Knowledgeable Democrats reported to the Washington Post on August 29th that Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz prevented consideration of a resolution at the party’s summer meeting praising President Obama and offered backing for the nuclear agreement with Iran.
The resolution was drafted with the intention of putting the national committee on record in support of the agreement as Congress prepares to take up the issue when members return from their August recess.
A party spokeswoman and said procedural issues prevented the proposed resolution from being considered.
Other Democrats said that it was congresswoman’s direct opposition that blocked its consideration.
The Iran agreement faces strong Republican — and some Democratic opposition — in Congress.
Wasserman Schultz faces significant pressure to break with the president and oppose the deal and has been undertaking her own review before announcing her position.
Vice President Biden did a conference call with members of the DNC on Wednesday in an effort to promote support for the Iran agreement.
Wasserman Schultz’s situation is similar to that of Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who is a member of the Senate leadership but who nonetheless announced his opposition to the nuclear agreement — to the consternation of many in his party.
Some Democrats on the national committee who were unhappy that the resolution did not come up for consideration said that, as DNC chair, Wasserman Schultz owed her allegiance in this instance to the president, regardless of her own local political considerations.
Public consideration of the resolution at the DNC meeting, however, could have prompted a contentious public debate within the party just as the president is looking to consolidate Democrats behind the agreement, a factor that was noted in a Buzz Feed story about the way events unfolded here.
No one on the DNC had prepared a resolution on Iran for consideration at the summer meeting ahead of the Aug. 6 deadline for such measures to be submitted to the resolutions committee. In Minneapolis, Zogby proposed that such a resolution be taken up under emergency procedures that allow late-arriving measures to be voted on by the national committee.
But the DNC spokeswoman, who declined to be identified to describe internal deliberations, said emergency resolutions are usually reserved for things have happened between the time of the deadline and the party meeting. She said the DNC executive committee, which is charged with dealing with such late-breaking resolutions, took no action on the Iran measure.