MICHAEL BARONE: Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s vile cheap shot.

Has there ever been as hamhanded a Democratic National Chairman as Debbie Wasserman Schultz? Her latest stunt is to demand that Marco Rubio cancel a fundraiser at the home of Harlan Crow because the host’s collection of historic artifacts includes Nazi art objects.

I know Harlan Crow, who is on the board of trustees of the American Enterprise Institute where I am a resident fellow, and I have been in his house. He is well known for his collection of historic artifacts. In his garden he has placed statues of totalitarian leaders which he has purchased after the fall of totalitarian regimes. That doesn’t mean, Madame Chairman, that he endorses those regimes; it means he celebrates their downfall. To suggest that he is a Nazi sympathizer is a vile smear.

In a particularly ludicrous aside, Wasserman Schultz says one reason Rubio should cancel the fundraiser is that he “represents a sizable Jewish population in our home state of Florida.” Of course anti-Semitism and Nazism are repugnant regardless of how many Jews live in your constituency. Wasserman Schultz gives new meaning to the term cheap shot.

My guess is that Wasserman Schultz is less concerned about Republican fundraisers than she is about criticism from her South Florida constituents, Jewish and gentile, who oppose her vote against disapproving President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. Her vile smear against Harlan Crow and her hamhanded attack on Marco Rubio are an attempt at distracting attention from her vote.

Related: The NYT’s attempt to blame the Jews for the majority against the Iran nuclear deal.