The Democratic presidential contest has thus far been a snoozfest. Bernie Sanders has attracted big, young and enthusiastic crowds, but when asked to take the fight to Hillary Clinton he has mostly demurred.
The tone was set in the party’s first debate when at the height of public interest in the Clinton email scandal, Sanders exclaimed that he and the American public were tired of hearing about the front-runner’s “damn emails.” Clinton laughed approvingly and shook his hand. “Thank you, Bernie,” she said, with visions of a coronation dancing in her head.
No more. On Friday, Sanders sued the Democratic National Committee, saying it was witholding crucial voter information that was costing the campaign $600,000 in donations a day. The Clinton campaign accused Sanders’ team of theft. Sanders accused the Clintonite DNC of sabotage.
It’s too soon to know whether the data breach was more significant act of wrongdoing than the Sanders campaign has admitted or whether it is being used by the DNC as a pretext for typical Clinton hardball tactics. The party notably cut off Sanders the day after he won two major endorsements and the day before the Democrats were to debate in New Hamsphire, the one early state where Sanders is generally in the lead.
The Sanders campaign announced in a statement that the DNC “capitulated” and restored access to the voter data. This won’t be the last we hear of this controversy, however.
But it is another black eye for a DNC accused of rigging the process for the benefit of just one campaign. The party has scheduled few debates and is largely burying the ones it is having.
Even Democrats supporting Clinton, and DNC vice chair Tulsi Gabbard, have complained that the party is forgoing millions of viewers by scheduling debates in dead zones like the Saturday night before Christmas.
Whatever impact Donald Trump ultimately has on the Republican brand, he has benefited the ratings of the five Republican debates this year. The Democrats have scheduled only six in total, with two of the only three occuring in 2015 occuring on weekend nights.
Perhaps we’ll learn that the idealistic Senator Sanders was surrounded by people who liked poking around in the Clinton campaign’s proprietary information like it was housed on some homebrew email server. But it seems likelier that the Vermonter who hoped for a high-minded exchange about ideas is going to learn that you had better come prepared for a fistfight — or worse — when you mix it up with the Clintons.
For Democrats who don’t like fisticuffs there is always Martin O’Malley, who can’t seem to decide whether he wants to run against Clinton or audition for a post in her Cabinet. If Clinton and Sanders begin bickering over the DNC data situation, expect him to weigh in and say this kind of infighting is what voters dislike about Washington. Can we please get back to gutting the Second Amendment, please?
But it’s really Bernie who needs to be feeling the “Bern” here. He remains the only candidate capable of forcing Clinton to even compete for the Democratic nomination. Otherwise, she’ll be content to pivot toward the general election on January 1. She’s already devoting most of her energy to trying to convince herself, and America, there isn’t a dime’s worth of difference between Trump and the rest of the GOP field.
Sanders had better come prepared for a debate Saturday night. Or he had better be ready to get run off the road.
