XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: thats@debbie.com   
      
   Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman   
   Schultz is in a behind-the-scenes struggle with the White House,   
   congressional Democrats and Washington insiders who have lost   
   confidence in her as both a unifying leader and reliable party   
   spokesperson at a time when they need her most.   
      
   Long-simmering doubts about her have reached a peak after two   
   recent public flubs: criticizing the White House’s handling of   
   the border crisis and comparing the tea party to wife beaters.   
      
   The perception of critics is that Wasserman Schultz spends more   
   energy tending to her own political ambitions than helping   
   Democrats win. This includes using meetings with DNC donors to   
   solicit contributions for her own PAC and campaign committee,   
   traveling to uncompetitive districts to court House colleagues   
   for her potential leadership bid and having DNC-paid staff focus   
   on her personal political agenda.   
      
   She’s become a liability to the DNC, and even to her own   
   prospects, critics say.   
      
   “I guess the best way to describe it is, it’s not that she’s   
   losing a duel anywhere, it’s that she seems to keep shooting   
   herself in the foot before she even gets the gun out of the   
   holster,” said John Morgan, a major donor in Wasserman Schultz’s   
   home state of Florida.   
      
   The stakes are high. Wasserman Schultz is a high-profile   
   national figure who helped raise millions of dollars and served   
   as a Democratic messenger to female voters during a presidential   
   election in which Obama needed to exploit the gender gap to win,   
   but November’s already difficult midterms are looming.   
      
   One example that sources point to as particularly troubling:   
   Wasserman Schultz repeatedly trying to get the DNC to cover the   
   costs of her wardrobe.   
      
   In 2012, Wasserman Schultz attempted to get the DNC to pay for   
   her clothing at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte,   
   multiple sources say, but was blocked by staff in the   
   committee’s Capitol Hill headquarters and at President Barack   
   Obama’s reelection campaign headquarters in Chicago.   
      
   She asked again around Obama’s inauguration in 2013, pushing so   
   hard that Obama senior adviser — and one-time Wasserman Schultz   
   booster — Valerie Jarrett had to call her directly to get her to   
   stop. (Jarrett said she does not recall that conversation.) One   
   more time, according to independent sources with direct   
   knowledge of the conversations, she tried again, asking for the   
   DNC to buy clothing for the 2013 White House Correspondents’   
   Dinner.   
      
   Wasserman Schultz denies that she ever tried to get the DNC to   
   pick up her clothing tab. “I think that would be a totally   
   inappropriate use of DNC funds,” she said in a statement. “I   
   never asked someone to do that for me, I would hope that no one   
   would seek that on my behalf, and I’m not aware that anyone did.”   
      
   Tracie Pough, Wasserman Schultz’s chief of staff at the DNC and   
   her congressional office, was also involved in making inquiries   
   about buying the clothing, according to sources. Pough denies   
   making, directing or being aware of any inquiries.   
      
   But sources with knowledge of the discussions say Wasserman   
   Schultz’s efforts couldn’t have been clearer. “She felt firmly   
   that it should happen,” said a then-DNC staffer of the clothing   
   request. “Even after it was explained that it couldn’t, she   
   remained indignant.”   
      
   This story is based on interviews with three dozen current and   
   former DNC staffers, committee officers, elected officials,   
   state party leaders and top Democratic operatives in Washington   
   and across the country.   
      
   Many expect a nascent Clinton campaign will engineer her ouster.   
   Hurt feelings go back to spring 2008, when while serving as a co-   
   chair of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, Wasserman   
   Schultz secretly reached out to the Obama campaign to pledge her   
   support once the primary was over, sources say.   
      
   Meanwhile, the Obama team was so serious about replacing her   
   after 2012 that they found a replacement candidate to back   
   before deciding against it, according to people familiar with   
   those discussions.   
      
   Obama and Wasserman Schultz have rarely even talked since 2011.   
   They don’t meet about strategy or messaging. They don’t talk   
   much on the phone.   
      
   Instead, the DNC chairwoman stakes out the president of the   
   United States at the end of photo lines at events and   
   fundraisers.   
      
   “You need another picture, Debbie?” Obama tends to say,   
   according to people who’ve been there for the encounters.   
      
   Chairing the DNC should be a political steppingstone — Ed   
   Rendell, Terry McAuliffe and Tim Kaine all went on to bigger   
   things, and even Howard Dean used the post to rehabilitate   
   himself from the man who yelped his way out of a presidential   
   campaign.   
      
   And without a doubt, the Florida congresswoman has had plenty of   
   successes. She has overseen the integration of key elements of   
   the Obama campaigns, including its voter file and data programs.   
   After being left with $25 million in bills from the Obama   
   campaign, the DNC enters the fall with the debt cleared and over   
   $7 million on hand. She’s started new efforts to build   
   relationships with labor and small business leaders and   
   prioritized the DNC’s outreach to female voters.   
      
   “My tenure here is not about me,” Wasserman Schultz said in an   
   interview with POLITICO at DNC headquarters. “I like to help   
   build this party. That’s what I love and that’s what I focused   
   on.”   
      
   She rejects the idea she is over-extended.   
      
   “I have always taken on a lot. It’s what I love to do. I don’t   
   do anything halfway,” she said, dismissing any worries that   
   she’s overextended. “In some cases, it’s sniping; in other cases   
   people are worried about me. I have a lot of Jewish mothers out   
   there that I think very kindly say, ‘My god, she’s doing so   
   much.’ It’s OK.”   
      
   SPLIT WITH OBAMA   
      
   The White House is staring at two years of life under a GOP-   
   controlled House and Senate. The DNC chair, however, isn’t   
   involved in the strategy talks with the president.   
      
   They don’t want her there.   
      
   For even the occasional Obama briefing by the heads of the   
   Democratic Senate Campaign Committee and the Democratic   
   Congressional Campaign Committee, she is not invited. That   
   includes a key session on July 31, the last day the House was in   
   town before the August recess, when House Minority Leader Nancy   
   Pelosi (D-Calif.), DCCC Chair Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) and DCCC   
   executive director Kelly Ward sat on the couches in the Oval   
   Office running through the political landscape for the president.   
      
   Wasserman Schultz described her relationship with the president   
   as speaking to him on an “as-needed basis, whenever I have a   
   need to talk to them or give them a sense of what’s going on,   
   but also, as it happens, as we connect on the trail.” She   
   declined to provide details of how often, where or when.   
      
   When Kaine was DNC chairman during the president’s first year in   
   office, he had a monthly lunch with Obama on the calendar   
   (although not all of the lunches actually occurred as planned).   
   Wasserman Schultz demurred when asked if it would be fair to   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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