Last week, Bernie Sanders went to Arizona to campaign for the candidate who beat him in the Democratic primaries. This is part of what he said, as brought to us by 12News out in those parts.

"This campaign is not about Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton. This campaign is about you, your future and the future of your families….Electing Donald Trump as president would be a disaster for this country and something we must not allow. In fact, I would suggest that Mr. Trump is the least qualified, the least qualified candidate in the history of this country to ever run for president. We will not elect a president who objectifies women, who boasts about sexual assaults…On November 8 our job is to defeat Trump and elect Hilary Clinton as our president. This election is important, but politics and the fight for justice isn't just about election day, you got to get to work the day after too."

We should pause for a moment here and note that, ever since the Democratic National Convention last summer, Bernie Sanders has been as big a mensch as any politician ever has been. He has been a far bigger mensch than a lot of his supporters on and off your social media feeds and in and out of the actual media itself. He more clearly has his eye on the ball than do either of the most prominent third-party candidates, both of whom have embarrassed themselves in different ways.

He has done so despite the revelations that (glorioski!) people in the Clinton campaign said unkind things about him in private e-mails. While many of his acolytes are crowding each for room on the fainting couch, Sanders has walked merrily on, keeping the whole thing in cool and blessed perspective, as The Daily Beast observed.

"Trust me, if they went into our emails—I suppose which may happen, who knows—I'm sure there would be statements that would be less than flattering about, you know, the Clinton staff," Sanders said Wednesday, dismissing the current leaks as unsurprising. "That's what happens in campaigns."

This is not to say that he won't be holding a possible Clinton Administration's feet to the fire on the issues on which he campaigned. The same can (and should) be said about Senator Professor Warren, who has been even more ferocious in her support for the ticket. Which means I don't get this Jonathan Capehart piece in The Washington Post at all.

Now, here's what I find fascinating about these stories. Sanders is a general who wants to lead an army he hasn't seen fit to formally join. Warren is a fierce fighter in that army whose fellow troops want her to lead them. Not only did Sanders not join the Democratic Party to run for its presidential nomination, but after his defeat, he declared, "I was elected as an independent; I'll stay two years more as an independent." And his refusal to raise money for the party during his epic campaign has not been forgotten. To call on its members to follow him.

There is no more reliable Democratic establishment mouthpiece than Jonathan Capehart, so I am not surprised he so badly misreads the politics here. Sanders' formal party allegiance doesn't matter a damn. He is a man with a substantial public following who, in the main, supports everything that the progressive wing of the Democratic party stands for and then some.

Senator Professor Warren did not arrive at Harvard Law on a turnip truck. She knows that, if there's going to be a progressive power bloc within what may be a Democratic Senate majority, it is going to need Sanders and his supporters to reach its full potential. And Capehart's transparent attempt to make Warren into the de facto Democratic establishment candidate in a fanciful "battle" for leadership of this bloc is disrespectful to the political acumen of both senators. Everything will be fine. We're all mensches on this bus.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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