Debbie Wasserman Schultz Watch

The three right-wing Bush rubber stamps from Miami-Dade, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Mario Diaz-Balart and Mario's psycho brother who fancies himself the post-Castro president of Cuba, staged a little event yesterday to try to save their political asses. More and more voters in South Florida have wised up to Ros-Lehtinen's and the Diaz-Balarts' attempts to paint themselves as moderates in Florida while voting like radical extremists back in Washington. So Ileana and her pals got together with Miami Beach officials and Florida Department of Transportation representatives and made believe they were working on problems they've ignored for years and years.

"We might be debating Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea, but when you're talking about traffic in South Florida, that really impacts people,'' said Ros-Lehtinen, a Miami Republican whose district includes part of the Beach.  "As important as all those issues are, traffic congestion in South Florida . . . is very important.''

And what makes it worse is that the 3 Republican extremists only chose their very own in-the-pocket Democrat to work with. South Florida Democrats Kendrick Meek, Robert Wexler, Alcee Hastings and Ron Klein were nowhere to be seen, only GOP stooge, Debbie Wasserman Shultz joined the three Republicans for the bogus campaign event. DWS, shamefully still co-chair of the DCCC's Red to Blue program has refused to help Florida's extraordinary grassroots candidates against Republican rubber stamps this year.

Wasserman Schultz' shady PAC has donated only to Florida challengers from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, ex-Republican banker Christine Jennings and pro-war, Republican-lite multimillionaire Suzanne Kosmas. Frantic to save the vulnerable red seat of her close friend Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, no one expects Wasserman Schultz to stop undermining the campaign of Democrat Annette Taddeo, but what about strong progressive Florida challengers like Alan Grayson, Joe Garcia, and Doug Tudor? Isn't a Red to Blue co-chair supposed to... well, you know, help turn red districts blue? Wasserman Schultz would have been fired from the program months ago except for the fact that she is, in effect, laundering large "donations" from right-wing Cuban groups to Democrats. Really disgusting! I hope this power-mad little monstrosity doesn't spoil the Democratic tsunami building in Florida, just as Obama has finally overtaken McCain in the polls. This could be a great year for Democrats in Florida. If DWS won't help, she should at least get out of the way and stop sabotaging progressive Democrats.