Paste — It’s What’s For Dinner!

Paste Magazine brings us the truly epochal pairing of Walker Bragman and HA! Goodman. They are very, very excited about WikiLeaks hacks of the Clinton campaign, which has taught them truly extraordinary things about American government. For example:

The leaks confirm that political machines have returned to American politics. Through the thousands of pages of documents, Americans get a glimpse into the inner workings of the most powerful one in DC.

Emails reveal how Clinton’s team tracks loyalty, and uses fundraising and access as a means of securing it from an extensive web of operatives including members of Democratic leadership, journalists, wealthy individuals, businesses, and outside organizations. Clinton operatives offered meetings with the Democratic presidential candidate as a means of securing endorsements. Tom Nides, an executive at Morgan Stanley who served as Clinton’s deputy Secretary of State, helped secure an endorsement from Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti in this way.

Are telling me that nowadays politicians try to obtain endorsements by meeting with people and then treat people who offer endorsements better than people who do not endorse them? This is truly an astonishing new development, one we could have had no idea existed before. And, obviously, this is clear evidence that the Democratic primaries were rigged.

Of course, this is nothing new for Young Master Bragman. In a recent solo venture:

From these remarks, it is clear [in fact, this is massive non-sequitur, but moving right along –ed.] that progressives under the Sanders umbrella were right all along: President Clinton would be a status quo candidate. She would govern as President Obama has, largely through administrative agencies rather than by pushing sweeping legislation through Congress.

First of all, the idea that the policy set by administrative agencies is inevitably the politics of the “status quo” is absurd. (Perhaps one day young Walker will learn about the Clean Power Plan or DAPA.) But what I really find amusing is the idea that Obama “chose” to govern through administrative agencies rather “than pushing sweeping legislation through Congress.” For two years, Obama did in fact sign an impressive raft of sweeping legislation. And then, suddenly, in 2011 he started governing primarily through administrative agencies. Perhaps something happened — say, in November 2010 — that explains this transition? Perhaps Julian Assange can leak some civics textbooks so Bragman can breathlessly report his findings.