So there was a campaign conference call today with reporters

[Rose Siding]

These are tweets from reporters who were on a Sanders campaign call today:

First, from an MSNBC political reporter-

Alex Seitz-WaldVerified account
?@aseitzwald
On "Path Forward" call, Sanders strategist Tad Devine notes pledged delegates are not always obligated to vote as pledged...

Alex Seitz-Wald ?@aseitzwald 2h2 hours ago
Devine: "It is not a matter of delegate arithmetic"

Alex Seitz-Wald ?@aseitzwald 2h2 hours ago
Devine says campaign does not "at the moment" plan to try to flip Clinton delegates to Sanders, but notes that it is technically possible.

Those are Clinton's pledged delegates -not supers- for which there is not "at the moment" a plan to flip to Sanders.

Time political reporter-

Zeke MillerVerified account
?@ZekeJMiller
Sanders camp now arguing that state laws binding dels can't be enforced. Not sure of the law, but not an argument you want to have to make

NYT elections reporter-

Nate Cohn ?@Nate_Cohn 1h1 hour ago Manhattan, NY
It's weird how quickly Team Sanders went from arguing about super dels to arguing that pledged delegates aren't legally bound to the winner

That doesn't sound fair. Or Democratic. Revolutions frequently aren't

[charlyvi]

1. The pledged delegates would not flip.

Devine is full of himself, as usual. Trash talking again. They are "pledged" delegates, as in they have given their word to stand by the voter's choice. Don't worry. Also, Bernie's not getting the votes he needs, so Devine needs something to keep him in the media eye so the Revolution doesn't stall.

[Rose Siding]

9. It's sabre rattling but I don't gak the purpose

Is that supposed to reassure the revolutionary forces? Is he just sweating bullets and stuff is coming out?

[charlyvi]

14. I think it's keeping the troops in the tent

and also head faking the media. If he threatens to stir up a mess, he gets coverage for Bernie. Doesn't care if it's good or bad coverage because he knows the media will accept it willingly and the berniedudes are true believers.....they won't question any strategy he follows. The fact that it's not reality won't matter.

[Politicub]

17. Sanders is raking in the dough

He's reluctant to turn off the spigot most likely.

[yallerdawg]

2. As long as the cash spigot stays on...

the campaign continues.

When I went to college I always asked the old man for money.

Things sure have changed!

[cosmicone]

3. It's a revolution damnit

Either you're a comrade or you're going to Siberia.

[livetohike]

5. LOL

[livetohike]

4. Their desperation is apparent. It does not look good for

Sanders going forward. I don't think his campaign managers are that bright.

[Rose Siding]

11. Salon last month: Tad Devine is the Karl Rove to Sanders’ 2016 populist uprising

Bernie’s man behind the scenes: Tad Devine is the Karl Rove to Sanders’ 2016 populist uprising
Devine, who guided party-backed candidates against political upstarts in 2000 and 2004, is now on the other side
http://www.salon.com/2016/02/15/bernies_man_behind_the_scenes_tad_devine_is_the_karl_rove_to_sanders_2016_populist_uprising/

[CajunBlazer]

52. It's all about who is paying his bill right now...

...he is a hired political hack.

[SunSeeker]

6. Ug. Has Devine no shame?

[SharonClark]

42. and no sense

[Tarheel_Dem]

7. Well, let's just ask Presidents Dukakis, Gore & Kerry about Mr. Devine's campaign acumen. Oh wait..

[1StrongBlackMan]

8. I know I'll catch flak for this; but ...

This is what you get when you allow a person who has been a member of the Democratic Party for 10 months (out of a 50 year political career) and mind you, not by registration; but, by affidavit that was required by a state, in order to get on the state's ballot, to run for the Democratic nomination ... he does not feel obligated to play by Party rules.

[Rose Siding]

12. No flak from me

for saying it. And I'll agree as long as it is pure d true that he wouldn't have run indie with us.

If there was the slightest threat of that, I don't see there wasn't much choice.

[1StrongBlackMan]

16. Okay, maybe the flak will come here ...

I suspect if he had run as an independent, given his rejection of big money and his inability to self-finance, and his not having access to the Democratic Party's infrastructure (i.e., Van Data), his candidacy would look a lot more like Jill Stein's than Ron Paul's, Perot's or Nader's.

