Well, it was finally time for Bob Brooks to announce his run for Congress yesterday. When this saga all began, there were promises of the Governor endorsing Brooks and calling on everyone else to drop out, as well as a wave of unions switching their endorsements to back Brooks. Instead what we got was the Lieutenant Governor that like 3% of the Lehigh Valley has heard of, the farce of an endorsement from SEIU, Brooks own Fire Fighters union, and a Congressman that was the warm up act for Bernie Sanders in Bethlehem. Oh, and we got Bernie Sanders, the two-time Presidential Primary loser. What a shock. Bernie certainly sees a lot of himself in Bob.

About a month or so ago, I told you about how Bob Brooks borrowed $55,000 from his mother-in-law and never paid her back. She proceeded to sue him, and win, then beat him on appeal in the Superior Court. He never paid her back, and eventually just abandoned the property to his ex-wife. The actual judgment was for $130,386.36, which probably was pretty impressive to Bernie Sanders, who himself is a deadbeat. Sanders first steady job was when he was elected Mayor of Vermont. To hear how those who knew Bernie described him as a young father in the 1970’s, you get why he was drawn to the guy not paying back his in-laws. Bernie was broke and couldn’t pay his bills. Bob had a pretty good job, but couldn’t pay his mother-in-law. I get it. Neither one wanted to pay for the family they have.

Bernie’s a good role model for Bob on some social issues too. Bob Brooks has stated support for guns on demand and prayer in school in the past, in accordance with the beliefs of the 3%’ers militants. To give Bernie credit, he never sympathized with radical militants here in America, but he has had to “evolve” on gun rights, from protecting gun manufacturers in 2005 to supporting most gun safety measures. Given just the stuff we know about Bob so far, I’m sure he’ll have to evolve on immigration, or some other similar issue, just as Bernie has since his 2007 vote against immigration reform. The one area I’m not sure fits is Bob’s support of prayer in schools, but Bernie does have weird positions on gender roles that he backed away from. Bernie kind of wrote the playbook, I guess?

The one area they are a perfect match in is running campaigns to be a spoiler. Long after he had no chance at victory, Bernie Sanders continued his campaign for President in 2016, doing harm to Hillary Clinton. Bob has no pathway to victory in this race, but he’s unwittingly running to throw this race too.

When you get down to it, it makes complete sense Bernie Sanders would pick Bob Brooks to be his candidate in PA-7. It also makes sense that the rest of the JV squad was sent in to endorse instead of the Governor, Democratic Leader of the House, and everyone else they promised. The birds of the feather really did flock together.

This fire really is too big for Bob Brooks.