I did not serve with Debbie Wasserman Schultz in the Florida Legislature, but I did follow her career with a passing interest since we both served in the House and Senate from South Florida. She has always struck me as bright, but lacking in effective lawmaking skills. She was always working on the fringe left, never seeking out effective bi-partisan legislative partners. When she went to the Congress, I thought President Barack Obama made a mistake by making her the highest ranking appointment of his Administration from Florida as the the head of the Democratic National Committee. This is the party of former Senator Bob Graham, current Senator Bill Nelson, and former Congressman Harry Johnston, among others, I might point out. I simply thought she lacked experience and stature for the world stage. I think it turns out I was right.
Wasserman Schultz made no secret that she and the party big wigs wanted Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee in 2016--case closed. She was caught unfairly siding with Clinton through a series of emails, probably captured and leaked by the Russians. She badly misread the pent up support for Senator Bernie Sanders and thought she had the political muscle to choke out his candidacy.
With the growing discontent in the Party, she would have been well advised to step aside on her own account from the cancerous split between Clinton and Sanders. But in deciding to stick it out, she apparently got more involved down into the data management of the campaign. Big mistake.
President Obama, who was the source of the original problem, thought it best to leave things alone. Another big mistake. As we all know, at the peak of the campaign in July, she resigned amid rumors of corruption. And by the way, her party lost the presidential election to a misfit with a 40% approval rating.
As I said in a previous post, the Democratic Party should go back to the fundamentals of politics and craft a strategy based upon bottom up formulated principles. From there seek attractive candidates, with experience, integrity and passion to carry out that strategy. There is work to be done.