POLITICAL CORRECTNESS HITS A NEW HIGH

Debbie Wasserman Schultz is a congressman from Florida and, for the time  being, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee.*  She has been under fire for a long time by Bernie Sanders for being pro-Hillary when she is supposed to be impartial.  Well, I guess Debbie really wants to see a woman president so I suspect Bernie is correct.  The result is Debbie is going to resign from the Democratic National Committee after the convention.  The well known TV commentator Morning Joe wants her to resign NOW and not speak at the convention that she put together.  As they say in Washington, D.C., "If you want a friend, get a dog."

Weirdly, the big turning point is some thousands of e-mails  (every thing today is in the thousands whether it is e-mail on closing of a bridge or a party chair ) have been made public by WikiLeaks, one of which reads as follows:

It might may no difference, but for KY and WVA can we get someone to ask his belief. Does he believe in a God. He had skated on saying he has a Jewish heritage. I think I read he is an atheist. This could make several points difference with my peeps. My Southern Baptist peeps would draw a big difference between a Jew and an atheist.**

This is being broadly interpreted as an anti-Jewish e-mail that to be an atheist would be better than being a Jew, but, I read it the other way around, in that to be Jewish would be better than an atheist.  We are talking Southern Baptists here. Do they really interpret having no belief in God is better than being a Jew with a belief in God?***  The person who wrote this might have just Googoled Bernie Sanders to find the result.

And then, no one seems to note that Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is Jewish.*  At least "they" are not clannish if she is anti-Jewish.  No, she is pro-woman.  At any rate she knows she can retire from her position with a woman running for president on a major party.

I really wonder what to think of Bernie Sanders.  First off he wasn't a member of the Democratic Party.  Some like me think it was very nice of the party to let him come in and run for the presidential nomination of their party.  Then he spends the whole time bitching.  Lost in all this was Obama winning the nomination against the same Hillary Clinton that Bernie lost to using the same rules.

Hillary got more of the popular vote, won more states, and got the most super-delegates.  Remember that Obama faced the same obstacles as Bernie, yet Obama won against the same opponent.!  Sorry Bernie, but you lost the nomination.   You really did.  Bernie did win on some things like a plan for free college tuition  and some others on the platform so he did get something.  Fortunately, Bernie has an even lower opinion of Donald Trump so he keeps saying that Trump must lose.  I hope he sticks to it.

Now some of Bernie's "people" want to trash the vice-presidential pick  for the Democratic nomination.  What's happened to the Republican party  Well as Will Rogers said a long time ago, "I'm not a member of an organized party. I'm a Democrat."  Nothing has changed.

Bernie doesn't like the idea of super-delegates, but I don't like the idea of caucuses where only a small fraction of the potential voters actually vote.  And if it wasn't for the caucuses, Bernie would not have been anywhere.  Caucuses can turn the tide in favor of one candidate while the voters want a different one as shown by Washington State that had both.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debbie_Wasserman_Schultz
** https://theintercept.com/2016/07/22/new-leak-top-dnc-official-wanted-to-use-bernie-sanderss-religious-beliefs-against-him
*** Though raised Jewish, Sanders says that he is "not particularly religious," nor is he a member of any congregation or synagogue. "I am not actively involved in organized religion,"......"It's a guiding principle in my life, absolutely," said the Vermont senator and Democratic presidential candidate.

"You know, everyone practices religion in a different way. To me, I would not be here tonight, I would not be running for president of the United States if I did not have very strong religious and spiritual feelings."(http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/14/politics/bernie-sanders-religion/)

IS NEWT GINGRICH THE ST. PAUL OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY?

We may recall that St. Paul started out as a persecutor of the Jews, but in traveling across the desert, he had what was probably a sun stroke and also had an epiphany. After an extended period of recovery during which he could not speak, he became "no sinner like a converted sinner" and with fervor, laid the foundation for Christianity. A number of his letters eventually became part of what is now the Bible. He was very convincing and converted even jailers and kings. St. Paul is the great redemption story with his earlier transgressions against the Jews being forgiven, though he remained unforgiven by some in his day who even threatened his life.

Newt Gringrich is running for president even though he is carrying a heavy load. He had to resign his speakership of the House and pay back a lot of money. There are his well known serial monogamy marriages with the "open marriage" claim. He claims to be a Reagan Republican though when Reagan was president he was quite critical of him.* In politics, Gingrich has flip flopped on many issues, probably as much as Romney.** Gingrich admits that he isn't proud of some things he did earlier in life, but he has reformed and, in South Carolina at least, the religious right and no doubt others forgave him, giving him a big victory. His bellicose response in a debate concerning open marriage was lapped up by the audience and is given much credit for his win. It remains to be seen just how much carryover this victory will have, but it looks like Gingrich is a great redemption story in the Republican Party.

* http://www.mittromney.com/news/press/2012/01/former-reagan-offical-elliot-abrams-gingrich-was-“dead-wrong”-criticisms-reagan

** http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/11/newt-gingrich-flip-flops.html