Democratic National Committee Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., is coming under fire from her party — and male Democrats are hanging her out to dry.
Wasserman Schultz has become a liability to the DNC due to a string of gaffes, including one recently in Wisconsin that caused Democrats such a headache that she may no longer be welcome to campaign for the gubernatorial race in the state.
Wasserman Schultz has also drawn ire for focusing on her political ambitions ahead of DNC goals, Politico reported, and for attempting to get the DNC to buy her clothing for multiple events.
President Obama hasn’t liked Wasserman Schultz since 2011, when she complained to him that she couldn’t hire a donor’s daughter to the DNC. “Obama summed up his reaction to staff afterward: ‘Really?’” the article recounted.
Though Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., had a monthly lunch with Obama while he was DNC chair, Wasserman Schultz does not. She’s also not involved in strategy talks with Obama or the administration.
Obama is apparently also growing tired of Wasserman Schultz’s constant requests for photos with him.
After being asked Thursday if Obama had “complete confidence” in Wasserman Schultz, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said only that the president has “strong confidence” in her abilities.
After the 2012 election, several men in Obama’s inner circle wanted to replace Wasserman Schultz with a man — R.T. Rybak, a DNC vice chair and former mayor of Minneapolis.
Then-DNC executive director Patrick Gaspard, Obama’s re-election campaign manager Jim Messina, and political strategist David Plouffe all “intensely” debated the idea of replacing Wasserman Schultz.
And it appears the only reason they didn’t replace her was, according to the article, “the optics of Obama dropping a woman from the party leadership,” especially after they spent 2012 blaming Republicans of waging a “war on women.”
On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., was asked about the situation surrounding Wasserman Schultz’s future with the DNC and he wasn’t exactly effusive in his praise. Reid said he was impressed with the DNC chairwoman’s TV appearances, “[b]ut the ultimate decision regarding her is made by the president of the United States, not the three of us,” he said, standing with Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Even the men apparently defending Wasserman Schultz following the Politico story did so quietly. House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., simply nodded as the Democratic Party’s other high-profile woman, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., predictably defended Wasserman Schultz.
Kind of hard to be the party for women when so many resources are being used undermine one of their own.
Judging by the hyperbolic standards they use to chastise Republicans, it looks like Democrats are launching a war on one woman.
