Interesting information on the Center for American Progress

[UpInArms]

From the NYTs

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/14/us/politics/bernie-sanders-2020-candidates.html

The Center for American Progress, which is known as CAP, was founded in 2003 by John D. Podesta, a close ally of the Clintons, and is based in Washington. It has played an important role in Democratic politics, even as it is legally required to be independent from the party. It has been funded by major Democratic donors, like the financier George Soros, as well as entities with interests that do not always align with progressive politics, including health insurance companies, Walmart, big banks, defense contractors and foreign governments.

... snip ...

Both Mr. Podesta, who was the chairman of Mrs. Clinton’s 2016 campaign, and Ms. Tanden, who advised it, were mentioned as candidates for White House chief of staff had Mrs. Clinton won. Ms. Tanden has privately disparaged some of Mr. Sanders’s supporters and advisers during the 2016 campaign. Among them was Faiz Shakir, who advised Mr. Sanders’ 2016 campaign and is his 2020 campaign manager. He worked at CAP for years, helping to launch and run ThinkProgress, which he defended in 2008 as independent from CAP, writing that the website “will oftentimes write items that are bolder, more strident, or more critical than what others here at the institution may be comfortable with.”

Since Mr. Trump’s victory, Ms. Tanden has recast herself and her organization as leaders of the anti-Trump “resistance,” and has sought to harness the energy of liberal activists who backed Mr. Sanders in 2016, even as she has continued complaining about his supporters.

... snip ...

Mr. Sanders also accused ThinkProgress of “personal attacks” on two other Democratic presidential candidates who have espoused progressive policies, Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. He cited a February post on the website accusing Mr. Booker of undermining a bill he wrote with Mr. Sanders that would allow the importation of medications from Canada and other countries. Mr. Sanders further accused ThinkProgress of playing into President Trump’s hands by publishing op-eds criticizing Ms. Warren for claiming Native American heritage.

I have been wondering from whence that was coming ... guess I have my answer ...

Am not going to let anyone or anything divide our party this time ...

[Lazy Daisy]

1. I saw that piece on Cory Booker

Was wondering why he would go against a bill he was a part of. It's been put out there before that he's in the pocket of big pharma, seems they are using that info turd.

And for them to write about Warren and her ancestry is complete crap too


But of course it's all Bernie's fault

[UpInArms]

2. That's what I thought

I hate that there are groups among us that seem hellbent on dividing us

[Snotcicles]

8. Reeks of PUMA shit doesn't it? nt

[seaglass]

9. The piece about Warren's ancestry was written by a Bernie voting Native American woman,

Rebecca Nagle.

She is a free lance writer not employed by TP.

[dsc]

16. I am not in love with the entire piece

which is linked in the NYT article, but they are correct about his vote on that bill. I tend to think it was more because they employ alot of New Jersey citizens but the fact remains he did vote against a reimportation bill.

[Gothmog]

3. Washington Post-Opinion: Sanders's testiness will revive long-standing concerns

Link to tweet

One of the “digs” on Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the 2016 presidential campaign was that he was all about himself — insufficiently attuned to concerns about unity, quick to lash out at critics and exceptionally thin-skinned. Those concerns surfaced again in Democratic ranks when he hired a rabid social media hit man, David Sirota (who hadn’t initially disclosed his affiliation with the Sanders camp).

Now he has gone into full attack-and-destroy mode, targeting in a vitriolic letter the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank that has advanced, for example, a health-care plan that expands Medicare but is distinct from the Sanders Medicare-for-all plan, and CAP Action Fund, CAP’s political arm.....

What’s the reason for his letter? One can surmise it’s about “working the refs,” trying to intimidate others from criticizing his ideas or him. Sanders’s effort is downright bizarre, when you think about it. Imagine if Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) railed at the New York Times editorial page, demanding more praise, or if Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) demanded the Nation be more friendly. A Democratic veteran of many campaigns (not associated with CAP) observes, “This is disgracefully Trumpian, as Sanders desperately tries to create a fake controversy to change the subject on the eve of the release of his tax returns. … If he can’t take some accurate, fairly lighthearted ribbing from a progressive source, he’s proving that he’d be incapable of weathering the general election hurricane that Trump would unleash.”....

We already have a president who can’t take the rough and tumble of politics and wants to silence critics. I find it hard to imagine that Democrats want someone who might be just as touchy and intolerant of criticism.

[UpInArms]

4. Ahhh .... Republican Jennifer rubin

A source I always turn to for advice

[Decoy of Fenris]

5. Second only to tea leaves and live sacrifices of innocent children.

There was a time when posting right-wing garbage from neocon authors was frowned upon. I guess when it suits an agenda, it's fine though?

