Splash! Another Kamala Harris staffer jumps ship

Kamala Harris must be uttering the rich lady's lament right about now: you just can't get good staff anymore.

This time, a big one has flown the coop, a veritable whale of a woman in significance, spokeswoman Symone Sanders.  She's by far the highest-ranking Kamala official now to get the heck out of Dodge.  Her exit follows a lot of other exits, which I wrote about here.  And apparently, it's not going to be the last one.  These guys (and this other one) plan to leave next. The herd is moving.

So why would Sanders do that?  Two reasons stand out.

One, working for Kamala Harris is reportedly hell.

Back in June, Politico wrote this sort of thing about being a staffer at House Kamala, as described by the New York Post:

"People are thrown under the bus from the very top, there are short fuses and it's an abusive environment," said the same source who claimed staffers are "treated like s---." "It's not a healthy environment and people often feel mistreated."

Sanders defended Kamala at the time, so it's not known if she was the reason staff felt as though they were "treated like s---" or she was just as badly treated by Kamala or her henchwomen as the others.  Maybe she did the anonymous quote for Politico as well as the on-the-record quote, talking out of both sides of her mouth.  But whatever the reason, it's well known that working for Kamala has always been a living hellscape.  Now that Kamala's polling favorability has fallen to 28%, she might be getting even meaner.

The other reason that Sanders is likely leaving is that she's written Kamala off as a lost cause, a sinking ship, a date with a loser.

According to the Washington Post in this glowing May 2021 profile, people said this sort of thing about her:

She is something of a classic — and often derided — Washington archetype: the consummate operator, able to skate from one type of politician (a democratic socialist) to another (an establishment favorite) depending on whose coattails seem more promising. She carries herself with a kind of self-promotional swagger that can rub people the wrong way. Not a lot of political staffers publish memoirs at age 30; hers is peppered with advice about getting ahead. "No one is going to hand you power or open the door for you to voice your opinion or your desires," she writes. "You have to demand it."

...and this:

"I think she has integrity," said Cornel West, a prominent Bernie supporter who has heard complaints about "Sister Symone" being a turncoat for eschewing Bernie for Biden. "Still, I was surprised by her shift. She spoke for Bernie with such heart and such power." Ultimately, West said, "I think she just wanted to go with a winner."

And some others said similar.  Those are just two quotes.

So if she's leaving Kamala, it's not surprising.  Sanders, based on her biography, is 31, an ambitious young political operative whose career has pretty well been meteoric, and she has said in the past that she might actually be interested in running for office herself.

Why spend years on a clearly sinking ship with a no-hoper like Kamala who currently polls at 28% and still doesn't know how to improve even her image, let alone her job prowess?

For someone like Sanders, being tied to Kamala may just be too much.

Sanders, on the other hand, has been pretty impressive in a "bite and claw her way to the top" sort of way. 

She's the daughter of a U.S. army officer who hails from Nebraska, non-Ivy, having gone to Creighton University and taken a gut major.

She's a former community organizer, from what looks like a Soros-backed group called the "Coalition for Juvenile Justice," one of whose organizational "core principles" is to "divert youth from the justice system," as well as "reduce institutionalization" and "eliminate racial and ethnic disparities," presumably in the sentencing of gang-bangers, thugs, and criminals.  She ran the shop that gave "fellowships" to formerly "justice-involved youth."  I found no evidence that she herself has a criminal record.

She worked for the Bernie Sanders campaign, then the Democrats in general, then as a commentator on CNN.  She gave TEDx Talks.

She famously body-tackled a snowflake protester who rushed the stage against Joe Biden (whom the Democrats got together and slated to win, muscling out the other candidates) on Super Tuesday, so we can tell she's a party loyalist and an insider on the big stuff.  Of her linebacker-style block, she proudly tweeted: "I broke a nail."

She's the author of a book titled No, You Shut Up: Speaking Truth to Power and Reclaiming America, whose blurb on Amazon reads:

In this rousing call to leadership, the self-described millennial spokesperson for the culture, CNN's designated "woke AF" former commentator, and the youngest national press secretary in the history of the United States shares her take-no-prisoners approach to life, politics, and career success, and shows a new generation how to be loud and powerful in their own right.

Many people — most notably white older men — may try to stop Symone Sanders from speaking up and out. But Symone will not shut up. And neither should you. In this inspiring call to action, Symone tells stories from her own life of not-shutting-up alongside loud young revolutionaries who came before her to help you find your authentic voice and use it to your advantage; to fight ideological battles more effectively; and to resist those who try to silence you. 

After that, she got the Kamala job, at what appears to have been a six-figure, likely $200,000 salary.

She was in the top tier of Kamala officials, one of the big 14.

Her live-in boyfriend is someone who was until recently known as the "night mayor of Washington, D.C.," AKA the "culture and nightlife" official of WDC, so to combine it with her youth and Creighton cred, she's probably a party girl.  It might have been why the Democrats decided to match her up with Kamala.

But now the verdict from Sanders is in: Kamala is a sinking ship.

Good alert: 'Rats always get off the sinking ship before the inevitable happens. (read more)