I want to start by noting that as snarky as this diary may sound, I don't have anything personal against Jane Hamsher. Truth be told, I don't know all that much about her--I know she runs FDL, and I have tremendous respect for Marcy Wheeler (aka emptywheel) of FDL, so she has that going for her. Otherwise, I have little knowledge of her.
I'll further note that I'm extremely torn about the Senate HCR bill--and just a few days ago, I was strongly defending Howard Dean for his expressing his own opinion that the version of the bill from a week ago shouldn't pass. My take then, as now, is that there are extremely strong and valid arguments to be made on both sides of the argument, and that neither side should be treated like shit for expressing that view. Dean shouldn't be torn to shreds for giving a thumbs down to the (previous version of the) bill, and Sanders shouldn't be torn to shreds for giving an (admittedly reluctant) thumbs up to it in the end.
All of this being the case, I was reading EdgedInBlue's excellent, top-rec'ced diary about the Jane Hamsher/Bernie Sanders flap, in which she an FDL diarist apparently called on him to be primaried if he doesn't change his stance on the Senate HCR bill.
Aside from the other issues involved, I was curious about just what the prospects for actually "primarying" Bernie Sanders would be, and learned a few things.
First of all, I learned that Bernie Sanders isn't actually a member of any official political party, which kind of makes it difficult to primary him.
Aside from the merits of her the arguments--which I find laughable (primarying a Socialist for being too moderate???), I did a quick Google of the 2006 Vermont election results when Sanders was first elected to the Senate, and discovered the following:
2006 Democratic Primary Results - Vermont Senate: (warning: PDF)
Bernie Sanders won the Democratic Primary with 94.1% of the vote.
Let me repeat that: Over 94%.
And he isn't even registered with the Democratic Party.
Moving on to the general election...
2006 Vermont Senate Election Results:
(I) Bernie Sanders: 65.4%
(R) Richard Tarrant: 32.3%
Hmmm...it's gonna be tricky to primary Sanders in 2010 considering that:
a) He won 94% of the last Democratic Party without even being registered as a Democrat--and then declined to be listed as one on the general election ballot.
b) He then went on to win with over 65% of the vote in the general election.
c) He isn't up for re-election in 2010. (I know Hamsher the FDL poster didn't specifically mention 2010, but come on, the only Senator that any of us is seriously thinking about beating in 2012 at this point is Lieberman.)
d) He's an Independent, and therefore has no party to be primaried in.
So, um....good luck with that, Jane...
Update: It's been pointed out to me that technically speaking, Ms. Hamsher the FDL poster never actually mentioned "primarying" Sen. Sanders. She They did, however, speak repeatedly about the voters of Vermont voting him out of office. Since I find it even more difficult to believe that she's they're seriously talking about supporting a Republican against him, I can only logically conclude that she's they're suggesting that he be primaried from the left in 2012.
Update x2: It has further been pointed out to me that Jane Hamsher was not the one who posted the original "change your vote or lose your seat" diary about Sen. Sanders; it was one of the front-page posters at FDL, Brian Sonenstein. However, the official FDL twitter feed includes a link to his post. Whether this means that the view was given the official blessing by Jane Hamsher or not, I have no idea, but I'm erring on the safe side here and removing the specific references to her.
None of which changes the main point of this diary, which wasn't to slam any particular person, but rather to see whether the premise (primarying Bernie Sanders) would even be plausible, which, of course, it simply isn't. Plus, you know, Bernie is awesome anyway!