In Vermont Senate race, Bernie Sanders cruises past his billionaire, Bentley-driving GOP opponent

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: Exceedingly Social, But Doesn't Like Parties
Bernie Sanders Aims to Move Out of the House
By Michael Powell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 5, 2006; Page D01


Bernie Sanders is comfortably ahead of his opponent in the Senate race. (By Toby Talbot -- Associated Press)

....Vermont, the state that zigs when the nation zags, has something up its collective sleeve. It's about to send the first avowed socialist to the Senate since . . . well . . . never....

The 65-year-old known to voters simply as "Bernie" is Vermont's lone congressman, a six-term independent with a photo of Eugene Debs, the Socialist Party presidential candidate in 1912, on his congressional wall. He's perhaps the most popular pol in the state and there's nothing northern New England about him. Sanders was born in Brooklyn, raised by Jewish parents from Poland. His father's family perished in the Holocaust. He chews on each syllable in an accent as Flatbush-inflected as the day he wandered north four decades ago....

Vermont's Democrats offered Sanders a ballot slot. No way. He runs as an independent. (The Democrats didn't put up a candidate against him.) On the Republican side, his opponent is a tall, silver-haired businessman and former college basketball star named Richard Tarrant.

He's a billionaire or close to it, and he's spending $7 million of his own money to run commercials accusing Sanders of all manner of derelictions. Tarrant gave college kids free laptops to staff his headquarters. He tools around in a $158,000 Bentley, swapping jokes about taking out this "Red" from New York.

Tarrant might more profitably have used his cash to build bonfires along Lake Champlain this summer. Depending on the poll, he trails Sanders -- who drives a beat-up old Saturn -- by between 20 and 25 percentage points....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/04/AR2006110401124.html

[Justitia]

1. Go Bernie!

:yourock:

Vermont must have some smart folks - they've given us both Howard Dean & Bernie Sanders.

[pooja]

2. People aren't blinded up there. And Sanders knows everyone

I swear... My mom used to trade a couple of blows with him here and there when she was pissed at him. But that's the way it is... straight talk. A shiney bentley does't impress anybody in VT... Its not practicle...

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. Yay Bernie!

[Union Thug]

4. Bernie Sanders is the best this country has to offer. GO BERNIE!

[cali]

5. Great story!

It sums up how so many of us feel about Ritchie Rich. Thanks for posting it. I'm gonna get such a kick going down to the elementary school on Tuesday and marking a big fat X by Bernie's name.

[TabulaRasa]

6. Vermont giving us Bernie might just make up for

Connecticut giving us Joementum. Nah! Nothing could make up for that.

[democrank]

7. When Bernie shuffles into the Senate

they won`t know what hit `em. He`s a wonderful person of profound thoughts and straight talk. He is so committed to our veterans and to those "the system" forgot. I love the man and I`m proud to have a big red BERNIE sign on my lawn.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

8. Whether we get the senate or not, two great things come out of this election

1.Bernie Sanders gains a much more prominent role in which he can show the country what straight talk really is. (unlike mccain)
2. Ohio's giving us Sherrod Brown, who will do the same

that's two strong, much-needed true progressives along the wellstone lines

[cali]

9. Yes!

I think Sherrod Brown is very much in the Bernie mold. It'll ge great to have them both.

[sandyd921]

10. Bernie rocks!

He'll be the best thing to ever hit the Senate. He's the voice of the poor and middle class, veterans, kids, seniors, etc. (all of us who aren't wealthy repukes anyway)!

:yourock: