With Friends Like These

House Democrats believe they have a decent shot at endangering the seats of a troika of South Florida Cuban American Republicans, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, his brother Mario, and the evil Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. But one problem. Representative Debbie Wasserman-Shultz, a Florida Democrat who co-chairs the "red to blue" program aimed at picking up seats won't get involved because she's pals with the Republicans in question. Which is nice for her, but obviously the role of someone in her position is to try to beat Republican incumbents, not protect them.

To be fair, though, it's not just personal ties that bring all these hyphenated Floridians together, it's also a passion for continuing decades-old foreign policy failures:

Wasserman Schultz has also played a leading role in persuading the new Democratic majority to sustain the economic embargo against Cuba and has established close ties to the staunchly pro-embargo U.S.-Cuba Democracy political action committee, which has contributed thousands to Wasserman Schultz and Meek's campaigns.

After all, the first fifty years of the embargo have done wonders for Cuban democracy, so just give it another 150 or so, democracy will break out, and then tourists can visit Havana in flying cars. I don't see anything wrong with that.

Comments

Holy blue eyeliner, Sinbad!!

Posted by billysumday | March 12, 2008 10:28 AM

Man, take that picture down, I don't want to look at that crap everytime I load this page.

Posted by JH | March 12, 2008 10:29 AM

Man. South Floridians do love their hyphenates.

Posted by right | March 12, 2008 10:31 AM

Jaysuz, WTF is it with the Eddie Izzard peepers!? And they still do a Jheri-Curl? Where?

Posted by steve duncan | March 12, 2008 10:34 AM

Florida is a bad state full of bad people who look bad.

Posted by HeavyJ | March 12, 2008 10:35 AM

No offense, but I find this kind of funny — a couple days ago I was thinking about writing an e-mail to someone in your social circle about living and spending so much time with McArdle and other libertarians. Electoral partisan politics != wonkish, nominally nonpartisan commentary, sure, but still.

Posted by Cyrus | March 12, 2008 10:35 AM

This is so lame.

Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash are friends and they still try to kick each others ass every time they compete. I like Rep. Wasserman-Schultz but she should grow up a bit. As hard as it is for her to try and beat her the GOP kids she plays with at recess or whatever the hell she's thinking it's a gazillion times harder for people who need SCHIP for their kid and don't get it because the House GOP blocks an expansion of the program.

Posted by joejoejoe | March 12, 2008 10:41 AM

Thanks for putting such a huge picture of this skank's face on your blog. What a cheeseball.

Posted by Tim J | March 12, 2008 10:43 AM

There sombody goes, bringing Dirk Nowitzki into the conversation again. Dirk this & Dirk that! What is it with Dirk Nowitzki and blog threads?

Posted by steve duncan | March 12, 2008 10:49 AM

No Matt, not flying cars. By the time the embargo works, it will be teleporters!

Posted by freddiemac | March 12, 2008 10:50 AM

Of course the embargo has nothing to do with democracy and everything to do with restoring a corrupt kleptocracy.

Posted by Rob | March 12, 2008 10:50 AM

The comments on Rep. Wasserman-Shultz's physical appearance are uncalled for. Matt, or Atlantic editors, can you please edit out these offensive comments?

Matt's substantive point is well taken.

Posted by LMA | March 12, 2008 10:51 AM

*Very* cheesy of Rep. W-S, but, FWIW (ie not much) she really doesn't look this bad in person. This is just a very unflattering photo.

Posted by jonnybutter | March 12, 2008 10:51 AM

I'd agree with LMA if it wasn't for the fact she resembles Dirk Nowitzki.

Posted by steve duncan | March 12, 2008 10:57 AM

There's more nuance here than you portray.

Wasserman-Schultz (along with Kendrick Meek) isn't saying that she's opposed to a DCCC to oust her Cuban-American GOP friends. It's that she refuses, personally, to lead the advocacy effort against them. I find this mostly honorable, although perhaps short-sighted.

Plus, you heard it here first: Wasserman-Schultz is lock to be a future Speaker of the House.

Posted by dry_fish | March 12, 2008 10:57 AM

Where did you find a picture of my wife?!?!?!?

Posted by Petey | March 12, 2008 10:59 AM

Petey, you wish your wife was that hot.

Posted by Mario | March 12, 2008 11:01 AM

The amazing thing is that the Cuban flying cars will be constructed from the remnants of pre-embargo Ford Fiestas. Also, is it possible that some people actually took the sarcastic: "Look, the embargo worked Castro stepped down" posts throughout the blogosphere seriously and actually considers it a success?
(I lived there, and the Cuban expatriate obsess over their lost holdings like the Romanovs, I think they actually beleive that once the regime falls they're going to get everything back.)

