NO PURITY TEST TOO RIDICULOUS?

Now the national Democrats are slagging on Cheri Bustos, a Member of Congress representing the North West Frontier of Illinois.

The top echelon of staffers at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee left their jobs Monday, a shakeup following a pair of Politico stories detailing deep unease with the party’s campaign apparatus over a lack of diversity.

On Monday morning, Allison Jaslow, DCCC executive director and a close ally of Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) — chair of the committee — resigned during a tense meeting at the party’s Capitol Hill headquarters. And in the next 10 hours, much of the senior staff was out: Jared Smith, the communications director and another Bustos ally; Melissa Miller, a top DCCC communications aide; Molly Ritner, political director; Nick Pancrazio, deputy executive director; and Van Ornelas, the DCCC’s director of diversity.

The story is from late July, and no doubt the campaign committee have other items to deal with since then.

Note, though, how the representative (her district is to the west of mine; DeKalb is where two districts, one each held by a Democrat and a Republican abut) sounds like she's been through a struggle session.

“Today has been a sobering day filled with tough conversations that too often we avoid,” Bustos said. “But I can say confidently that we are taking the first steps toward putting the DCCC back on path to protect and expand our majority, with a staff that truly reflects the diversity of our Democratic caucus and our party.”

That will likely please the commissars in Chicago and the other teeming cities. Whether that will play as well in districts such as Representative Bustos's, with a different demographic and socioeconomic profile, remains to be seen.

POLITICO reported last week that top lawmakers in the Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Hispanic Caucus were furious with Bustos, saying she was short-changing minorities by excluding them from her senior staff and failing to live up to promises she made during her campaign for the chairmanship. Bustos surrounded herself with loyalists, eschewing the typical campaign hands who run major party apparatuses.

“Today, I recognize that, at times, I have fallen short in leading these talented individuals. To my colleagues, who I have the upmost respect for, I hear your concerns, and we can and must do better,” Bustos said.

That's after the commissars sent her to the sensitivity gulag.

Bustos held a tense call with staffers on Saturday before deciding to fly back and address the committee in person on Monday. On the call, Bustos “briefly” apologized for offending people by describing her husband and children as being of “Mexican descent” and announced she will undergo diversity and inclusion training in the coming weeks, according to multiple sources.

“I have never been more committed to expanding and protecting this majority, while creating a workplace that we can all be proud of. I will work tirelessly to ensure that our staff is truly inclusive,” Bustos said Monday night.

In so doing, will the central committee forfeit those swing districts, in the hope that demographic transition comes bundled with tax-'n-spend policies, gun confiscation, and pronoun protocols?