DNC Chair Endorses Hillary Clinton

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the current chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) should resign and do what the former chair on the DNC is doing now — campaigning for Hillary Clinton — because after all, that's what Debbie Wasserman Schultz has been been doing all along anyway.

Per Naked Capitalism (January 9, 2016) Controversial DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz To Face Progressive Tim Canova In An August Primary:

The Democratic Party will never be a force for real progressive change with careerist power mongers like Steve Israel, Rahm Emanuel, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Chuck Schumer controlling it. When we rooted her out of the DCCC "Red to Blue" program in 2008 after she sabotaged 3 south Florida Democratic candidates to help her right-wing Republican amigos, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Mario Diaz-Balart. She wormed her way back into power with a big assist from Emanuel and wound up as head of the DNC — a catastrophe for the Democratic Party. Getting her out of that position would be an absolute mitzvah, but getting her out of Congress would mean a lot more. She's an influential member of the Wall Street-owned New Democrats caucus — and is a constant pull on the Democrats in a rightward direction ... There aren't that many Democrats as transactional as Debbie Wasserman Schultz when it comes to serving the interests of the wealthy people who have financed her political rise from the sugar barons and private prison industry to the alcohol distillers. In fact, her destructive jihad against legalizing medical marijuana directly serves the bottom line interests of both the private prison industry and the booze-pushers ... Petitions may help, but voting her out of office is the ultimate solution ... (Her congressional seat is being challenged by Tim Canova. Read more here at The Huffington Post and NewsMax)

There are currently two petitions (that I'm aware of) for Debbie Wasserman Schultz to resign as the chairperson of the DNC — one is at Netroots Nation: Remove Debbie Wasserman Schultz as DNC Chair and the other is at Credo: Tell DNC Chair Wasserman Schultz: Resign immediately.

GOP News writes: "Why get rid of her? Her bumbling handling of the DNC’s affairs is probably one of the best, free assets that Republicans have going for them. Her interviews on cable news are endless sources of amusement and make the Democrats look completely frivolous."

Read State, another conservative website, writes:

We’re not the only people who are having internal tensions right now. In fact, ours are kind of mild when compared to the Other Side’s. They’re so messed up that they’re keeping a chairwoman who has presided over most of the greatest state-and local-level political retreat in recent American history. She frankly should have been fired in 2013, when the DNC failed to make significant gains in a Presidential election year; and even if you think that that one lackluster performance isn’t enough to justify the axe, there’s still the little matter of 2014. Mind you, I’m pleased as punch that Debbie Wasserman Schultz is still running the DNC for 2016. I just am a little bemused that nobody on the Left seems to want to admit the real reasons why it’s a disaster that she is.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz — the current chairperson of the DNC — has violated her own party’s rules several times to rig the process and stack the deck in favor of Hillary Clinton.

Schultz has taken lots of heat for scheduling only six Democratic primary debates compared to the Republicans’ 12 debates, and for scheduling them at times traditionally known for low TV ratings. The last debate on December 19th in Manchester, New Hampshire on ABC coincided with a Saturday night NFL football game on CBS — and additionally competed with the opening weekend for the highly-anticipated Star Wars sequel.

That last debate was also just six nights before Christmas, when many Americans were traveling and/or shopping for the holidays. When asked about the timing of the last Democratic debate, a spokesman for Bernie Sanders joked “I guess Christmas Eve was booked.”

Debbie Wasserman Schultz has also been accused of rigging the debate audiences themselves, to be friendly to Hillary Clinton. After the second Democratic debate in Iowa, Senate candidate Tom Fiegen accused the DNC of loading the room with Clinton supporters to make it seem to viewers that Clinton was winning the debate with each round of applause.

The next Democratic debate is on Sunday, January 17th (9pm ET 8pm CT 6pm PT) and will also take place on a weekend, on the same day as another NFL playoff game. After that, the very last 2 Democratic debates fall after the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary —> per NBC News and the DNC and RNC debate schedules:

January 14 - Republican debate (Thursday)
January 17 - Democratic debate (Sunday)
January 28 - Republican debate (Thurday)
February 1 - The Iowa Caucuses (Monday)
February 6 - Republican debate (Saturday)
February 9 - The New Hampshire primary (Tuesday)
February 11 - Democratic debate (Thursday)
February 13 - Republican debate (Sunday)
February 26 - Republican debate (Friday)
March 1 - Super Tuesday (Tuesday)
March (TBA) - Republican debate  (TBA)
March 9 - Last Democratic debate (Wednesday)
March 10 - Last Republican debate (Thursday)
March 15 - Super Tuesday - Part 2 (Tuesday)

And why are Clinton field offices co-located at DNC offices — but yet, no local Democratic Party officials offered any office space to Bernie Sanders' operations? In a VICE News report, the reporter described seeing firsthand how the Clinton campaign had rented a campaign office within the local Democratic Party office in Nevada, a crucial early primary state. Indeed, both the Clinton field office and the Carson City Democratic Party list the same address: 502 E. John Street.

“With its walls papered with Hillary Clinton signs and the seats carefully arranged for the Hillary for America ribbon-cutting, it was hard to tell where the Democratic Party’s office ended and the Clinton office began. There were a few signs referencing Obama and the Affordable Care Act, but as far as I could tell, there weren’t any that mentioned the two other Democrats running for president.”

