As you may have read in ExpatGirl’s diary, the Sanders campaign has sent a letter to the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee challenging the credentials of Rules Committee Co-Chair Barney Frank and Platform Committee Co-Chair Gov. Dannel Malloy.
Rachel Maddow reported that the Sanders campaign threatened to derail the convention if both men weren’t removed. The letter sent by the Sanders campaign is on her website.
The grounds for the removal were stated in the letter. I’ll excerpt some of it here.
Bernie didn’t heart Barney back in 1991 and still doesn’t heart him:
Mr. Frank’s animosity toward Senator Sanders dates back decades. In 1991, while serving alongside Senator Sanders on the House Financial Service Committee, Mr. Frank accused Senator Sanders of “unduly denigrat[ing] the institution and a lot of the members” of Congress. After Senator Sanders won the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primaries [sic] in February, Mr. Frank wrote an opinion piece in which he professed his “resentment” toward the Senator. And Mr. Frank’s invective against Senator Sanders has only intensified as Senator Sanders has notched additional primary victories.
Now, that, is a grudge.
Gov. Malloy’s transgression was calling Sanders out on his opposition to the Brady Bill.
Governor Malloy has unfairly ascribed blame for national gun control laws single-handedly to Senator Sanders, referring to the three-day wait provision of the Brady Bill as the “Charleston-Sanders loophole.” Malloy has even ventured that Senator Sanders should be “held accountable” for the “death and destruction” cause [sic] by his “mistakes.”
The “derailing” or “disruption” Maddow reported is, I guess, contained in the last paragraph of the letter:
If this Committee is unable to provide its advice or assistance pursuant to the RBC Regulations, the Campaign will seek resolution of these issues by presenting its objections in motions as the first items of business at the initial meetings of the Standing Platform and Rules Committees and, to the extent necessary, will request the drafting and adoption of minority reports from both the Standing Committees for presentation to the floor of the full Convention.
I’m sure there are users here that understand how effective a “derailment” this would be. But it doesn’t sound like Bernie’s going to go gentle into that good night.