[charlyvi]

18. It makes him look like an opportunist, not the decent, honest icon his supporters

think he is. And they think Hillary can't be trusted.

[1StrongBlackMan]

24. But, I honestly, think this is not coming from Bernie. eom.

[charlyvi]

26. If his campaign is doing it, Bernie is doing it.

He gives the okay on anything that his campaign does. The buck stops with him, so to speak. The idea that Bernie can remain pure while his surrogates trash the Dem party, Hillary, and the actual party process is disingenuous. If he honestly doesn't know what his campaign is doing, what does that say of him? Certainly that he's not a viable candidate for leader of the free world. I don't buy it for a second. It strains credulity.

[1StrongBlackMan]

29. I, on the other hand, think it is consistent with someone ...

that has the luxury of not being on/ready for the national stage. As of Senator, or Rep., or Mayor, you have a small staff that you can ride herd over. As President, you have, literally, have hundreds of staffers whose actions you own.

[charlyvi]

39. But Tad Devine is highest on the food chain

After Bernie himself. He's not lost among hundreds of staffers, he's got Bernie's ear 24/7. Bernie knows exactly what Devine is doing in his name. If he doesn't, he shouldn't be running as he's not fit. Again, I don't give Bernie a pass. He's not an innocent in this by any means.

[1StrongBlackMan]

41. Agreed. But I really don't think ...

Bernie has a handle on his staff.

And that is a big problem, when considering the possibility of his gaining a much larger staff.

[charlyvi]

43. Exactly!

He doesn't come out of it looking good either way..

[fleabiscuit]

44. There's no easy way to say this but...

age could make Bernie vulnerable to persuasion and manipulation. I've worked with many seniors and know how vulnerable and trusting they can be.

[1StrongBlackMan]

55. I don't think it has anything to do with his age ...

But everything to do with his one track mindedness that has him delegating stuff without any accountability controls ... until something blows up.

[Rose Siding]

27. He did recently say he ran as a Dem for media coverage

Sanders says he ran as a Democrat for 'media coverage'
http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-dem-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/03/bernie-sanders-independent-media-coverage-220747#ixzz437Ks2a6H

[Thinkingabout]

15. He can't say the DNC did not give him a chance, it is his campaign to run, we just did not buy into

his plan, he did not get the major of the delegates but I do agree with you especially after all of the disparaging remarks made about the DNC and leadership.

[bravenak]

28. Yep. It was a bad idea and I think it will never happen again.

[1StrongBlackMan]

31. Hey, Woman! ...

I really don't think it will ever be an issue, again.

[bravenak]

32. Hey!!

How was DU jail?

[1StrongBlackMan]

34. Well, the Orange wasn't the new Black. eom

[bravenak]

35. :(

Black is always the new black.

[1StrongBlackMan]

36. And ...

I'm cool and comfortable with that ... and so is my BabyGirl!

[bravenak]

37. Hey! Me too. I like it!

[DemonGoddess]

30. No flak from me

You speak the truth.

[1StrongBlackMan]

33. I am an unapologetic DEMOCRAT ...

working, within the Party, to address the Party's flaws.

[Tarheel_Dem]

46. I get the feeling that he & the people around him fully intend to blow the whole thing up. As a...

"not Democrat", he has no particular loyalty to the party or the process. I watched Rachel Maddow tonight (something I never do anymore), but at the end of the show she mentioned that BS now wants to take advantage of the very insider tricks that he & MoveOn were against. Hell, they even had a petition with a couple thousand signatures to banish super delegates all together.

I don't get why BS & crew think the Democratic party, of which he is not a member, should bend over backwards to accommodate his candidacy. Who the f**k does that? If the rules committee starts making changes for BS, I hope they abolish caucuses at the same time.

[Light63]

50. Exactly the reason why I'm concerned...

that BS's peoples might successfully persuade him to branch out and run as an Independent after being defeated at the Democratic National Convention in July. After reading what Devine, BS's number one man, talking about flipping the pledged delegates, I'm sorry I just can no longer trust BS and his peoples. After all they are NOT Democrats.

[Tarheel_Dem]

58. FWIW, BS has promised he won't mount an independent campaign. But like you, it comes down to trust.

And also like you, I don't.

