To Run DNC, Wasserman Schultz Be Illin’ |
By Quin Hillyer
Tuesday, May 03 2011 |
Proof that Barack Obama is the anti-Clinton, that he is committed to left-wing ideology rather than center-left triangulating, comes May 4 in the ascension of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) as chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Think Nancy Pelosi without the frozen death-smirk, or a female Bernie Sanders (Socialist, Vermont) without the oddball charm. This is a very left-wing woman, with a talent for cheap-shot invective and a nasal voice that could grate fossilized cheese. Leftist pressure groups are her chief political friends and financiers, and New York’s Chuck Schumer must be her model for the way she seeks the attention of a camera. “Middle America,” she ain’t – and, despite all her political smarts, Republicans must be looking forward with glee to Wasserman Schultz becoming the face of the Democratic Party outside the Oval Office. How left can left be? In 2009, Wasserman Schultz voted with the National Taxpayers Union just 2 percent of the time. The American Conservative Union gave her a zero. In 2008, she voted with Americans for Fair Taxation not a single time, and with Citizens Against Government Waste just 2 percent. The National Taxpayers Union gave her an “F.” The National Tax Limitation Committee: Zero. The Alliance for Worker Freedom: Zero. Same for the Club for Growth. For lefty groups, however, she’s catnip: 100 percent for ACORN in 2006. Always 100 percent for NARAL Pro-Choice America. Ninety-nine percent lifetime with the AFL-CIO. Perfect scores in 2009 from AFSCME and from the American Federation of Government Employees, from the Americans for Democratic Action. She’s radically pro-abortion, pro-gun-control, pro-union-boss, pro-government. Even Ivy League Sociology Departments would have a hard time matching such feats of hard-left purity. The purity extends so far as to push her to the left of both President Obama and many House Democrats on taxes: When the House by an overwhelming 314-112 margin voted in March to repeal Obamacare’s abominable 1099 tax paperwork requirement on small businesses, Wasserman Schultz was one of the small minority who voted to keep mom-and-pop shops under the IRS boot. Yet Democrats seem not to mind such liberal substance, because they seem to rate her as a good communicator. Hmmm. If adolescent eye-rolling and histrionic head-shaking are your cup of tea, perhaps so. Frankly, we’ve all seen ten-year-olds with fewer facial tics. What’s worse is that Ms. Wasserman Schultz is about as subtle with her political smears as Ted Kennedy on a bender. She said that Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget “would literally be a death trap for seniors.” Republicans “long for the days when a woman’s place was in the kitchen.” The Tea Parties are full of “racist elements,” and their protests replete with “swastikas” and “burned effigies.” Prohibiting taxpayer funding for abortions amounts to a “violent act against women.” As Politico put it, “Wasserman Schultz throws a punch nearly every time she opens her mouth.” What Politico didn’t say is that the public often disdains partisan punches, especially those thrown with a know-it-all sneer and a New York accent. When she also bends the facts to spread her smears, the falsehoods and negativity will eventually catch up with her. Perhaps the worst is her repeated insistence that Obamacare does not contain an individual mandate to buy health insurance. She also has promoted the falsehood that Republican Social Security “investment options” would affect current retirees, although none of them do so. She pretends to be a campaign finance reformer, avoiding PAC donations going forward. But the Republic National Committee cites OpenSecrets.org to note that she has taken nearly a million dollars from unions, more than $3.1 million from PACs and more than $184,000 from lobbyists. She’s also a favorite of trial lawyers. Conveniently, the new PAC ban did not go into effect until after a top-dollar fund-raiser held Monday night, two days before taking over as DNC chair. Wasserman Schultz voted against scholarships for DC school children. Against a trade agreement with our good ally Columbia. Against a widely popular bill to enforce existing immigration law. If the DNC wants to turn off Middle America, putting Ms. Wasserman Schultz front and center is a good way to do it. |
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