himself. They scrambled to find someone to talk to Mr. Sanders and figure out his intentions, according to two people involved in the discussions.
Over more than three decades in politics, Mr. Sanders has regularly disparaged the party that he now seeks to lead, and the call for a challenge to Mr. Obama illustrates what many of Mr. Sanders’s opponents see as his disloyalty and willingness to undercut the Democratic Party. With detractors raising the issue in recent days, it is near-certain to come up in Saturday’s Democratic debate in Iowa. At the same time, Mr. Sanders’s willingness to call out Democrats for, in his view, being insufficiently liberal echoes many Democrats and has contributed to his huge following this year.
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Mr. Sanders, upset over the extension of President George W. Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy, said Mr. Obama had been able to move “so far to the right” because he had no Democratic opposition for re-election. “There are millions of Americans who are deeply disappointed in the president; who believe that, with regard to Social Security and a number of other issues, he said one thing as a candidate and is doing something very much else as a president; who cannot believe how weak he has been,” Mr. Sanders said in 2011 on Thom Hartmann’s syndicated radio show. “I think it would be a good idea if President Obama faced some primary opposition.”
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A senior Obama official reached out to then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and asked him to talk with Mr. Sanders. The White House was relieved to learn through Mr. Reid that Mr. Sanders didn’t plan to run for president himself, two people familiar with the events said. One reason Mr. Sanders offered for why he wouldn’t enter the primary: He wasn’t a Democrat.
Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who is running a distant third in the current primary race, has repeatedly raised party loyalty as an issue.. Front-runner Hillary Clinton’s critique is more subtle, emphasizing her own deep roots with the party. “I’ve been a Democrat for a very long time,” she said in New Hampshire on Monday, when asked about Mr. Sanders’s status.
Michael Briggs, a spokesman for Mr. Sanders, noted that the senator didn’t run against Mr. Obama and campaigned for him in the 2008 and 2012 general elections, as he has for other Democrats. Mr. Sanders, who now says he is a Democrat, has caucused with them in Congress since he was first elected to the House, and was chosen by Senate Democrats to be chairman of the Veterans Committee and as their leader on the Budget Committee.
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Running as an independent in 1981, he ousted Burlington’s Democratic mayor. After the self-styled socialist took office, the Democratic-controlled board of aldermen blocked his appointments. Mr. Sanders worked to loosen the Democrats’ hold on power, pushing to elect independent and liberal-minded candidates to the board... In 1986, Mr. Sanders ran for governor, hoping to oust incumbent Democrat Madeleine Kunin. She beat back the threat and won re-election.
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Over the years, Mr. Sanders called the Democratic Party “intellectually bankrupt” and referred to Democrats and Republicans as “tweedle dee” and “tweedle dum.” Still, in Congress, Mr. Sanders has reliably sided with Democrats, supporting the Affordable Care Act, for instance, even though it fell far short of a more comprehensive health-coverage system. Before entering the presidential race, Mr. Sanders and his advisers considered running as an independent, but concluded that could drain votes from the Democrat and help elect a Republican.
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http://www.wsj.com/articles/for-bernie-sanders-party-loyalty-is-a-tricky-issue-1447448758
(Yes, it is from the WSJ, but if the facts are correct, and they usually are, in the news section, then one should be able to address them, for any candidates)
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