Both parties find things to love about DNC chairwoman

Political Notebook

June 18, 2011|Associated Press

Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, at a Florida fund-raiser on… (David Adame/Associated…)

WASHINGTON — It’s a rare moment of bipartisanship in Washington: Both parties say they are enjoying the performance of the new Democratic Party chairwoman.

In Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Republicans say they see a gaffe-prone attack dog emerging. Democrats say that, a few missteps aside, the Florida congresswoman is growing into her role well, galvanizing fund-raising and pumping up the party’s liberal base.

How well and how quickly Wasserman Schultz adjusts to her new position will be an important factor in President Obama’s reelection effort.

In any presidential year, the incumbent party’s chairman is on the front line every day, carrying the president’s message, making sharp contrasts that a president likes to avoid in an effort to appear above the fray. Apart from Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, few are more likely to serve as a more prominent surrogate in the run-up to 2012 than Wasserman Schultz.

This week alone, Wasserman Schultz, who took over the Democratic National Committee from former Virginia governor Tim Kaine in April, appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press,’’ traveled to Florida for a fund-raiser with the president, and spoke to liberal activists yesterday at the Netroots Nation conference in Minneapolis. Appearing with Wasserman Schultz at the fund-raiser in Miami on Monday, Obama gave his new chairwoman a vote of confidence.

“You want Debbie on your side,’’ Obama told the audience. “She’s a mom, she’s got that cute smile and all that, but she is tough. Don’t mess with Debbie.’’

Republicans, though, have been happy to mess with her, highlighting her mistakes and amplifying remarks they say do not befit a party chairwoman.

Wasserman Schultz has been forced to walk back a comparison of efforts in several states to require identification to vote to Jim Crow-era laws. She also has been criticized by Republicans, and rapped in several fact-checks, for her characterizations of Republican plans to restructure Medicare.

Wasserman Schultz recently criticized Republican candidates for opposing the auto bailouts and said, “If it were up to the candidates running for president on the Republican side, we would be driving foreign cars.’’ Then the Republican National Committee delighted conservative blogs by circulating her registration for a Japanese-made vehicle.

She delayed weighing in as the party leader on Representative Anthony Weiner, Democrat of New York, waiting until a coordinated effort was underway before calling on Weiner to resign his seat.