Will Debbie Wasserman Schultz Resign As DNC Chair?

This morning, Debbie Wasserman Schultz sent out an e-mail begging for more money, despite not having a serious opponent for November in her gerrymandered D+9 district. "A new group is running attack ads against me," she shrieked ominously. I was hoping she would name them so I could contribute. But she didn't, implying, instead that it's the Tea Party. Republicans, though, couldn't be happier to have such a conflicted and incompetent Democrat like Wasserman Schultz ascending the ladder of power within the party. I immediately suspected that the group she's worried about attacking her are progressives, not teabaggers. I was right. She's whining about Americans for Safe Access, an advocacy group running ads against opponents of medical marijuana legalization-- mostly Republicans. The 30-second ad states that Wasserman Schultz "thinks it's okay for medical marijuana patients to go to federal prison."

One of Florida's most generous and powerful Democratic bundlers, John Morgan, just called on her to resign from her DNC chair, an idea whose time had come long, long ago.

"She should really step down as chairwoman of the DNC," Morgan said on Monday.

"I don’t care if she disagrees with me, but she really can’t be in that position," he said. "It would be like if she was opposed to the funding of Planned Parenthood. This issue is so central to the Democratic Party. Bill Nelson, the most cautious politician in Florida, is in favor of the legalization of medical marijuana. It’s going to be hard for her to be our leader."

Morgan's harsh language against Wasserman Schultz began Friday when a pro-legalization group began targeting her in ads on MSNBC in South Florida.

The ads went after her because she voted against the Farr-Rohrabacher amendment, which would prevent federal interference in state marijuana laws.

The congresswoman's office released a statement in response to the negative ads that said she doesn't believe it's appropriate to limit the executive branch's ability to enforce federal laws regardless of the issue.

She also said she has concerns that Amendment 2, which will be on the November ballot in Florida, “is written too broadly and stops short of ensuring strong regulatory oversight from state officials.”

…Morgan, however, said he will never raise money for her again and doesn't believe she can be a credible leader among Democrats.

"The new issues of the day for the Democratic Party are these: the right to gay marriage and right to use medical marijuana," he told me. "For her to take a counter position in either one of those in my mind disqualifies her from being chairwoman of the party."