...Congresswoman from Florida, the abrasive chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee. She has been a politician since 1992, and prior to that was in training as a political science major. Her primary accomplishment seems to be that she's Jewish...
...'Debbie Downer' is the best gift the Republican National Committee could have, even better than Slow Joe Biden or [wait for it] Cynthia McKinney...
the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, interrupted an interview with a reporter Saturday in Charleston to speak with two elementary-school age children that she quickly labeled "little Democrats."
Because it's hard for anybody older than 12 to take her message seriously?
"We are leaving no stone unturned," she said once she returned to the interview.
... which would indicate they're looking for things that live under rocks...
Wasserman Schultz and the rest of the Democratic Party will have to turn over quite a few stones to make headway in South Carolina, which has not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since
Jimmy Carter... the worst president ever. Maybe the second worst. The votes aren't all in yet...
in 1976 - 35 years ago.
And we saw how that worked out.
Things are not any better at the state level. Last year, Democrats lost their only statewide office, superintendent of education, and one of their two congressional seats, when 28-year incumbent John Spratt lost to Republican state representative Mick Mulvaney in his first run for federal office.
That couldn't be taken as an indication they're doing something wrong, naturally.
"I know it's been an uphill battle," Wasserman Schultz said, "but the longest distance starts with the first step."
I think the original quote was "A journey of 10,000 li begins with a single step." Maybe a better approach would be "If you find yourself in a hole it's time to stop digging."
Wasserman Schultz was in Charleston on Saturday night hoping to help state Democrats take that first step, speaking to a gathering of several hundred party supporters at the second annual Blue Jamboree at the Charleston Maritime Center.
State Democrats are trying to rebrand themselves under the leadership of their fiery
...a single two-syllable word carrying connotations of both incoherence and viciousness. A fiery delivery implies an audience of rubes and yokels, preferably forming up into a mob...
new chairman, Dick
I don't want to buy the black vote. I just want to rent it for a dayHarpootlian
...once and present chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party. Harpootlian is the man who, when he lost to a Publican in 1994, said
The people have spoken. The bastards...
. He has spent the first five months of his chairmanship trying to fire up the state's Democratic base, taking shots at Republican Gov. Nikki Haley
...first woman to serve as Governor of South Carolina, and the second Indian-American governor in the country, after Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. At the age of 39, Haley is the youngest current governor in the U.S., a distinction formerly held by Jindal. She is a Republican, which really grates on the Dems...
and, increasingly, Lt. Gov. Ken Ard because of the State Grand Jury investigation into his campaign spending.
Part of that strategy includes bringing national party figures to South Carolina, a tall task given the state's relative unimportance in national elections and the fact that South Carolina is not holding a Democratic presidential primary this year.
But Valerie Jarrett
...Chicago political hack, now senior advisor to President B.O....
, a senior adviser to President Barack
The Cambridge police acted stupidlyObama, headlined a fundraiser in Columbia earlier this year. And last month, Vice President
Joe Foreign Policy Whiz KidBiden
The former Senator-for-Life from Delaware, an example of the kind of top-notch Washington intellect to be found in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body...
flew to Charleston for a private dinner, where 10 people paid $35,800 apiece to meet with him. Wasserman Schultz, who Obama personally selected to lead the Democratic National Committee, fits that bill.
Still, Obama's campaign operatives know what they are up against.
"It's not going to be as fun as it was in 2008," Lee Goodall, director of Organizing for America South Carolina, told a group of college students and prospective volunteers Saturday.
Hunter Adams, a 19-year-old sophomore at the College of Charleston, who was one of the students listening to Goodall, acknowledged that it will be more difficult to get people, especially folks in South Carolina, excited for this election.
"I think just with the economy staying stagnant, and with jobs, particularly unemployment still being high, people are starting to get worried and angry with the status quo," he said. "And so I think Democrats need to keep strong with the president and the Democrat Party's agenda."
"...because it's been working so well..."
But U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn
...Democratic Representative-for-Life from South Carolina. He has been warming his safe seat since 1993...
did not have any trouble firing up the crowd Saturday. Speaking to several hundred people, Clyburn heard his loudest ovation when he declared that he supports the Occupy Wall Street movement "with every ounce" because they are "challenging things that need to be changed."
In her speech, Wasserman Schultz credited South Carolina with that famous chant, started by Greenwood City Councilwoman Edith Childs: "Over the next 13 months, there will be ups, and there will be downs," she said. "But no one is going to outwork us. No one."