Senate Dems to Hillary: No. Just .... no.

Philippe Reines might have thought the door has not yet closed on a potential Hillary Clinton run, but Senate Democrats are doing their best to slam it in her face. After Reines suggested that that a rematch between Hillary and Donald Trump would solve the purported problem Democrats face in their 2020 primary, Politico decided to check with her former colleagues on Capitol Hill. “Absolutely not,” replied Joe Manchin, a position echoed by many other Senate Democrats — and on the record, too.

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For instance, here’s the #2-ranking Democrat in the upper chamber:

“She’s done a great service to our country and public service, and I supported her wholeheartedly, but I believe it’s time for another nominee,” said Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin.

And a red-state Democrat:

“I don’t think it would be good for her,” said Montana Sen. Jon Tester. “She’s been through this war once. The Republicans have made a target out of her for 30 years and she’s still going to [be] that same target. I just think it would be tough.”

What about the women in the Senate Democratic caucus? Don’t they want to see Hillary vindicated? Let’s just say it’s not high up on their priority list:

“We have a lot of really fantastic candidates out there already. Let’s leave it at that,” said Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono. …

“It’s hard to know whether the world has passed on or not,” said California Sen. Dianne Feinstein. “I’m a friend of hers and I’m extraordinarily fond of her. But that’s a factor.”

Of course, that doesn’t account for all 47 Senate Democrats, but add in Richard Blumenthal, Martin Heinrich, Ben Cardin, and Doug Jones, and the consensus seems pretty clear. Politico didn’t apparently reach out for comment to six of the Democrats who are running for the nomination themselves (Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Michael Bennet, and Bernie Sanders in name only), but their responses would be more or less a given.

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Especially Sanders’, one would imagine.

After last cycle’s dreadful attempt at a coronation and the damage it did to the DNC’s credibility just to end up in a loss to Trump anyway, a lack of enthusiasm for Her Majesty is not unexpected. What does seem notable is how willing all of these Senate Democrats were to go on the record to dismiss Hillary. The Clinton Establishment must really be dead after its quarter-century run in the Democratic Party. That blunt dismissal from so many leading Democrats makes it very clear that the door is not only shut, it’s locked, bolted, barricaded, and perhaps even set for an auto-destruct sequence if Reines and others keep trying to push Hillary through it in 2020.

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