Senator and Independent Socialist Bernie Sanders Profiled in Boston Globe

The Boston Globe features a profile of Bernie Sanders (VT), one of two independents in the US Senate, calling him "a growing force on the far, far left":

The Senate may pride itself on a reputation as the world’s most exclusive deliberative body, but it is turning into just about the only place in America where a self-described socialist can wield raw power . . .

His favored targets of late have been top finance regulators he considers far too deferential to Wall Street. Last year, Sanders spent five months trying to block a new Commodity Futures Trading Commission chairman before securing promises from Gary Gensler to aggressively fight market excesses.

Now Sanders is aiming at the top of the regulatory pyramid, putting a hold on the renomination of Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, whom he blames for the country’s financial collapse as a “key architect of the Bush economy.’’ . . .

Over 16 years in the House, his lonely crusades - which amount to a lifelong campaign to remake American capitalism and social policy - were usually received as little more than glitches in an otherwise well-functioning two-party system. Since his 2006 election to the Senate, however, Sanders has found that a junior senator’s single vote is enough to keep him in the middle of things.

He has emerged as a one-man tea party within the Democratic ranks, an ideological purebred feeding on outsider anger while staying close enough to party leaders to win rewards for his loyalty . . .

This year, Sanders may settle on a fresh target: a proposed Comcast-NBC merger. He is working with staff over the winter recess to determine the best way he can wield his senatorial clout to potentially disrupt a deal he fears could establish a new monopolistic media force. “I think in a democratic society, you don’t want one or two institutions controlling the flow of information,’’ said Sanders.