Posted by Socraticsilence | March 12, 2008 11:02 AM

Petey, you wish your wife was that hot.

Posted by Mario | March 12, 2008 11:02 AM

...flying 1950's cars!

Posted by Duane | March 12, 2008 11:02 AM

The amazing thing is that the Cuban flying cars will be constructed from the remnants of pre-embargo Ford Fiestas.

There's no such thing as a pre-embargo Fiesta; there was no Ford Fiesta in the 1950s-60s. There were, however, Ford models you have never heard of (like the Fairlane). Also Chevys you've never heard of.

Posted by jonnybutter | March 12, 2008 11:09 AM

I've seen a few women in dive bars with less style in applying mascara, but not many.

And, Steve Duncan: The Jheri-Curl has been carefully tended as a cultural artifact somewhere in Western Civilization -- and like all esoteric knowledge, carefully hidden.

Clearly, Debbie is a 33rd degree Master in the Order of Cosmetology.

Posted by Jemand von Niemand | March 12, 2008 11:10 AM

I lived there, and the Cuban expatriate obsess over their lost holdings like the Romanovs, I think they actually beleive that once the regime falls they're going to get everything back.

This is so unhealthy for a person, I have to imagine. Not to mention bad policy. It would be completely inappropriate after so much time for Cuba (a much poorer country) to give a bunch of Americans anything. (so much for those hyphens)

Posted by mpowell | March 12, 2008 11:11 AM

dry_fish - Rep. Wasserman-Schultz is probably the top Dem candidate in FL for a job like Senator or Governor. I doubt she'll be in the House long enough to become Speaker.

Also, skinny Italian grandmas have more spark in their 80s than most 19 year old Marines so don't count on Speaker Pelosi going anywhere anytime soon.

Posted by joejoejoe | March 12, 2008 11:13 AM

THIS IS EXCELLENT NEWS!! FOR HILLARY!!!

Posted by idiotic | March 12, 2008 11:14 AM

I'm not against Dems and Republicans being friends - after all, Hatch keeps a picture of him with Ted Kennedy on his desk and their friendship was instrumental in getting S-CHIP passed the first time - but you shouldn't chair committees aimed at flipping seats if you aren't willing to do this kind of thing.

Posted by Reality Man | March 12, 2008 11:15 AM

You know, Rep. Henry Waxman (D, Sword-of-Oversight) is not, you might say, conventionally attractive. And yet somehow it's possible to post his picture without every second or third comment deriding his physical appearance. Wonder why that is?

What LMA said.

Posted by joel hanes | March 12, 2008 11:23 AM

What LMA says, except with a call for moral suasion rather than censorship, and mostly because the comments on her physical appearance appear to be serious.

Posted by washerdreyer | March 12, 2008 11:29 AM

Waxman gets a pass because he doesn't remind people of Dirk Nowitzki. Or Eddie Izzard.

Posted by steve duncan | March 12, 2008 11:30 AM

Matt, don't get my hopes up like that. All those old shows from the '50s about how we were supposed to have flying cars for at least 8 years now have jaded me to the concept of flying cars. I don't want to be disappointed again, nor do I want my children or their children to have hopes that in 150 years, we will have flying cars. Don't do this to me and my future family!

Posted by B. Minich | March 12, 2008 11:36 AM

And yet somehow it's possible to post [Waxman's] picture without every second or third comment deriding his physical appearance.

Really? I can't say that's been my experience.

Posted by Ryan | March 12, 2008 11:39 AM

I am shocked, shocked that a South Florida politician would support the embargo against Cuba.

(She also appears to be Florida's 1st Jewish Congressperson, according to the Wiki gods.)

But she is otherwise quite a liberal representative. Her speech during the Schiavo nonsense:

“The Congress is not an objective body. It is a partisan, political body. Our Members are not doctors or bioethicists. We are elected officials. The Congress is not the appropriate venue to decide end-of-life or any private, personal family dispute. That is why there are court reviews which allow for an objective evaluation of both sides of a dispute. The Congress was never designed for, and our Founding Fathers never intended, the body to make these kinds of decisions. What was lost in the midst of this debate was that this was not about pro-life interest groups, or about the parents or the husband. It wasn’t about the President, or the Governor, or the Republican or Democratic party. It was about a personal family tragedy. I am worried about the direction our country is moving in. I am worried when members of Congress and the President try to overstep over twenty court rulings on a case that had gone on for years. I am worried when special interest groups exploit a family tragedy for political and financial gain. I am worried when the federal government attempts to step between a husband and a wife because members of Congress believe they know better.”

