Tension in Denver

What exactly is the nature of the reported feuding between Obama and Clinton staffs? It certainly isn't about Clinton herself; by all accounts, she's doing everything she can to promote unity. It's partly about Clinton's husband, apparently, but that's clearly not the whole of it.

One passage in the Politico story suggests an answer: More...

A prominent Obama backer said some of Clinton’s lieutentants negotiating with the Obama team are “bitter enders” who presume that, rather than the Clintons reconciling themselves to Obama’s victory, it is up to Obama to accommodate them.

In fact, some senior veterans of Clinton’s presidential campaign do believe this.

It's always those anonymous staffers, isn't it? It's the people who banked on a sure thing and now can't reconcile themselves to the fact that they won't have jobs in this administration. (Or, given the extraordinarily bitter infighting within the campaign, they're pissed off that someone else has a job.) It's not about Clinton (either one) or Obama; it's about the corruption of the political consultant class. It's about people who would rather lose the election, with everything that entails for the country, than be on the outside of the party apparatus.

I'm not the first to point this out, of course. The thing I find striking now is the extent to which Clinton's people are willing to undermine Clinton to get what they want.