"Bernie Sanders, the wide-eyed socialist running for president in 2016, just happened to produce one of the few — and perhaps the largest — bipartisan legislative breakthroughs in the last Congress."
“I’m a pragmatist,” Sanders said in an interview with The Huffington Post. “If I was a writer or paid to go around giving speeches, then that is something I could do. But I was elected by the people of Vermont to be their elected representative in Washington. And that requires me to shape and pass legislation.”
"Few people think of Sanders this way. His reputation — reinforced by his firebrand speeches, rumpled suits and Dr. Emmett Brown hair — is that of an uncompromising ideologue. And he often plays the part. He’s been virulently opposed to Trade Promotion Authority for years and has an unbending view of Social Security: it should be expanded, not cut. This past week, he indicated on “Meet The Press” that he’d support a bill reforming the NSA’s bulk data collection program, even if he thought it didn’t go far enough. Days later, he voted against it.
But those who work with him in Congress see Sanders differently. Miller called him a “realist” whose inability to play coy was refreshing."
“He is very open and honest as he goes through the process,” Miller said. “You know where Bernie is coming from.”
“Negotiating with Bernie was not a usual experience, because he is very passionate and he and I are both very strong-willed people and we spend a lot of time banging our fists on the table and having the occasional four-letter word,” McCain said. “But at the end of the day, Bernie was result-oriented.”
Sanders rose through the political system, rather than entering it late. He was a mayor for eight years and a congressman for 16, during which time he figured out that protest votes and purity could only get him so far. He pursued smaller priorities to attach to larger pieces of legislation that he invariably found less than ideal. A Rolling Stone article from 2005 called him “the amendment king of the current House of Representatives,” as he’d passed more roll call amendments than any other member.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/04/bernie-sanders-2016_n_7514328.html