On U.S. - Israeli policy:

“I would stack up the Democratic caucus’s position on the support for Israel against the Republican caucus’s any day of the week and be much more confident — and the Jewish community should be much more confident — in the Democrats’ stewardship of Israel than the Republicans, especially if you compare the underlying reasons for both groups’ support for Israel. The very far right group of Republicans’ interest in Israel is not because they are so supportive of there being a Jewish state and making sure that Jews have a place that we can call home. It has references to Armageddon and biblical references that are more their interest. So I would encourage members of the Jewish community to put their faith in Democrats, because our support for Israel is generally for the right reasons.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debbie_Wasserman_Schultz

Posted by El Cid | March 12, 2008 11:40 AM

joejoejoe -- my sense is that Wasserman-Schultz knows as well as anyone that the last South Florida politician not named Bob Graham (the last of the great Cracker Democrats) simply to win the Democratic Party nomination for GOV or SEN was Hugh Rodham in 1994 (HRC's brother) who was massively rejected at the polls. She probably knows even better the case of her mentor former US Rep. Peter Deutch, a hot-shot Ft. Lauderdale-ite with oodles of cash who realized just how much resistance there is in the rest of Florida to the ambitions anyone from the Miami region. Why else do Florida Democrats keep nominating vanilla pols from Tampa?

My point is that she knows any bid for statewide office in Florida is a long-shot given where she comes from whereas she is clearly on the fast track to quite senior levels of leadership in the House Democratic caucus if she has the stamina.

Posted by dry_fish | March 12, 2008 11:42 AM

Nader 08!

Posted by Alan in SF | March 12, 2008 11:44 AM

I was debating about whether or not to attend a luncheon next week at which Rep. Wasserman-Schultz is speaking ... but I think you've just convinced me to go. I need to ask her about all this stuff.

Incidentally, that's a horrendous picture of her. She's actually rather attractive, IMO. If that makes any difference ...

Posted by Sinfonian | March 12, 2008 12:05 PM

somehow it's possible to post [Waxman's] picture without every second or third comment deriding his physical appearance. Wonder why that is?

Oh come on.

Calling the congresswoman a 'skank' is just mean. Tim J has issues. But aside from that kind of pure hostility, I'd say it's perfectly obvious and defensible to comment on the congresswoman's fashion sense. No, it's not exactly substantive, but pretending that this pic is not appalling-looking is just silly. The reason there are fewer (not 'none', but 'fewer') comments in the 'sphere about how dorky Waxman looks compared to Wasserman-Shultz is because in this culture - whether you like it or not - women care more about how they and other women look than men do, and women are much bitchier and pickier about this stuff than men are. Women care about fashion more than do men. That's not a value judgement about the phenomenon, but just a fact. Men don't wear eyeliner (except for Elvis and Mick Jagger).

Aside from what MY is citing here, I actually like Wasserman-Shultz just fine. She's a better-than-average pol and seems to be reasonably intelligent as well as hard-working. But MY's snark-posting of this pic is pretty mild, and even a little funny, because this is her own official picture.

Get real, people. There is real misogyny out there, but aside from the 'skank' comment, I don't see any of it in this thread (so far). Fashion snark doesn't interest me, but it's a bit much to suggest that it should be *removed*.

Posted by jonnybutter | March 12, 2008 12:06 PM

Of course the fact that Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is a strong supporter of the State of Israel and Representative Shultzs' ethnicity has nothing to do with Mr. Yglesias'negative opinions of them.

Posted by SLC | March 12, 2008 12:10 PM

And yet somehow it's possible to post his picture without every second or third comment deriding his physical appearance. Wonder why that is?

Oh, go on, the picture is hilarious, like a bad high-school yearbook photo. If Matt puts this picture of Henry Waxman up next time, I'm sure that'll generate a few comments about his appearance too.

Posted by novakant | March 12, 2008 12:15 PM

What El Cid said. This is too bad ... she's been an up-and-comer who seemed smart, funny, and progressive in the little coverage I had seen of her. Maybe she can be argued into changing her mind.

Posted by jason | March 12, 2008 12:24 PM

What El Cid said. This is too bad ... she’s been an up-and-comer who seemed smart, funny, and progressive in the little coverage I had seen of her. Maybe she can be argued into changing her mind.

Posted by jason | March 12, 2008 12:24 PM

This is surprising and disappointing because up till now, Wasserman Schultz has been one of my favorites in the younger generation of Democrats--someone who always seemed to "get it," especially in her TV appearances.

