Tipsheet

DNC Member: There's 'Less Funny Business' at the RNC

The DNC Unity Commission is going about as well as last year's unity tour. Tom Perez took over as Democratic National Committee chair in February and hoped to bring the wings of the party together, hoping to prove that Hillary Clinton supporters and Bernie Sanders supporters can get along. Instead, he was met with boos and heckles by frustrated liberals who believe the DNC rigged the primary for Hillary. That theory got plenty of traction from Donna Brazile's bombshell of a book. The tensions were still high at a DNC unity reform commission meeting last week, where protesters interrupted the proceedings.

Failing to hold a fair election is bad enough, but according to one outspoken Democrat at the unity commission meeting, the committee has some serious management issues as well. DNC Unity Commission Member Elaine Kamarck didn't have much of anything good to say about her own committee, but she had plenty of praise for their Republican counterparts.

"I hate to admit this but there is a lot of scholarship backing this up," Kamarck said. "The management of the Republican National Committee has differed substantially from the management of the Democratic National Committee. There has been less funny business. It is more of a professional staff. They control their vendors. They put limits – I mean it's just embarrassing that I have to say this, and as a consequence, all I will do is refer you to all those silly news stories in September of 2016 that said, 'Oh, Hillary Clinton has 77 field offices in Pennsylvania and Donald Trump only has two.' Well, Donald Trump didn't need 77 because he had a fully-fledged, very professional Republican Party that has been operating for decades now. We are constantly beat by these guys. We need experience. We need a professional staff."

The members supposedly tried to address the competency issues at the meeting, and Kamarck commended her colleagues for at least identifying the problem. However, she said she doesn't believe the proposals that were floated around would stoke any meaningful results.

It can be said that Kamarck was taking a page out of Hillary Clinton's playbook. You may recall how Clinton, reflecting on her presidential election loss to Donald Trump, blamed a "bankrupt" Democratic Party on her defeat.