[MSMITH33156]

10. No one is flipping anything

and this election isn't even close anyway. But someone needs to shut him up. He's embarrassing himself and Bernie Sanders.

[jmowreader]

13. So let me get this straight...

IF state laws binding delegates can't be enforced, which is probably bullshit...

what then would be keeping the 825 delegates that are currently pledged to Bernie from telling their candidate, "screw you guys, I'm going to stand with the Actual Democrat in this race"?

According to the little display that pops up in Google, the counts are currently:

Clinton 1139 pledged/467 super
Sanders 825 pledged/26 super

If ALL Sanders' pledged delegates broke their pledges and went to Hillary, she'd be standing on 1964 pledged plus 467 supers...2431 delegates total if Bernie's supers stay with him, 2457 if they leave too. It only takes 2383 to advance to the general.

[1StrongBlackMan]

20. Could you, just, imagine the wailing and gnashing of teeth ...

if the Clinton campaign announced that they were considering trying to flip Bernie's pledged delegates?

[SanDiegoDem]

21. brilliant!

It would be poetic justice; karma; and so beautifully ironic. Isn't going to happen (though I'd bet some of those delegates pledged to him are itching to jump ship by now.) But I do like how you think

[jmowreader]

22. It's the way you almost HAVE to think

The Bernie fans started out planning to flip Hillary's superdelegates, and now they've floated the notion of trying to flip her pledged ones. Well...sauce for the goose and all that, it seems Bernie is in worse danger of losing delegates than Hillary is.

[Rose Siding]

25. I watched CNN's coverage mostly last night and every time

the on air talent started talking delegate count for Hillary, they'd say 'And then the super dele....oh wait, we really (basically: can't mention them because we hear from too many upset people when we do) in one version or another. I noticed it more than a couple of times.

I think they've been cowed into not even covering them, either by upset callers or because it's too complex for their viewers or I don't even know. Just seemed dumb not to ever figure them in.

[Tarheel_Dem]

47. Steve Kornacki basically said the same thing. "It upsets the Sanders supporters when we add in SD's"

To that I say, tough sh*t. As far as I know, we're playing by the same rules the last time Hillary ran. She & her team learned the lessons of '08 really well, and they know how the game is played. Just because BS & crew are slow on uptake, doesn't mean the party now has to turn itself upside down to his advantage.

[Rose Siding]

49. It's just one more way for them to deny reality

SDs exist and are in Hillary's camp. I can only figure it's a morale/momentum issue for them. -And fits into their magical thinking about The Revolution's encampment outside McConnell's office.

Sounds like at least Kornacki named the squeaky wheels that cowed the cnn guys.

[Tarheel_Dem]

57. The M$M tiptoes around BS & Trump supporters, and we know why. n/t

[MineralMan]

19. That won't be happening.

Rogue pledged delegates won't be tolerated, and their credentials can be pulled at the convention. These are party rules, not state laws. That spokesperson is talking from an opening at the other end of the digestive tract.

[1StrongBlackMan]

23. Plus, any pledged delegate that flipped ...

would find they have a lot more free time, as they would no longer have Democratic Party activities to do.

Convention delegates spend years of their lives, doing the work of the Party ... why would they burn their reputation?

Yes ... desperation is causing that spokesperson to talk from an opening at the other end of the digestive tract.

[fleabiscuit]

45. "That spokesperson is talking from an opening at the other end of the digestive tract."

LOL. I'm going to steal that and put in my sphincter file.

[MineralMan]

48. Steal away with my blessing!

[Rose Siding]

56. He's serious. Just found a transcript and he researched the plot back to 1980

If you are the frontrunner in the nominating process, even if you have a significant delegate lead, that delegate lead with pledged delegates can become very soft if you don't continue to win. That's the point I'm trying to illustrate.

We don't have a plan at the moment to start calling all the Clinton delegates once they get selected and try to sway them individually to vote for Bernie Sanders. But we do believe that if we can succeed in this last half of the process as much as Hillary did or even more so, that there will be enormous pressure on people who are delegates at this convention to do the right and responsible thing.

We think the right and responsible thing will be to support the candidate who is the strongest candidate to go up against the Republicans, particularly if the Republicans select Donald Trump as the nominee. We really think it changes the game in a fundamental way.

