As The Nina Turner Turns

It looks like former Ohio state lawmaker and Bernie Sanders supporter may be defecting to Dr. Jill Stein and the Green Party in a move that I can't say surprises me.

Nina Turner, the Democratic former state senator from Cleveland who has emerged as a rallying figure for Bernie Sanders' disappointed supporters, said she is considering an offer to run for vice president on the Green Party's national ticket. 

Massachusetts physician Jill Stein, the party's presumptive presidential nominee, reached out with the pitch, Turner told cleveland.com Sunday evening in a telephone interview. 

The Green Party opens its convention Thursday in Houston. Turner would stand for nomination there if she agrees to be Stein's running mate. Her decision is expected in the coming days. 

Turner is less than a year removed for a top position at the Ohio Democratic Party, which she left last fall after joining Sanders' Democratic presidential bid as a high-profile surrogate. The move caused a stir. Turner initially had favored Hillary Clinton, whose husband, former President Bill Clinton, helped Turner raise money for her unsuccessful Ohio secretary of state run in 2014.

Turner bailing on being an Ohio state senator was probably a smart move to make for someone with national ambitions.  But backing Sanders over Clinton, and then become the post child for the "Never Hillary" movement pretty much ends that chapter in her career.

Turner could have moved on to bigger and better things, but if she becomes Stein's VP, she's going to be an unfortunate electoral history footnote rather than a real contender.  There's certainly room on the Democratic bench for somebody as obviously intelligent and passionate as Turner is, but not if she tells the entire party to go screw itself.

We'll see what happens, but I've got little sympathy for her when this blows up in her face and she comes crawling back to the Democrats.