I haven’t written anything about the kerfuffle between the Sanders campaign, the Clinton campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and the NGP VAN firm that is responsible for handling the voter files. There’s a simple reason for my silence. I’ve known the main character in this drama for about eleven years and he’s a close personal friend of mine. I can’t be objective about it and I can’t really be helpful either to him or to anyone who wants to know or understand more about this story.
I do want to say one thing, though. I hope the “top Sanders campaign adviser” who talked to Hunter Walker of Yahoo News was drunk when he made the decision to trash my friend by “exposing” his references.
I want to point out that this “top Sanders campaign adviser” didn’t actually say that Josh Uretsky was a DNC or Hillary Clinton plant. What he said was that people who work with the DNC or have worked with NGP VAN in the past were among those who provided personal references to Uretsky when he applied for the job with the Sanders campaign. It was the reporter, Hunter Walker, who painted this obnoxious talking point as something dark and conspiratorial.
Still, given what happened with the breach, the adviser suggested Brown’s recommendation of Uretsky could be evidence of a conspiracy.
“I don’t know how you can more centrally connect this thing than those two entities,” the adviser explained. “Here we are being attacked by both of those entities when, in fact, they recommended this guy to the campaign.”
At least three times in this piece of shit article, the “top Sanders campaign adviser” says the same thing. He’s annoyed that the campaign is taking criticism for employing a guy from the very organizations that recommended him. There is no hint that this was a conspiracy and there was no reason to suggest that any conspiracy was being alleged.
But, to be honest, this “top Sanders campaign adviser” is doing something so dickish that I’m forced to break my silence.
He’s not content to defend the Sanders campaign from having any responsibility for NGP VAN’s monumental fuck-up. He’s not content to explain that Bernie Sanders had no connection to what his staffers decided to do or not do during the breach. He’s not content to point out that Josh Uretsky was terminated for his role in the affair. He’s going after (by name) the people who were kind enough to serve as a personal reference for Uretsky.
It’s such an incredible dick move that it’s natural that someone would suppose that this “top Sanders campaign adviser” must be suggesting some sinister plot. Without a sinister plot, why would anyone be such an asshole as to give out the names of people who did nothing but give a positive personal reference? The assertion that “organizations” gave personal references rather than individuals is so stupid that it confused people.
I find it personally frustrating that my friend has been demonized in this whole thing and that I can’t productively defend him because I have such an obvious conflict. I’m not going to discuss this case in detail for that reason.
The one thing I’ll say is that he’s been remarkably loyal to the Sanders campaign. It’s totally gratuitous and superfluous to keep backing the bus up so he can be run over again. But we can leave him out of it entirely at this point. Who is ever going to want to give a reference again to the Sanders campaign when they know that the Sanders campaign will humiliate them if the applicant makes some big mistake?
Most people probably could care less about the circle of professionals who do campaign work at a high level for the Democratic Party, but the people who do this kind of work will certainly notice the ethical breach here. You don’t go after people for giving references.
I don’t have a dog in the Sanders vs. Clinton fight. I have close friends working for both candidates. Longtime readers of this blog probably can guess which candidate aligns better with my political views, but I honestly haven’t decided who I’ll vote for. My politics have nothing to do with this. This is personal.
The Sanders campaign needs to sober up. You don’t go after people for giving references.
