This Bernie Sanders Insult Supports The DNC

There has never been good blood between Bernie Sanders and DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. As the Sanders campaign sees it, Wasserman Schultz has been "throwing shade" at Bernie since the very beginning. But then this week things got really ugly — Trump digs, primary endorsements, oh my — and the party infighting reached a new level. Now some senators are even considering replacing Wasserman Schultz for being "too toxic." The feud between Sanders and Wasserman Schultz is still on, and this Sanders insult perfectly explains why they continuously find themselves at odds:

This is like someone who comes to your house, says they don't like the food, your TV is too small and I'm not particularly thrilled with what your kitchen looks like and then walks out complaining. She's been leading the party, he just became a Democrat and now suddenly believes that he should be in charge.

That zinger was delivered by Michael Nutter, the former mayor of Philadelphia — the host city to the Democratic National Convention. He's now working as a CNN contributor, and is giving voice to what many Democrats are feeling, including, I would guess, Wasserman Schultz herself, even if she can't say it.

They see Sanders as an outsider, and they have a point: Until running for president, the longtime independent had never run as a Democrat and was only loosely affiliated with them on Capitol Hill.

Wasserman Schultz's official response to Sanders' endorsement of her primary opponent, Tim Canova, was totally different as she attempted to stay above the fray:

Even though Senator Sanders has endorsed my opponent, I remain, as I have been from the beginning, neutral in the presidential Democratic primary. I look forward to working together with him for Democratic victories in the fall.

But that's likely not what she actually wanted to say. Her true feelings about Sanders probably echo Nutter, because her past statements about Sanders and his type of candidacy have not been very warm and fuzzy.

Back in February, she bluntly laid out there what the superdelegates' role is: to prevent candidacies like Sanders'. Speaking with CNN's Jake Tapper, she said that the primary rules are to serve as a gatekeeper, protecting people who are already elected and are close with the Dems:

Unpledged delegates exist really to make sure that party leaders and elected officials don't have to be in a position where they are running against grassroots activists.

That, of course, didn't go over well with Sanders supports. They — and now Sanders himself — continue to rail against the superdelegate system while simultaneously asking for their support to hand him the nomination. Seems a tad hypocritical, sure, but the ends justify the means for many Sanders' supporters.

That brings us to Nevada. Clinton won the caucuses there, but Sanders supporters hoped to come out of the state convention with more delegates. In the end Clinton appeared to be ahead (which does make sense given that she won and all). That didn't sit well with Sanders supporters, who reportedly shouted and threw chairs, prompting security concerns. Sanders' response was to further criticize the party and underplay the violence seen at the convention.

Cue Wasserman Schultz to turn up the controversy. She criticized the violence at the Nevada Democrat's state convention, comparing Sanders supporters' actions to a Trump rally and Sanders' response to adding "more fuel to the fire."

"It is never OK for violence and intimidation to be the response to that frustration," she told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "That's what happens with the Trump campaign. We can never resort to the tactics that they engage in."

So now she remains the lightning rod in the Democrats' civil war to the point that some senators think she needs to step down for the good of party unity. One pro-Clinton senator told The Hill Tuesday, "I don't see how she can continue to the election. How can she open the convention? Sanders supporters would go nuts."

That may well be true. If the Dems are going to win in the fall, Sanders and Wasserman Schultz will have to make nice, otherwise she probably will have to go. That is, unless the Dems want a repeat of Nevada at the convention in Philadelphia.