I have been studiously neutral on this site in the Hillary vs Bernie battle, for two good reasons. One, I am a satirist, and the Sanders-Clinton campaign has for the most part been thoughtful and substantive, not much grist there for a funny man. Two, I actually enjoy the interchange that goes on in the comments to my diaries. I have no interest of putting myself through the pie fights that break out in the normal partisan diaries in this place. And as a bonus, I choose not to provide grist to GOP trolls to take back to redstate.com or breitbart to show our dissension.
But enough is enough, and I’ve finally reached my breaking point. Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver really, really needs to just pack it in, shut the fuck up and go home now. His shtick just isn’t funny anymore.
In the early days it was fine, he was just another flack stumping for his candidate. He was cheerful, if aggressive, stayed on message, sometimes too much so. Just like his candidate he had the habit of extricating himself from difficult or uncomfortable questions and situations by rotating back to the standard mantras, a $15.00 an hour minimum wage, income inequality and sticking it to the top 1%. In other words, blather, blather, blather. Almost soothing in it’s metronomic predictability.
But he has steadily deteriorated in the last few weeks. A couple of weeks ago he was on MSNBC on a primary night. Steve Kornacki skewered him like a cow on a spit, dragging him over to the “big board” and going through the delegate math, including the remainder of the primaries. Weaver stood there stone faced, then repeatedly insisted that there was a path forward. When Kornacki pressed him to reset the map and show everybody where this magical path lay, he fell back om the same old, tired bullshit mantra of flipping the super delegates. How in the hell an insurgent, outsider candidate was supposed to flip long time, dedicated Democratic members (which is how you get to be a super delegate) was apparently a high level campaign secret.
Over the last couple of weeks, he has jumped with both feet on the “conspiracy” bandwagon, railing against the unfairness of the super delegate system, and claiming that the entire Democratic primary process was completely rigged against his candidate. Gee, sound like any particular GOP Presidential candidate we’ve heard from lately? Then he came out and directly accused the DNC of having “thrown shade” all over his campaign since the day Sanders announced, forcing Tad Devine to come out and disavow him, stating that for the most part the campaign had had very good relations with the DNC, and all the access they needed.
Now, don’t get me wrong here. I have absolutely no doubt that Debbie Wasserman Schultz has been anything but a fair and impartial arbiter here. Barring the Sanders campaign from DNC voter database information for as long as she did was inexcusable. As was the scarcity of debates, and scheduling them at times that would only get any viewership if the Home Shopping Network and the Cartoon Network went down on cable. But these were not fatal wounds to the Sanders campaign. He has never run a traditional campaign, he was based on populism, word of mouth and an overwhelming social media presence.
Last night Jeff Weaver appeared on “Hardball” with Chris Matthews and was nothing short of delusional. He continued to rail against the rules and the super delegates, but overlaid his desire for reform in future cycles with inferences that instituting those changes now could somehow overturn the current results. It reached the point that both Tweety and the other guest (I don’t recall his name) were smiling at his almost constant self contradictions and inability to answer a question in a straightforward and honest manner. Even Weaver had a wry smile towards the end, as if conceding the fact that he was full of shit, but was going to through this one way or the other.
Jeff Weaver is clearly no longer either useful or functional. He is without a doubt a diehard Sanders loyalist, but he is no longer helping. What Jeff Weaver really needs to do now is to go home, soak a cool washcloth, go into a dark room, lie down and put the cloth on his forehead. Let people who actually know how to function in a reality based world take it from here, and thanks for your faithful service.
Thanks as always for reading!