Bernie Sanders Is a Loud, Stubborn Socialist. Republicans Like Him Anyway.

[leftcoastmountains]

-snip-
In the Sen­ate, Bernie Sanders should be all alone.

Sanders is con­stantly rib­bing Re­pub­lic­ans in his trade­mark con­des­cend­ing Brook­lyn-ac­cen­ted tone. He of­fers up le­gis­la­tion that’s so far to the left that it couldn’t get a vote even un­der Ma­jor­ity Lead­er Harry Re­id. He’s the cur­mudgeon in the Sen­ate Demo­crat­ic con­fer­ence, rarely sat­is­fied with how far his lead­er­ship will go to pur­sue pro­gress­ive policies, and not afraid to vote ‘nay’ when his lead­ers come up short. And none of his Sen­ate col­leagues, on either side of the aisle, think he could ever be elec­ted pres­id­ent of the United States; most of them even be­lieve he shouldn’t be.

But rather than earn­ing the frus­tra­tion and ire of his peers in the vein of oth­er Sen­ate hard-liners such as Sen. Ted Cruz, Sanders has man­aged to be re­spec­ted — even liked — by much of the cham­ber, ac­cord­ing to mem­bers on both sides of the aisle. The Ver­mont in­de­pend­ent ac­tu­ally has much more in com­mon with Sen. Tom Coburn, the now-re­tired “Dr. No,” whose hard-line op­pos­i­tion killed many bills in the Sen­ate but also earned him the re­spect of his col­leagues on both sides of the aisle.

Sanders also has been able to work well with his col­leagues. He’s passed bi­par­tis­an le­gis­la­tion and forged strong re­la­tion­ships with mem­bers of both parties in nearly 25 years on Cap­it­ol Hill. But most of all, mem­bers say, even when Sanders is ideo­lo­gic­ally an out­lier, he lets oth­ers know where he stands. He’s not the type to sud­denly stab a col­league in the back. And that’s earned him re­spect both on and off the Hill.

“A lot of people here talk about what they be­lieve in, but they don’t act on it,” Sen. Mark Warner said. “He al­ways acts on what he be­lieves. “¦ We can agree or dis­agree, but you know where he stands."


http://www.nationaljournal.com/s/71225/bernie-sanders-is-loud-stubborn-socialist-republicans-like-him-anyway

[Faux pas]

1. Kickin'

[libdem4life]

2. There is no compliment like one from an opposition party. You know where he stands.

Take it to the people. It's something new and exciting.

[LiberalArkie]

3. K&R

[Fawke Em]

4. I LOVE him, myself.

Of course, I'm not the opposition party, but I just wanted to say that.