Democrats need to take the car keys away from Bernie

The Platner fiasco has unleashed something of a brawl in the Democratic Party over how the sexting candidate with a Nazi tattoo came to be their rival to Susan Collins, now in her 5th term as Republican senator from Maine. Bernie Sanders thought his socialists could pass off blue-collar impersonator Graham Platner — a product of the elite Hotchkiss prep school — as a hard-working "oysterman." Sanders had been waving off concerns about the guy. Then suddenly, he called on Platner to leave the campaign. Two problems with Bernie's new directive: One, Sanders is why Democrats got saddled with Platner to begin with. Two, the new revelations come on top of previous revelations about his piggish behavior. Sanders evidently thought he could ignore all this until more startling charges came to light. The dam holding back Democratic demands to replace Platner finally gave way. If Sanders didn't jump in and pretend to have problems with the candidate he pushed onto the party, he wouldn't be in a strong position to choose his own left-fringe replacement with a colorful story. The road to socialist victories, Sanders knows, runs through infiltrating the Democratic Party, of which he's not a member. His objective is not to help Democrats take over Congress but for his socialists to take over the Democratic Party. Sanders, the "Independent " senator from Vermont, is not a Mainer. He's not much of a Vermonter, either. He's a New Yorker, spending large amounts of time back home in hardcore Democratic districts trying — and succeeding — to get his followers to knock off liberal Democrat incumbents in primaries. One of his winning primary offers called former President Joe Biden "a rapist." Thing is, the Democratic Socialists of America are heavily represented by college-educated voters who don't have to worry about losing their health coverage. They don't like the rents they have to pay to live in the neighborhoods they're busy gentrifying. They think socialists can fix that. Now listen to a Platner defender back in Maine. Joanie Monteith told AP, "I'm heartbroken for him and his wife." Rest assured that Platner's wife, Amy Gertner, is well practiced in the art of handling humiliation, with the world knowing her husband sent raunchy texts to assorted women before the couple reached their second anniversary. If finding plausible Democrats to represent the party requires a Democratic rumble, let's have it. So far, few prominent Democrats have spoken forcefully about the far-left's boutique nominees. The exception is Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman. He let loose, calling Platner a "predator" and "Bona fide dirtbag," and referring to him as "P-Hustle," his old Reddit handle. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, more gentle in his rebuke, joins Fetterman as a Democrat who won office in a state that's been turning Republican. Democrats shouldn't need a lot of magic to get one of their own elected in Blue New England, and in a year favoring their party. Sanders, age 84, might consider retirement. But another leftist string-puller at the other end of the age spectrum, 27-year-old campaign adviser Morris Katz, should also look for another line of work. Katz won some fame as the mind behind New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani's adorable internet storytelling campaign. Looking to repeat his act in Maine, Katz pushed the utterly unqualified Platner over the primary win line, despite Platner's "imperfections" being widely known. Katz then made the dumb mistake of personally threatening a woman who left the Platner campaign, demanding she refute the things she knew about his abuse of women. Democrats need to replace the internet-savvy fringe operatives with internet-savvy mainstream operatives of their own. Above all, they need to take the car keys away from Bernie Sanders. Follow Froma Harrop on Twitter @FromaHarrop.