Clipping blog

Debbie Wasserman-Schultz’ Grotesque Puppet Show — Now with Tea Parties!

Posted: 11 Jan 2012 06:05 PM PST

I hesitate to call DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz a liar, but I have noticed that she’s taken a precipitous turn toward partisan claptrap that has no basis in reality in her role as Official Spokesjerk of the Democratic Party.

“We need to make sure that we tone things down, particularly in light of the Tucson tragedy from a year ago, where my very good friend, Gabby Giffords — who is doing really well, by the way, — [was shot],” Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic National Committee chair said during a “Politics and Eggs” forum this morning. “The discourse in America, the discourse in Congress in particular . . . has really changed, I’ll tell you. I hesitate to place blame, but I have noticed it take a very precipitous turn towards edginess and lack of civility with the growth of the Tea Party movement.”

Having brought up the Giffords attack as a political cudgel, Wasserman Schultz doubled down on that attack. “You had town hall meetings that [the Tea Party] tried to take over, and you saw some their conduct at those town hall meetings,” Wasserman Schultz said today. “When they come and disagree with you, you’re not just wrong, you’re the enemy.”

I want to note a couple things here. First, the violence we’ve seen at political events over the last two years didn’t happen at town meetings attended by Tea Partiers. Second, the man who committed the heinous crimes in Tucson last year wasn’t a Tea Partier. In fact, his political views, if you could call the random assortment of conspiracy theories and pure nuttery that Jared Loughner espoused “views”, were not Tea Party at all. Third, the edgy and uncivil rhetoric has come from other sources much closer to the center of Democratic political power.

Of course, none of that matters. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz could care less about rational political discourse, not when she can dance her wounded friend around like a marionette to generate a little cheap heat in front of the hometown crowd. She needs to apologize to the millions of Americans she slandered. She won’t, but she needs to, and if the Democratic Party itself had any decency at all, its membership would demand it of her.

UPDATE: RNC Chair Rience Priebus called Wasserman-Schulter over her grotesque display and here was her response via Twitter.

.@ReincePriebus I'd NEVER politicize Tucson-my close friend was shot. Your comment=lack of civility was talking about. http://t.co/5IEoP7zr