Washington – Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a congresswoman from South Florida and a key White House defender, was chosen by President Barack Obama on Tuesday to become chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee.
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Obama picked the four-term lawmaker from South Florida to succeed Tim Kaine, who earlier Tuesday announced he would seek a Senate seat in Virginia. The move elevates Wasserman Schultz to a crucial role as Obama looks toward a re-election campaign that will use the DNC to define his likely Republican rivals.
“As Chairman Kaine departs, new leadership must come on,” Vice President Joe Biden wrote Tuesday afternoon to members of the Democratic National Committee, which will have to ratify her selection.
“In selecting Debbie to lead our party, President Obama noted her tenacity, her strength, her fighting spirit and her ability to overcome adversity.”
Wasserman Schultz, who backed one-time Obama rival Hillary Rodham Clinton during the 2008 presidential primary, quickly became a favorite of the Obama campaign. Representing the crucial swing state of Florida, Wasserman Schultz became a high-profile advocate for the Obama campaign and then the White House.
“The day after the last primary, that Wednesday morning, and days before Clinton gave her concession speech, Debbie was on TV for us,” said Kirk Wagar, Obama’s Florida finance chairman. “She didn’t wait to be asked; she was out there fighting for what she believes in.”
That’s not to say she’s easily pushed around.
“I couldn’t have gotten through ’08 in Florida without her and she’s been there every step of the way through the first term,” said Steve Schale, a Tallahassee-based political consultant who ran Obama’s Florida operation.
“She is a tireless advocate, she’s loyal, but she’s not a soldier, she’s a leader.”
As DNC chairwoman, she is expected to serve as a fierce critic of the yet-unformed Republican field of potential challengers to Obama. She will also be a familiar advocate in Florida, a perennial swing state that she will continue to represent in the U.S. House.
Yet she faces challenges at the committee she inherits.
The DNC remained almost $18 million in debt as the end of February. The committee spent heavily in an effort to defend majorities in the U.S. Senate and House; Democratic Sen. Harry Reid remains majority leader, but Republicans captured the House and Nancy Pelosi fell from the speaker’s role.
The committee also shed staff in recent weeks, trying to rein in spending and rebuild its bank accounts.
A rising star in Democratic politics, Wasserman Schultz, first won a seat in the Florida House at the age of 26 to become the chamber’s youngest woman ever elected. She served eight years in the state House and four in the state Senate before running for Congress in 2004.
In the years since then, she has helped raise millions for Democrats.
In March 2009, the mother of three announced that she had breast cancer. She underwent a double mastectomy.
“Debbie approached cancer the way she approached everything else in her life — head on, 100 miles per hour and never give up,” said Schale.
She also is a close friend of Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was critically wounded by a gunshot to the head in January during a shooting rampage in Tucson. Six people died and 12 other people were wounded.
Wasserman Schultz was in Giffords’ hospital room when she first woke up.
Wasserman Schultz grew up in New York City and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Florida.
The Wasserman Schultz decision was first reported by Politico.
What a kavod to have a bat yisroel who is a staunch defender of eretz yisroel to be the chair of one the two major political parties. She will provide a wonderful role model for our daughters who aspire to a professional career in public service.
Wasserman-Schultz is a rising star and I have seen her on television numerous times in the last year or so. I think she is doing the work she is meant to do and I predict a strong future if it is in God’s will to make this happen.
Mazel Tov! May she have tremendous success and may all pro-Israel Democratic candidates be elected in the next two years.
Hopefully, the Obama bashers can take a break for an evening and simply acknowledge this a great achievement for a woman who has overcome great personal challenges (including being a breast cancer survivor) and achieved a high level position
It turns out that the NORPAC mission to Washington is tomorrow. I hope that Rep. Wasserman-Schultz is on their schedule and that she will welcome their support. I could not take time off work but I will be making a siyum tomorrow and I will pray that the merit of that learning contribute to the success of the NORPAC mission.
Don’t understand the comments above at all. She’s no one to shep naches over. Are Jews kvelling because another one of us is tapped to be another Emanuel or Axelrod? One only has to replay her pathetic responses and display of utter ignorance when she defended Obamacare during last year’s propaganda season.
This is excellent news!
The following is a quote from wasserman-schultz:
“Gov. Sarah Palin – who prior to her nomination for Vice President had never spoken publicly about Israel in any major forum – has no standing to question Barack Obama’s unshakable commitment to Israel and its security,” Wasserman Schultz said in a statement. “He has demonstrated this commitment over many years through word, deed, legislation, and votes. Frankly, her attempts to question Barack Obama on Israel are unfounded and pathetic.”
If you believe that Obama truly supports Israel, then you should support this woman. If you believe he does not, then this woman is by her own words exposed as ignorant, dishonest, or both. BTW, can anybody point to a single “deed, legislation, and vote” wherein Obama demonstrated his support for Israel.
Her criticism of Palin, on the other hand, is what is known as disingenuous [a lie, bla”az]. Palin was a governor and did not speak on foreign policy at “public forums”. On the other hand, she had an Israeli flag in her governor’s office, and made many statements in interviews favoring Israel.
Of course Wasserman-Schultz is extremely pro-abortion, something a Jew should take into account.
Nor do her opponents. Last night the darling of teapotties , a legislator from Wisconsin stated that Medicare is now privatized which it is not. It is privately administered according to Medicare guidelines. Far more ominous are proposals for block grants to states regarding Medicaid which will mean that you don’t automatically qualifiy for Medicaid if you sit in a kollel. Some are against Obama socialism a long “we” are included now the exclusion will be broad and include- some of”us”. If you are against abortion then vote for broader benefits to out-of-wedlock children, yes the skin hue may be different but there is the choice unless you make them obey the shuchan orech
I have great trepidation with any politician who follows Obama with loyalty. True politics is not about loyalty to any individual, even the President or a Presidential candidate. It should be about the issues, not the person or the party. The bas Yisroel thing might be nice, but if she drives us into Obamacare or other disastrous traps, I will not excuse her just because of her yichus.
BH! DWS is a tremendous choice and a vibrant influential power to lead the Dem Party. In her years in D.C she has become one of the very few most outspoken supporters and defenders of Israel. She is a true jew & feisty lawmaker who gets stuff done. She is super on womens issues as well and As a recent cancer survivor, she has been very active in breast cancer supportive legislation, including specifically in regards to the BRC1 and 2 genetic mutations which cause breast cancer in a unique particular prevalence to Ashkenazic jewish women from eastern european families. When Israel was at war with lebanon a few summers ago, she took her children down to the House floor during a late evening session of congress and in her speech and advocacy on behalf of israel’s right to defend herself, she made a special point of showing her colleagues in congress her children as they stood there as grandchildren of holocaust survivors.
Best of all she was never an obama supporter. She was stricly and active hillary campaigner from the very beginning to the bitter end, which proves she was never for the obama agenda and can hopefully help steer the DNC to a better direction than Dean/Reid/Pelosi
a) “In 2003, Congress passed the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, which led to a lawsuit in the case of Gonzales v. Carhart. The Court had previously ruled in Stenberg v. Carhart that a state’s ban on “partial birth abortion” was unconstitutional because such a ban would not allow for the health of the mother.”
wikipedia
b) it is very obvious that not every commentator on this site is a “frum yid”, and certainly not a knowledgeable frum yid. Senator Lieberman considers himself to be frum, and I certainly cannot gainsay him, but he thinks that abortion is acceptable to Jews. He is one of those threatening to filibuster a cutoff in funds to Planned Parenthood.
Not knowing who is concealed behind your nom de plume, I could only answer as I would on a secular site.