The Democrats will be deeply concerned about having the possibility of a guy like Trump being the President of the United States.

So, as to the standard that I'm referring to in the Democratic Party. In 1980, we had the big fight over this. The standard was that a delegate who didn't vote for a candidate for whom they were elected could be removed physically from the floor of the convention and replaced by an alternate who was pledged to that candidate who would cast the vote in favor of that candidate.

After the '80 convention and the Hunt commission, the standard in the Democratic Party was changed to the standard we now refer to as "fair reflection." That is embodied in the rules of delegate selection, and also in the call to the convention.

And it says, "A delegate shall, in all good conscience, reflect the sentiments of the voters who participated in primaries and caucuses." That is our standard. Not a standard embodied in a law, for example, that says that you have to vote for somebody. By the way, many states do have laws like that but it's been demonstrated constitutionally that those laws cannot be enforced in light of the Democratic Party's very strong First Amendment associational interest to make its own party rules.

The Democratic Party rule will define what happens in this instance. And that rule is a standard of fair reflections. Those delegates are free to do what they want to fairly reflect those sentiments of voters who participated in primaries and caucuses, but they are not bound in any way to do so.

http://crooksandliars.com/2016/03/sanders-camp-lays-out-strategy-remaining

That was posted by a Sanders supporter who strongly disagrees with the tactic-

The very suggestion that those earned delegates should somehow be induced or wooed to break that pledge is just plain wrong. Before you throw shoes at me, rest assured I'd say the same thing about Hillary if her camp suggested such a thing about Bernie Sanders' earned delegates.

The purpose of primaries is for voters to express their party preference for the general election. If you're not the frontrunner, keep striving. But don't suggest some kind of attempt at delegate revolt as the way forward and expect respect for it.

[Rose Siding]

38. I saw a defense of this that he meant to say super dels. No. Full quote:

Here are Devine’s comments in full, made in a briefing call that we were on this afternoon.

“My point is that a front-runner in a process like this needs to continue to win if you want to keep hold of delegates. The delegates we have on the Democratic side fall into two categories. Un-pledged delegates – who are free to vote for whoever they want – and pledged delegates, who usually and traditionally have voted for candidates for whom they have been elected, but who under our rules are not bound to do so. The standard of pledged delegates is the standard of fair reflection that is embodied in the rules of the delegate selection process and also in the call for the convention. So if a front-runner wants to keep those delegates in place I believe you need to continue to win. And if you don’t win, you know, you are then going to be under pressure from your own people and your own delegates. And I think the pressure is going to build in the weeks and months ahead, particularly if Bernie Sanders has the kind of winning streak that I believe he can get on.”

http://thetab.com/us/2016/03/16/bernies-campaign-thinks-can-get-hillarys-pledged-delegates-defect-2690

[Historic NY]

40. I think if they start playing games its going to be shutdown......

by the Super delegates or the Leader of the Democratic Party.

[Lil Missy]

51. That sounds like trying to steal delegates. Very unbecoming and sounds desperate. n/t

[Gothmog]

53. Flipping pledged delegates may not be legal and will be next to impossible

I am considering strongly trying to be a delegate to the National Convention and was on the rules committee at the last state convention. I also had to read the Texas Democratic Party rules and delegate selection process for the Clinton Victory Counsel program. I am the chairman of the rules committee and parliamentarian for my county convention on Saturday.

The candidate has final approval right over pledged delegates. To qualify to be a delegate to the national convention, you will be vetted at a number of different levels including with the candidate having a veto right. The people who will be selected will be strong democrats who are not likely to flip. The democratic party in Texas has a good mechanism for vetting delegates and the people who selected are strong democrats. I have only been very active for ten or 15 years in county party and state party politics and there is a good chance that I will not be selected even though I am a maxed out Clinton primary donor.

The fact that the Sanders people think that they can flip a significant number of pledged delegates is amusing but unlikely. I will check with the state party to see if an unfaithful delegate can be removed

[Rose Siding]

54. Hard to tell

whether they tipped their hand here or are just being ineffective at messing with the clear winner.

Let me express my appreciation for your work. TX can be a heartbreaking gig for a Dem. I hope the satisfaction of Hillary's achievements there during this primary are rewarding for you.