Earlier today, Bob Johnson posted this diary regarding Claire McCaskill's McCarthyite attack on Bernie Sanders. (doh, fixed to include the link to Bob's diary...sorry...)
Warning to the rest of those ready to launch the smears: Bernie schools her.
Heh:
“To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time that a colleague has attacked me,” said Sanders, a Vermont socialist who joined the presidential race about two months ago, in an interview with Bloomberg Politics' Mark Halperin and John Heilemann. “You'll have to ask Senator McCaskill why.”
Better:
“Do I believe, in opposition to Senator McCaskill, that we need trade policies that are fair to the American worker, and not just benefit CEOs and large corporations?” Sanders said. “I plead guilty.”
Sanders said he “absolutely” believes in a single-payer health care system and opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
McCaskill said the media has given Sanders a pass, especially when it comes to pointing out his political leanings.
“I find it surprising that she says that the media doesn't refer to me as a socialist,” Sanders said. “There's no article that I've seen that doesn't refer to me as a democratic socialist. I am.”[emphasis added]
Indeed, it's perfect timing, in light of the fast track vote, to make the distinction between what McCaskill et al. stand for versus Sanders (yes, we are absolutely, positively, for certain, 100 percent sure that Clinton would "probably" have voted against fast track if she was in the Senate because...well, she took no such position about so-called "free trade" when she was in the Senate and took no position on fast track now until she was pushed to and because, well, she said so now...so believe it).
No one should doubt that this is the first in a regular progression of attacks from surrogates of a certain candidate.