OH, IS THIS JUICY – AT 9:14 A.M. ET:  It was a big story just days ago:  The mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign manager in 2000, refused to endorse her for president.  He said she hadn't yet laid out a progressive social program.

What was his motive?  Why did he volunteer, in effect, to take heat from the Clinton camp to hold back his endorsement?

As they say, the plot thickens.  We may have the answer from Fred Dicker, one of the best local political reporters around.  From the New York Post:

Despite repeated claims to the contrary, Mayor Bill de Blasio is positioning himself to be the leftist “progressive” alternative to Wall Street-friendly Hillary Rodham Clinton as the Democratic candidate for president, a national party operative told The Post.

De Blasio’s hope, the operative said, is a “Draft de Blasio’’ movement will develop among progressive activists over the next several months that will lead to the mayor being able to defeat Clinton in the primary elections next year in much the same way leftist Sen. George McGovern successfully challenged the initially front-running establishment Democratic candidate, Sen. Edmund Muskie, more than 40 years ago.

Standing ready to back de Blasio against Clinton, said the operative, is the state’s small but influential Working Families Party, which has strong ties to de Blasio and is funded by some of the nation’s most powerful labor unions.

It is also very far left, very sympathetic to the red left.

Earlier this year, the New York-based WFP urged Massachusetts Senator and Wall Street-bashing “progressive’’ favorite Elizabeth Warren to challenge Clinton and run for president — but she has repeatedly said she won’t do so.

“With Warren saying she’s not running, de Blasio and his advisers are trying to position the mayor as the ‘draft’ candidate for the left in 2016. That’s why he refused to endorse Hillary last week,’’ contended the operative, who is involved in presidential politics.

COMMENT:  The story isn't shocking.  De Blasio represents the leftist fringe of the Democratic Party, the pro-Castro fringe.  He was active in supporting the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, and pointedly got married to his African-American wife in Cuba, to show support for the regime. 

De Blasio was elected mayor of New York City – a city that had elected the rational and effective Rudy Giuliani and Mike Bloomberg – in a year when voting participation was way down, and the Republican Party of New York did its usual thing, it nominated a nondescript candidate who had no real chance of winning. 

There are going to be fireworks ahead.  The far left is making its move, and I would not be shocked to learn that the White House is pulling the strings. 

Can Hillary be dethroned?  Yes.  Is it likely?  No.  But it wasn't likely in 1968 that the leftist insurgents would force a sitting president, Lyndon Johnson, out of the race.  It wasn't likely in 2008 that a nothing little senator from Illinois, a man with no record of accomplishment, could be elected president by skillful playing of the race card.

As Bette Davis said in All About Eve, "Fasten your seatbelts.  It's going to be a bumpy night."

April 20,  2015