What should have been a two-bit, one-day, not-really-scandal involving photos Dani Gilbert, the new DNC liason to the Jewish community, took a few years back is turning into something much more. By all appearances, Debbie Wasserman Schultz gave a payoff to big Dem donors by giving their daughter a job at the DNC to perform tasks already being done by others.
Via BuzzFeed Politics:
Underlying the story of a Democratic National Committee Jewish liaison in hot water for an over-the-top Facebook joke about Jews and money is a growing tension between the Obama re-elect and the Democratic National Committee Chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
The liaison, Dani Gilbert, was hired after months of heated objections from top Obama campaign officials in Chicago and from Wasseran Schultz’s own staff at the Democratic National Committee, three well-placed Democratic sources told BuzzFeed. The campaign already has a more senior a full-time Jewish liaison, Ira Forman, who had been the longtime executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Coalition. And Wasserman Schultz’s staff was concerned about bringing in Gilbert, a staffer in Wasserman Schultz’s personal office who is the daughter of a Boca Raton wealth manager, Mark Gilbert, who is a top-tier bundler for Obama, and a major donor to the president, the Democratic Party, and to Wasserman Schultz’s own campaigns….
Democratic National Committee communications director Brad Woodhouse emailed BuzzFeed a statement flatly denying the account of the three senior Democratic sources who described Gilbert’s hire as a product of a rift between Wasserman Schultz and aides more focused on Obama’s campaign….
From Politico:
The staffer for DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz who posted the controversial ‘Jewbag’ photo on her Facebook page in 2006 is no anonymous aide — but the daughter of Mark and Nancy Gilbert, two major Florida donors who have raised more than $500,000 for the Obama campaign.
Danielle “Dani” Gilbert, according to party sources, was tapped by Wasserman Schultz to serve as a liaison to the Jewish community, even though party officials and people close to Obama told her that more senior Democrats were already handling those responsibilities.
That’s the story, not the photos.
The DNC Chair appears to have used DNC resources to reward two big donors with a job for their daughter.
That may be good for Wasserman Schultz, who has a connection to the donors, but Team Obama seems unhappy that DNC resources are being used for something other than electing Obama. Wasserman Schultz better remember who runs the show and who comes first.
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Comments
Well, shoot, Prof. Nobody EVER thought that she was hired for her chops or her deep understanding of…like…anything.
Pay to play.
It’s the Democrat way.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/04/04/pay-for-play-at-the-harris-county-texas-republican-party
Golly, I SOOOOOO wish it was that simple… These are my peeps, too…
(Face palm)
You don’t think Republicans pay to play also? Are you kidding?
Pay to play, or patronage was always, and still is central to politics. Nepotism? in every state and county.
we used to have an older expression up here in Maine.
hosebags.
fits them all well.
1. Careful, Bill. Wasserman Schultz probably considers this post borderline offensive. 😉
2. Ah, what might have been. One of the great infatuations of my life was a bona fide Jewish American Princess from Great Neck. If things had gone a little differently, I’d be divorced from her today…
Heh! Mine was from Miami. (OK, WERE from Miami…).
3. Spending taxpayer money on patronage jobs for the unqualified but well-connected is one thing. Spending Obama’s reelection money that way is another thing entirely.
Funny…one of the aspirations of my life was to BE a Jewish American Princess.
LA Times headlines provide your quote of the day:
Democrats give special interests a role at convention
Organizers have found ways to skirt their own rules and give corporations and lobbyists a presence at the national event in September. The situation reflects President Obama’s difficulties in delivering on a vow to limit the influence of money in politics.
This is just wonderful stuff:
Despite the ban on corporate money, for example, convention officials have encouraged corporate executives to write personal checks, according to sources familiar with the fundraising. And they have suggested that corporations can participate by donating goods and services to the convention, and by giving up to $100,000 through a corporate foundation.
They have also quietly explained to lobbyists that while they can’t make contributions, they can help raise money from their clients — by soliciting personal checks from executives or in-kind contributions from corporations. Lobbyists who bundle high sums will get perks like premium credentials and hotel rooms.
http://www.qando.net/?p=12806#respond
It is how the Collective works. NOTHING they try to impose on us applies to them.
This is what the Dems mean by job creation and green jobs – they keep the green in The Family.
PBS gives you a coffee cup for a 50 dollar donation, the DNC gives your daughter a job for a 500k donation. I really fail to see the difference or the harm, except someone failed to keep the brat in line.
The coffee cup works.
touche’
The big difference is that PBS gets taxpayer money.
So at Passover dinner tonight at the Gilberts, guess who plays the misbehaving child? Oh wait, they are secular Jews, probably no Passover.
I am not surprised about Debbie Wasserman Schultz however…
If some big democrat contributors want to give their kiddies a job “working” for democrats that doesn’t cost the taxpayer any money, who cares? All she can do is screw up the re-election bid for Obama. Give ’em all jobs, I say.
And let’s all pray that someone is paying for her birth control.
First Lewinsky now Gilbert. I think they’re giving JAPs
a bad name. I protest.
[…] photos have been preserved for posterity.Let it serve as a wake up call for the rest of us.Via Legal Insurrection, where there is much more.google_ad_client = "ca-pub-1395656889568144"; /* 300×250, created 8/11/08 […]
[…] » Wasserman Schultz payoff to big Dem donor with DNC job for daughter […]
Whatever her parents, her boss or the president have done in this scenario, I still know Dani to be a smart, nice and hardworking girl. For the record.
[…] Legal Insurrection comes this interesting story about DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and her rather embarrassing […]
[…] Legal Insurrection comes this interesting story about DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and her rather embarrassing […]