[UpInArms]

6. It seems as though whatever fits the narrative one wants

.... those echoes sound so nice ... I am willing to follow the truth ... wherever it takes me

And the voices of the pundits ring hollow

[Decoy of Fenris]

7. Same, mate. Same.

I actively strive to avoid echo chambers when possible, sometimes being contrarian just for the sake of it. It keeps debate healthy. Blind acquiescence to confirmation bias is outright idiocy at best and willful ignorance at worst.

[Gothmog]

19. Why does sanders not want to be vetted?

Link to tweet

Other Democrats saw Sanders’s denunciation of CAP as a worrying sign at the start of the 2020 campaign, which could herald a potentially destructive path that Sanders intends to pursue for the party’s nomination.

“I think his tone in general is too Trumplike. It’s based on anger,” said Greg Hale, a longtime Democratic presidential campaign adviser who worked for Clinton in 2016. “We all need to be together and we need to have a positive message, not a negative message.”

[Gothmog]

18. sanders is not reacting well to being vetted

No one took sanders seriously and so he was not vetted. Vetting is important I amso glad that sanders is being vetted this cycle https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/01/28/why-bernie-sanders-has-an-uphill-climb-ahead/?utm_term=.1b4f90c2a717

Finally, what happens when the oppo dump on Sanders comes? We have no idea, because it never happened in 2016. Clinton was so terrified of alienating his supporters and seeing them vote for Jill Stein in the general election (or not vote at all) that she tiptoed around him for pretty much the entirety of the primary campaign. That doesn’t mean that he’ll be destroyed when stories about the more colorful aspects of his history start cropping up, but there’s just no way to know.

Which is what we could say about the Sanders candidacy as a whole: There’s no way to know how it’s going to go. But he’s got his work cut out for him.

See also https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/19/politics/bernie-sanders-2020-campaign-donald-trump/index.html?utm_source=twCNNp&utm_content=2019-02-20T14%3A52%3A07&utm_term=image&utm_medium=social%C2%A0

2. How will he withstand more scrutiny and more attacks?
One of the secrets to Sanders' success in 2016 was that no one -- most especially Clinton -- thought he had any chance of going anywhere in the race. Clinton largely ignored him for the better part of 2015, allowing some problematic parts of Sanders' record for Democrats -- most notably his voting record on guns -- to go unnoticed. (When the race began to tighten, Clinton gently prodded Sanders on guns and health care.) Sanders, too, largely flew under the radar of investigative reporters for major news outlets who were busy looking into Clinton, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and others seen as more viable candidates. (That reality clearly benefited Donald Trump in the early days of the campaign, as well.)

Sanders will get no pass -- from either the media or his fellow candidates -- this time around. He is among the frontrunners -- and will be treated as such. His wife's time as president of Burlington College could well come up. And his opponents will do a deep dive into his nearly 30 years of votes as a member of the House and Senate. This is all very normal stuff in a campaign. But not for Sanders.

Now we can see how sanders reacts to being vetted

Link to tweet

Among some Democrats, there was a sense of bewilderment that the Sanders campaign had gone—as one operative put it—”nuclear” over a mere web video. One Democratic consultant sympathetic to Sanders described the video as being “like a gnat buzzing around your ear,” one which should not have distracted from the candidate’s Midwest tour.

It also raised questions as to whether the senator was ready for the scrutiny that would come from being a frontrunning candidate, after having run as an insurgent against an ideal foil, Hillary Clinton, in 2016.

“When you’re leading in the polls of president of your party you should expect investigative stories to hit at least once a week and to be attacked by your opponents every day,” said Ben Labolt, who served as press secretary to Barack Obama during the 2012 campaign. “An attack on something like ThinkProgress is the sign of a super-narrow-minded campaign that isn’t actually thinking of how the election will be won... They have chosen an establishment force that no one outside of the Starbucks at 16th and K would recognize.”

I am glad that sanders is being vetted

[UpInArms]

21. Me, too ...

We will see ...

Gillibrand knifed Al Franken ... as did Kamala Harris...

Let’s see what comes from all of it

The old saying, the nearer the kitchen, the hotter the fire

Comes to mind

[Decoy of Fenris]

28. Thanks, but I do my own research. I don't depend on copypasted clickbait spam and blockquotes.

Sanders does have his foibles, one of the main sticking points for me ATM is being his jumping on the Franken bandwagon with the rest of the easily-manipulated dipshits. I thought he was better than that, but everyone's flawed.

Still, there's time yet, and we have a wealth of incredible candidates. I'm looking forward to watching Buttigieg in the debates, in particular.

