[Iowa-dx] It took 30 years, but it happened!-Bernie Sanders wins in Vermont

[dr_pac-man@mchsi.com]

The day after: Sanders prepares to take fight to Senate

By David Gram, Associated Press Writer  |  November 8, 2006

BURLINGTON, Vt. --Preparing to crash the gates of the world's most exclusive
club, self-described socialist and senator-elect Bernie Sanders on Wednesday
vowed to continue his fight for the middle class and poor in the Senate.

"I believe that right-wing extremist policy is now dead in America. That is a
big deal," said Sanders, I-Vt.

The 65-year-old Brooklyn native easily won election Tuesday, setting the stage
to become the first socialist in U.S. Senate history. He vowed to "demand that
the Senate focuses its attention on the needs of the middle class and working
families."

Sanders beat millionaire businessman Rich Tarrant, winning 65 percent of the
vote to 32 percent for the Republican.

Sanders, who ran for the Senate as a member of the fringe Liberty Union party
twice in the 1970s, joked that he also would be the only senator in history who
ever got 1 percent of the vote in a statewide election.

Sanders said Tuesday's election marked a turning point in American politics, but
how far the nation will turn is an open question.

He said he would call on Democrats, which whom he will caucus, to "begin to
stand up to the powerful corporate interests and the moneyed interests in
Washington."

"Are the Democrats going to do that? I don't know if they will or not. I don't
know how far they'll go. I hope they do."

Sanders' relations with Democrats have a long and checkered history. During his
nine years as mayor of Burlington in the 1980s, he often argued that the two
major parties were little different from one another, sometimes calling them
"tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee."

But he said he was happy to have joined forces with Vermont Democrats for his
successful Senate bid. Democrats didn't put up their own candidate for the
Senate, nominating the independent Sanders instead.

At the same time, Vermont's Progressive Party -- seen as closely allied with
Sanders, even though he doesn't belong to it -- declined to put up a candidate
for the U.S. House. That unified the left, clearing the way for Tuesday's
victory by Democrat Peter Welch, who will now succeed Sanders in Vermont's lone
U.S. House seat.

On policy issues, Sanders said any new proposal from President Bush for partial
privatization of Social Security would be "dead on arrival" on Capitol Hill.

He said the U.S. should craft a timetable to withdraw from Iraq within the next
year, but has a "moral obligation" to do so in a way that doesn't create a
bloodbath for the Iraqi government and military.

He said he would push legislation that would set up Vermont as the pilot test
for a universal health care system.

And he said he would push for reform in the media to encourage greater diversity
and encourage a more thorough examination of complex issues.