What I'm wondering is where are all those sensible Floridians on the subject of Cuba that we were told were out there, as at the very least a large if silent minority, at the time of the Elian Gonzalez fiasco? If they aren't in safe Democratic districts like Wasserman Schultz's, I can't imagine where they could be.

Oh, I don't think she's unattractive, but the makeup in the photo is really cheesy.

Posted by ChuckE | March 12, 2008 12:26 PM

Apparently Rep. WS has come out against a mail-in revote for Florida as well. Not sure why, but I'll ask her next week ... if I get two questions, that is.

Posted by Sinfonian | March 12, 2008 12:33 PM

My introduction to Wasserman-Shultz was the night of the Florida "primaries," when she gave a long-winded, enthusiastic introduction of Hillary Clinton at the campaign's Florida "victory" event. I wonder how the Clinton camp feels about one of their surrogates refusing to fight for the Dems?

Posted by Kat | March 12, 2008 12:34 PM

Another Clintonite damaging the Democratic party, holding loyalty above competence and good judgment.

Posted by recusancy | March 12, 2008 12:58 PM

Where did she learn to apply makeup - clown school?

Posted by blah | March 12, 2008 1:01 PM

holding loyalty above competence and good judgment.

You nailed it. Her loyalty to that 80's look has to go. It's 2008!

Posted by Wallenda | March 12, 2008 1:06 PM

holding loyalty above competence and good judgment.

You nailed it. Her loyalty to that 80's look has to go. It's 2008!

Posted by Wallenda | March 12, 2008 1:06 PM

Where did she learn to apply makeup - clown school?

Commenter blah has hit the beauty nail squarely on its head. To paraphrase the Bard: some people are born ugly, some achieve ugliness, and some have ugliness thrust upon them. A distinction, then, should be drawn between Henry Waxman's unfortunate low number in the physical-attractiveness lottery ("born") and Ms. Wasserman-Schultz's apparently self-inflicted expression of solidarity with the blue-painted Picts of ancient England ("achieved.")

Posted by James Gary | March 12, 2008 1:13 PM

SLC, are you accusing MY of being both a self-hating Jew and a self-hating Cuban?

Anyway, we ought to remember that in many parts of the country (or even in many parts of FL for that matter), someone with I. Ros-Lehtinen's politics would be a Democrat.

FWIW.

Posted by DAS | March 12, 2008 1:19 PM

Where did you get that dress, it's awful, and those shoes and that coat, jeeeeez!

Posted by Johnny | March 12, 2008 1:35 PM

It's kind of odd that this is her "official" photo, not some random unflattering shot like Drudge had up of Hillary a while back. You do have to wonder a little what she was thinking.

Posted by greg | March 12, 2008 1:53 PM

mpowell: Unfortunately, one of the precedents our hyphened brothers and sisters might look to is the German Treuhand Anstalt, which handled the privatization of East German public enterprises after reunification. Some privatization was involved the return of property nationalized by the GDR.

As a practical matter, I'd wonder if the Cuban economy could handle a mass re-privatization. I don't have any data on the concentration of pre-revolution property ownership, but I'm going to guess it was pretty high.

Also, unless there's a (unlikely) sudden and complete regime change, no Cuban office holder, commie or not, will stay there long if s/he is seen as kicking people into the street so that the scions of the old order can Flip This House.

Posted by cmholm | March 12, 2008 3:27 PM

Please take that picture down. I'm using a very large monitor at work and I need to rinse my eyes now.

Posted by TH | March 12, 2008 4:30 PM

"which has contributed thousands to Wasserman Schultz and Meek's campaigns."

Well, that explains that.

Florida sits on a network of caves and sinkholes. Some years back, fifty feet of two lanes of a four-lane freeway just disappeared into a sinkhole.

I say sink the whole state into the ocean.

Then make Puerto Rico a state and give them the star on the flag that Florida used to half.

Compensate Disney for the loss the Disney World.

Problem solved.

Just think of everybody we could get rid of: old retirees like my father, Cuban terrorists and gangsters, Cuban drug dealers, corrupt politicians like Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris, all those Florida neo-Nazis they have down there.

It's an obvious win-win solution.

BTW, I tried Google for a better image of this woman - and there aren't any. That's it, folks - she looks like that. Mind you, she's not unattractive, but as far as public images go, that's as good as it gets. In fact, that shot is better than most.

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | March 13, 2008 12:23 AM

It's Wasserman-Schultz, not Wasserman-Shultz.

Posted by Adam Villani | March 13, 2008 1:48 AM