[Cha]

10. From Laurence Tribe, Goth..

Link to tweet

[Hortensis]

11. I'm with Tribe. Sanders tried to overset the democratic process

in the 2016 primary. Horrifyingly, those who continued to support him were shockingly in with his attempted extreme misuse of party rules to overset the popular vote. This is no different from election theft by Republicans, and in fact some of those who supported it went on to vote for Trump.

Like Trump, Sanders would be powerless without his supporters. THEY and what they would support next by their chosen leader frighten me far more than him. And now some are wholly rejecting and attacking a liberal activist group for an article they don't like about their leader.

I don't know if those attacking this liberal group are among his conservative or leftist supporters, or both, but if this follows the usual course in the end they'll all be part of a populist movement heavily energized by social conservative hostilities. This already smells of both out of control zealotry and trumpsterism.

We are living in dangerous times. OF COURSE, Lawrence Tribe trusts almost any other Democratic candidate to be what America needs, but not Sanders.

[JHan]

12. This+++++

[bernie59]

35. "Like Trump, Sanders would be powerless without his supporters."

To think that a politician needs the support of the people! How astute!

[Gothmog]

13. Tribe is amazing

Link to tweet

[NewJeffCT]

14. Testiness is only bad

if you're a female candidate...

[BlueFlorida]

15. More sqealing and whining from some.

I would recommend a thicker skin - same thing I'd recommend Mr. Trump.

[UpInArms]

17. Are you referring only to sanders?

Or, are you including booker and warren ...

Maybe you don’t care who the ones are that are helping to form opinions, but I do ...

I prefer to know who stands in the shadows and feeds fuel to fires ...

That is what my post is about ... not about anyone’s skin density

Edited to add ...

I read an article today that called David Brock a liberal activist.... this is the guy who coined the term “a little bit nutty and a little bit slutty” just for Anita Hill ... and he was a part of the Arkansas Project that was designed by Richard Mellon Scaife to destroy Bill Clinton... do I want him being the voice for liberal politics? Ummmm ....

[Gothmog]

20. Where have Warren or Booker shown any thin skin?

Senators Booker and Warren are both lawyers and have not demonstrated any think skin. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/bernie-sanderss-campaign-escalates-fight-with-establishment-democrats-in-reprise-of-2016-party-rifts/2019/04/15/8d6844cc-5f90-11e9-9412-daf3d2e67c6d_story.html?utm_term=.cf398d0b1cb8

Other Democrats saw Sanders’s denunciation of CAP as a worrying sign at the start of the 2020 campaign, which could herald a potentially destructive path that Sanders intends to pursue for the party’s nomination.

“I think his tone in general is too Trumplike. It’s based on anger,” said Greg Hale, a longtime Democratic presidential campaign adviser who worked for Clinton in 2016. “We all need to be together and we need to have a positive message, not a negative message.”

[UpInArms]

22. I added to my post ...

You have not shown me anything that makes me think that cap is clean

[BlueFlorida]

23. My point was that railing against the media

is very Trump-like.

Don't attack or bully the media, release your own statement saying whatever is printed is untrue and why.

[UpInArms]

24. Railing against CAP is not railing against the media

Maybe that is where we are differing?

[BlueFlorida]

25. CAP is a medium.

A selectively created medium but a medium nevertheless.

[UpInArms]

27. I owned and edited a newspaper

CAP would have been a source, but not a news media

ThinkProgress attempts to be media, but would not really be considered mainstream

.... think tanks and paper (analys pieces) writers are contributors, but not media

[BlueFlorida]

34. ...

[UpInArms]

36. Knowing that you must pay the bills to keep the doors open

With enough revenue from subscribers and advertisers... without any other funding

That is what a news organization does ...

If it has another funding source, i.e. CAP, Soros, investors.... the line gets fuzzy ..

At that point, is it news? Or does it have an agenda?

Anything funded by the Koch brothers is definitely tilted....

Who gets to call the tilt?

The ones paying your salary...

Unless you are paying your own ...

[TwilightZone]

26. Sure it is.

Think Progress is part of CAP. Think Progress is clearly a media organization.

[UpInArms]

29. From my post just above this response

ThinkProgress attempts to be media, but would not really be considered mainstream

.... think tanks and paper (analys pieces) writers are contributors, but not media

[TwilightZone]

30. Oh, please.

It's a news website and clearly a media organization. This is semantic nonsense.

[UpInArms]

33. Does it receive funding other than from subscribers and advertisers?

That is how a news organization is funded

[robbedvoter]

31. if they're so bad, why is Sanders going to their annual conference?

Link to tweet

He is attacking the bedrock of the Democratic values. (last time it was PP and HRC for not endorsing him)

[UpInArms]

32. He also had a town hall on Fox

He seems to go everywhere... even places that I abhor

He is obviously a better diplomat than I