Bernie Sanders has a list of demands.
And Barney Frank is at the top.
Sanders, the insurgent candidate for the Democratic Party’s U.S. Presidential nomination, wants Frank off the convention’s rules committee. Frank, a former U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts, is not budging.
The DNC Convention is July 25-28 in Philadelphia and Sanders is planning on staying in the race until all the delegates are counted. The Sanders campaign, in a letter to the Democratic National Committee, asked for Frank’s removal as chairman of the rules committee on the grounds of ‘personal hostility towards the senator.’
For his part, Frank appears baffled by the Sanders campaign’s spirit of entitlement. In a news release, Frank questioned Sanders’ loyalty to the Democratic Party.
“According to a 75 year old straight white male, who ‘white flighted’ his way out of the most ethnically diverse city in the country, to the whitest state in the northeast United States, and who just passed his one year anniversary of declaring himself a member of the party, that he thinks that he is the only fit candidate to be the party's nominee for President. A nomination which if he can't secure it by the ballot, has threatened to secure it by lawsuits, and more than just hinted at violence.
Am I getting this right?,” Frank said.
Sanders, a U.S. Senator from Vermont who was born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., has surprised nearly all political analysts with a campaign that has galvanized young people and small donors.
“The smell of blood is strong and the grassroots is true and validated,” said Billy Smith, a Sanders supporter from Chicago. “We put up a socialist who started at three percent in the polls and now is set to tie or better in California. No matter the convention outcome, neoliberals are finished and so is the two party system.”
Smith, who identifies as a millennial, said he supported removing Frank as co-chair of the DNC rules committee as does Sanders advisor Jeff Weaver. Weaver appeared on MSNBC newsman Chris Matthews show on Wednesday to debate Frank and ask for his resignation from the rules committee.
“I intend to endure this fight,” Frank said, adding parliamentary procedure is one of his hobbies.
