Democrat Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz was first elected to Congress in 2004. However, it wasn’t until the president announced his decision to seat her as Chair of the Democrat National Committee in April 2011 that she appeared in the national political spotlight.
Since then, her habit of sharing uncensored opinions and criticisms of any Republican who speaks ill of the president has defined Schultz as one of the most polarizing political figures on Capitol Hill.
However, it’s been the increasing number of missteps made against the administration that seem to have her wading deep into dangerously hot water.
She did it again this week.
NBC reported Wednesday that the niece of Fidel Castro -- and daughter of current Cuban President Raúl Castro -- is in San Francisco this week at the Latin American Studies Association conference. Mariela Castro, described as a "sexologist and gay rights activist," is here to talk about gay rights.
While Rep. Marco Rubio and several Republican Cuban-American representatives from Miami have been obdurately criticizing the administration’s decision to grant Castro a visa since last week, Florida’s Democratic Party has been vigorously defending the move.
In the meantime, The Miami Herald reported Wednesday that two of Florida’s top Congressional Democrats broke ranks to condemn the act. Schultz was one of them.
Remember, Schultz is the one who -- against months of intense objections from Obama’s top campaign officials in Chicago and her own DNC staff, Schultz -- hired Dani Gilbert as a new Jewish liaison last month.
The source of objector concerns was that Gilbert is the daughter of Boca Raton wealth manager, Mark Gilbert, a top-tier Obama bundler, and a major donor to Wasserman Schultz's own campaigns since 2003.
By all appearances, this hire would be seen as a payoff, one that would give fuel to administration critics who were all too eager to set another Obama re-election fire.
Then came the unexpected explosion.
The same day Gilbert’s April hiring was announced, photographs from 2006 – of young Jewish girls clutching dollar bills and referring to themselves as “Jewbags†and the “Jew cash money team†-- were discovered on her Facebook page by Washington Free Beacon.
That’s when the administration’s public distancing from Shultz began.
A source within the Democratic Party told the Shark Tank that Schultz wasn’t even Obama’s “first choice†to head the DNC. She got the job by pressuring the president on the premise that he needed her to shore up his deteriorating support among Jewish voters and to bolster his image with women.
However, while Obama has been able to count on Schultz to carry his political water, he has become increasingly irritated by her polemic behavior, which only served to galvanize Republicans and cost them precious support among independents.
In the words of Shark Tank’s inside source, the president “does not want her in the DNC anymore.â€
During Obama's trip to Florida, not only was Schultz stripped of her previously held honor of introducing the president before his speeches, he barely acknowledged her presence.
In fact, Shark Tank's source said Obama addressed Shultz personally on her destructive activities, telling her it’s not about her, it’s about him.
“Don’t forget, you work for me.â€
But the question is: How much longer will she keep her job?
Despite the general elections being six months away, there’s nothing on her website about running for re-election.
More notable, her name doesn’t appear anywhere on the Florida Division of Elections List of Candidates.
According to the Florida Supervisor of Elections, if Schultz doesn’t qualify by petition or pay to get on the ballot by June 8, she won’t be eligible to run for re-election.
During a May 15 interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Shultz was asked about Ozzie DeFaria, the Republican challenger who created the picture of Shultz wearing a dog collar for his website – ObamaAttackDog.com.
BLITZER: "Is he a serious Republican challenger potentially to you?"
SCHULTZ: "I'm focused on representing my constituents and making sure they understand I've been fighting for them and working hard to make sure that we can continue to get this economy turned around."
Notice how she didn’t answer the question or even confirm her bid for re-election?
Incidentally, unlike Schultz, DeFaria is listed on the Florida Division of Elections List of Candidates for the 2012 general election. He filed on January 27.
http://www.examiner.com/article/has-debbie-wasserman-schultz-worn-out-her-welcome#print
