Sanders rebuffed on rules co-chairs

The relationship between the Democratic National Committee and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) grew more heated Saturday after the DNC rejected his campaign's request for the removal of the co-chairs of the standing committee on rules.

In a letter sent Friday, the Sanders campaign labeled the committee co-chairs, former Massachusetts congressman Barney Frank and Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, as "aggressive attack surrogates" for the Hillary Clinton campaign. The letter said the co-chair's criticism had "gone beyond dispassionate ideological disagreement and have exposed a deeper professional, political and personal hostility toward the senator and his campaign."

The Sanders campaign built a case out of interviews both co-chairs had given as the party grew worried about Sanders' refusal to drop out until "the last ballot" was cast.

The DNC responded in less than 24 hours. Jim Roosevelt and Lorraine Miller, co-chairs of the Rules and Bylaws committee, said that the Call for the 2016 Democratic National Convention had duly elected Frank and Malloy in January.

"Your challenge does not allege that there was any violation of the provisions of the Call in the conduct of their elections," they wrote. "Having carefully reviewed your challenge, we find that it fails to meet the criteria."

The Sanders campaign's frustration with Frank and Malloy was a reflection of the strange (and perhaps temporary) enemies made during the long primary. Frank, one of the most quotable figures in politics, was elevated as a critic of Sanders' personality and tactics.

"The way he's been acting now is a demonstration of why he's had no support from his colleagues," Frank told the Washington Post this month. "The problem that most committed liberals have had with Sen. Sanders is that we don't think his approach is effective. It's a self-righteous view that if you just say something loudly enough, you win."

Frank, the longest-serving openly gay congressman, effectively capped off his career with the passage of major financial reforms - including the creation of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau.

Malloy, a former mayor of Stamford, has long been seen as a progressive experimenter.