The Democrat Party’s presidential race will officially begin to take shape with the Iowa caucuses today, but there are clear indications that party leadership is seriously worried that the “wrong” candidate may take the lead. Recent polling indicates that the surging Bernie Sanders has pulled ahead of the party leadership’s preferred candidate, Joe Biden. That is perhaps why the Des Moines Register otherwise inexplicably canceled the release of its final poll. Even with Sanders stuck in Washington and off the campaign trail the past two weeks due to the impeachment trial, Biden’s middling campaign has seemingly failed to gain any advantage.

According to the current polling average from RealClearPolitics for Iowa, the picture that is forming has Sanders now atop Biden by four percentage points, followed by Pete Buttigieg at 16.4% and the fast-fading Elizabeth Warren sinking to fourth at 15.6%. Combined with Sanders’s near-10-point lead over Biden in New Hampshire, by the middle of next week Sanders could be the clear frontrunner. And if recent history is any guide, ever since 2000 the winner of the Iowa caucuses has gone on to win the Democrat nomination. That explains why the Democrat National Committee may be starting to panic.

As in 2016, the DNC appears to be conspiring to prevent an avowed socialist from winning the nomination. The first inkling of DNC shenanigans that has Sanders supporters crying foul is a new rule change that drops a requirement for grassroots fundraising — a change that will allow self-funding billionaire Michael Bloomberg onto the next debate stage. “That’s the definition of a rigged system,” fumes Sanders’s senior advisor Jeff Weaver.

Furthermore, a small group of DNC members is raising the specter of superdelegates as a means of fending off the possibility of a brokered convention and weakening Sanders. Politico reports, “About a half-dozen members have discussed the possibility of a policy reversal to ensure that so-called superdelegates can vote on the first ballot at the party’s national convention. Such a move would increase the influence of DNC members, members of Congress and other top party officials, who now must wait until the second ballot to have their say if the convention is contested.” Should Sanders take Iowa tonight, expect to hear of more rule-tweaking by the DNC.

As a footnote regarding President Donald Trump and the impeachment trial, the Senate will vote to acquit Trump of the House Democrats’ vacuous articles of impeachment charges this coming Wednesday, following Republicans’ vote last Friday against calling new witnesses. If that comes to pass, it will put an end to the Democrats’ charade, though it will only begin the narrative of a Republican cover-up as Dems aim to retake the Senate and the White House.