How badly are Steve Israel and Debbie Wasserman Schultz screwing up? Don’t ask!

By Weekly Archive On Mar 20, 2012

Normally DWT comes down on corrupt political hacks, DCCC chair Steve Israel (NY) and DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL), because they always push wealthy, establishment conservatives over grassroots progressives and working class candidates. But if it wasn’t so sad, I’d be laughing about how badly the two of them cocked up a district that was once widely considered the easiest red-to-blue get in the whole country, Florida’s 25th, currently held by a freshman wingnut drowning in ethics abuses and endless scandals, David Rivera, the one who beats up women. McCain won the district in 2008 (50-49%) but the Republican-controlled legislature showed what high regard they hold Rivera by redrawing his district so that Obama would have edged McCain instead. The new boundaries are better for a Democrat than our old pal Joe Garcia could have ever imagined when he decided to pass on challenging Rivera again. We’ll come back to that in a minute.

I’ve been told by a very good source that the Fanjul brothers – the big bucks behind the American sugar industry and major financial players for corrupt conservative politicians on both sides of the aisle – count on Wasserman Schultz to guarantee the political viability of their Cuban right-wing Republican protégés in increasingly Democratic South Florida. As chairman of the DCCC’s red-to-blue program, Wasserman Schultz did exactly that for her pals, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario and Lincoln Diaz-Balart, in 2008, willfully wrecking the campaigns of their 3 Democratic opponents. That earned her a nice promotion to the head of the DNC, where she’s doing an even worse job… for Democrats. Wasserman Schultz enforces a hard-line anti-Cuban position for the Fanjuls and makes sure that Cuban sugar can’t be imported and they can keep the price of domestic sugar artificially high. They then help her build her political power inside the Democratic Party in return.

I was shocked and appalled last year when the DCCC recruited an abysmal, notoriously lazy candidate for the seat, Luis Garcia, a former member of the Democrats For Jeb Bush steering committee, who not long ago threatened to switch parties and join the Republicans after he voted for one of the Florida GOP’s crazed anti-Choice bills! I couldn’t believe they were going to inflict this crap on us – and in a district even clueless imbeciles like Israel and Wasserman Schultz realized was so, so ripe for the plucking.

So now they’ve managed to compound the damage by actually going around the back of the lame candidate they recruited a few months ago (Garcia) to find an even lamer candidate and probably the most likely Democrat in Miami Dade to guarantee that Rivera is reelected, former Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas.

As usual, the Miami Herald is on top of the story, with all the nuances – although this story is pretty straight forward and it’s hard to believe that even someone as clueless as Wasserman Schultz, who vaguely runs the Florida show for DC Democrats, isn’t getting it. Remember, knowing he was first and foremost a hard-liner on Cuba, Wasserman Schultz and Israel pestered Garcia to run against Rivera last year. He agreed. But he’s lazy and the DCCC hasn’t helped and he hasn’t raised the amount of money needed for the race. He blames – publicly – Wasserman Schultz, who has refused to help with the big donors.

And now Penelas, best known for having been called “the single most treacherous and dishonest person I dealt with during the campaign anywhere in America ” by Al Gore in 2004, is getting cold feet about running. He’s now an anti-Choice absolutist – he was vaguely pro-Choice when he ran his disastrous Senate primary (in which he got 10%, losing both Miami-Dade and his own precinct – which one would hope would alarm the phony-baloney head of the DNC, who makes believe this issue is paramount – at least when she’s talking about anti-Choice Republicans).

He’s embarrassed that Florida Democrats are already scolding Israel and Wasserman Schultz for Penelas’ horrific record on the environment. Miami-Dade environmentalists rank him right along with the worst of the GOP corporate shills and hate him for his “build anywhere” policies. As mayor he moved the Urban Development Boundary (UDB) line several times, allowing developers to encroach on the precious Everglades. Much to the dismay of Democrats and environmentalists, he attempted to convert the dormant Homestead Airforce base into a commercial development including an airport and it took President Clinton to finally shut him down.

A few days ago we wrote about another horrible fake-Democrat running, this one in Maryland, John Delaney who is best known as a Loan Shark. Maybe Steve Israel likes loan sharks. An exposé of a recent Republican mayoral candidate and his loan sharking business also revealed that Penelas has also engaged in the practice as well. Penelas’s 52% interest loans were made public when he had to foreclose on an apartment building in Hialeah. The documents were made public during the foreclosure proceedings but have not been reported yet in any of the news media since Penelas is now a private citizen and not yet in the race. As soon as he jumps in, the 52% interest rate and his loan-sharking will become an issue.

Israel and Wasserman Schultz, almost seem determined to wreck the Democrats’ chance to win back the House. They ought to know that polling in 2004 showed that a majority of Miami Dade residents considered Penelas “corrupt” for creating a pay-to-play atmosphere in county hall where only well connected lobbyists prevailed. (Of course they probably don’t see that as a real problem, just something which needs papering over.) Penelas is despised by rank and file Democrats for Gore, his positions on issues and the perception of corruption. Rivera is under federal and state investigation, has been unable to do any substantial fundraising ($92,833 cash on hand as of the beginning of January and $134,000 in debts). The district is better for Democrats but the party cannot win with an ethically and issue challenged candidate who is loathed by the base. Israel at least had the good sense to go to Joe Garcia before he settled on Luis Garcia – but that was before the new boundaries were drawn. Wasserman Schultz has tried to torpedo Joe Garcia in the past – not hard core anti-Cuba enough for her and the Franjuls – but he’s the obvious candidate with the best shot of winning the seat and turning it blue.