Via Legal Insurrection comes this interesting story about DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and her rather embarrassing Jewish liaison Dani Gilbert.  As you may remember, Ms. Gilbert had some unfortunate comments surface from her Facebook page – essentially, stuff from 2006 where she used admittedly self-derogatory religious/cultural epithets.  At the time, I wondered when exactly DWS had hired the young woman – just on the off chance that the DNC chair had knowingly hired an underaged drinker, which the DNC chair is certainly dumb enough to do.  It turns out that this was a new hire (for the DNC position, at least)… but, hey, that’s where this gets interesting!

Turns out that the DNC already had a Jewish liaison – Ira Forman.  Mr. Forman brings to the table a large amount of experience, as one would expect from a former executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council.  But he’s just one person – and not the daughter of two Florida Democratic bundlers who put together 500K for the Obama campaign, which is apparently Ms. Gilbert’s primary qualification for the job.  Shockingly, it’s being reported that the Obama administration recognized that Ms. Gilbert may not have been the most suitable candidate for this position; even more shockingly, Debbie Wasserman Schultz defied them… actually, not shockingly.  The Gilberts are also very heavy donor’s to Wasserman Schultz’s own campaign coffers, and since it’s clear by now that Barack Obama plans to get himself elected first and worry about everybody else in the Democratic party when he feels like it, the DNC chair may be feeling the need for a little insurance.
And that’s where we’re at.  As LI’s William Jacobson put it, “The DNC Chair appears to have used DNC resources to reward two big donors with a job for their daughter.”  And… it’s a little depressing to contemplate how unsurprising that is, is it?  It also handily explains why the original comments didn’t prevent Ms. Gilbert from getting the job in the first place, too: they might have been too much if Gilbert hadn’t been Jewish herself, but as such said comments didn’t exactly stop the campaign cash from coming in, did they? – And that’s what it’s clearly all about for the Democratic party these days: keeping the campaign cash flowing.

Well, it’s not as if they have any ideals, principles, or coherent programs to run on at this point.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: It’s not that it’s illegal; it’s not illegal.  It’s not even that it’s legal, really.  It’s that the people – who carefully made sure that it was legal – then presume to lecture the rest of us on ethics.