Via this Newsweek puff-piece on “Obama’s bodyguard” Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
The chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee is running late, prepping for an MSNBC interview while she brushes her tangled mass of blonde curls in the bathroom, a top adviser hovering behind her. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, dabbing on blue eye shadow, dismisses a suggestion that she call Newt Gingrich the “godfather of gridlock.” A staffer feeds her fodder against Mitt Romney: “Spent his time laying off people, shipping jobs overseas …” The Florida congresswoman looks bemused: “All in five minutes? No problem,” she says. The talk turns to Ron Paul: “If I have to hit him at all, I’ll hit him by saying he’s unbelievably extreme.” Then she jogs to the basement studio at the party’s Capitol Hill headquarters, slides a mike under her purple dress, and delivers her message. […]
Wasserman Schultz is a fighter—one whose passion occasionally gets her into trouble. She insists that “Republicans are waging a war on women,” for instance, and refuses to back off, arguing that the repeal of Obamacare would hurt her gender.
A few weeks ago, in talking about the day a crazed gunman shot Rep. Gabby Giffords in the head, Wasserman Schultz pivoted to how “the discourse in America” had taken “a very precipitous turn towards edginess and a lack of civility with the growth of the Tea Party movement.” Republican national chairman Reince Priebus demanded that she apologize for her “reckless comments blaming the Tea Party for the horrific Tucson shooting.”
Wasserman Schultz makes no apologies. Nibbling a sandwich in her House office, she says: “I make strongly worded statements so people pay attention a little to what I’m saying.” Former DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe admires her feistiness: “You’ve got to throw punches every single day. That’s the job, to get the base fired up.” In a sea of male party functionaries, Wasserman Schultz hits a demographic sweet spot. She’s female and Jewish, and she hails from a crucial swing state. She is also adept at parachuting into hostile territory. The congresswoman appears periodically on Fox News, although she boycotts some hosts, such as Neil Cavuto, who she feels keep talking over her. At the GOP primary in New Hampshire, she chided Romney at a news conference and in the spin room after an ABC debate, calling him “a candidate without any convictions at all.”
HT: Newsbusters