In New Hampshire, where the first official presidential primary of 2016 takes place, New Hampshire Democratic Party staffers rushed to join the Clinton campaign before the former Secretary of State even announced her campaign for the presidency. Mike Ollen, Gene Allen, and Liz Wester left their positions at the state party to join the Clinton campaign in early April 2015, according to WMUR.

The DNC operates under strict rules of remaining impartial during the primary process until the nominee has been selected. But one top DNC official was just caught raising money for the Clinton campaign. Henry R. Muñoz III, who used to be a top fundraiser for President Obama, became the chief of the Party’s finance operations in 2013. This past Summer, he was caught organizing a fundraiser for Clinton in San Antonio, Texas. This is a direct violation of DNC rules, which state:

“The Chairperson shall be responsible for ensuring that the national officers and staff of the Democratic National Committee maintain impartiality and even-handedness during the Democratic Party Presidential nominating process.”

Responsibility for this falls squarely on the shoulders of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who, as chair of the DNC, is responsible for enforcing party rules when they’re broken. The fact that she didn’t reprimand Muñoz may be due to the fact that she was Hillary Clinton’s campaign co-chair in 2008. Her favoritism toward Hillary Clinton was made even more apparent during the recent tiff with Bernie Sanders, when she said, “I guess that the Sanders campaign unfortunately doesn’t have anything other than bluster at the moment that they can put out there,” in a live TV interview.

The DNC has also helped the Clinton campaign subvert the Democratic process by going around the vote and courting party bosses, also known as superdelegates, to preemptively win the nomination before all 50 states have held their primary election. Superdelegates are part of the nomination process, and they are typically DNC leaders and current and former elected officials ranging from governors to members of US Congress.

In August, before the first Democratic debate had taken place, the Clinton campaign reported that she had one-fifth of superdelegates already committed to backing her at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. According to Wikipedia, roughly half of the 700+ superdelegates have already committed to backing Hillary Clinton.

While the remainder of the delegate count will be decided as each state hosts its primary election, the early superdelegate committal to the Clinton campaign is highly suspect, as the commitments come months before the first primary voters cast their ballots.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz has not only abused the power of her office to stack the deck for her favored candidate, but has overwhelmingly failed as leader of the DNC. In addition to losing the 2014 midterm elections for both U.S. House and U.S. Senate seats, Schultz has also run her party’s finances into the ground.

“Since January 2013, the RNC has outraised the national Democrats by $65 million. Additionally, the RNC broke a third quarter fundraising record while the DNC owes $1.2 million more than it has in the bank. The DNC is essentially bankrupt heading into 2016 — an unprecedented position for a party that has controlled the White House for seven years.”

If the DNC wants Democratic voters to respect its authority and credibility, firing Debbie Wasserman Schultz is the obvious first step. Wasserman Schultz has been chair of the DNC since 2011. After four years, there is no longer any doubt that Wasserman Schultz must go.

1) Debbie Wasserman Schultz rigged the primary process to suppress Democratic turnout by scheduling the bare minimum of presidential debates, at odd times when TV viewership is lowest — giving all candidates less opportunities to present their message, and suppressing the Democratic voter engagement that is essential to promote turnout at the polls.

2) Debbie Wasserman Schultz put her own political interests ahead of the Democratic party, routinely soliciting donors at party events for donations to her own campaign and leadership PAC. Previously, as head of the DNC’s Red to Blue program, she refused to support Democratic challengers to three Republicans she counts as friends.

3) Debbie Wasserman Schultz tried to undermine President Obama Iran deal by attempting to scuttle a DNC committee resolution.

4) Debbie Wasserman Schultz sided with anti-progressive special interests that hurt Democratic voters and her own constituents by lobbying to stop the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from cracking down on predatory lenders.

Chair Wasserman Schultz has repeatedly pursued her own agenda at the expense of the progressive base and basic principles of fairness. That’s bad for progressive values and bad for the Democratic Party. Please sign the petitions (link and link) telling DNC Chair Wasserman Schultz to resign immediately. Then she can go and do what others before her have done — work for a lobbyist*.

* Howard Dean (the former DNC chair) has worked as the Senior Strategic Advisor and Independent Consultant for the Government Affairs practice at the law firm McKenna, Long & Aldridge — which has since merged with Dentons last year, the world’s largest law firm — where Howard Dean is now as a Senior Advisor for Public Policy and Regulation, when he's not on MSNBC gushing over the Hillary Clinton.

UPDATE: A new Journal/NBC/Marist poll shows Bernie Kicking Butt

Bernie Sanders opened big leads in Iowa and New Hampshire among Independents.
Hillary Clinton edges in Iowa and New Hampshire among Democrats.

Bernie Sanders leads Clinton 50% to 46% among likely primary voters in New Hampshire.
Hillary Clinton leads Bernie 48% to 45% among likely Democratic caucusgoers in Iowa.

In both states Clinton posts big leads among likely participants age 45 and older.
In both states Bernie posts even bigger leads among younger voters. [I'm a boomer and vote for Bernie.]

The Iowa survey included interviews with 422 likely Democratic caucusgoers.
The New Hampshire poll included interviews 425 likely Democratic primary voters.

The Journal/NBC/Marist poll suggests Bernie Sanders would be a stronger general-election candidate than Hillary Clinton [making Bernie more "electable" than Hillary.]

Sanders posts big leads over Cruz, Rubio and Trump in New Hampshire and Cruz and Trump in Iowa. He and Rubio are tied in Iowa.
Clinton leads Trump in Iowa, but are tied in New Hampshire, and she trails Cruz and Rubio in both Iowa and New Hampshire.