A dog whistle of sorts has been blown, audible to Democrat pros, alerting them to the problem Debbie Wasserman Schultz has become for the political family.  Coming from Politico, the Democrat insiders' gazette, it will heard by all.

In a long, scrupulously fair, even slightly sympathetic article (all the worse for DWS) on the "blowback" she is experiencing for numerous failures culminating in I.T.-gate, we learn that she's become bad for business.

Marc Caputo writes:

"We wish she would go away and stop being so public by doubling down on negative stories," Nikki Barnes, a progressive DNC member from Florida, who believes Wasserman Schultz left the national party "in shambles" while chair, culminating with the hack of DNC servers and the release of embarrassing internal emails by WikiLeaks in the 2016 campaign. As for Wasserman Schultz's defense, Barnes said "none of this makes sense. It doesn't sound like racial profiling … there must have been something for her."

Later:

The problem with the Awan case, Barnes said, is that it's not just hurting the congresswoman. It's drawing negative attention to a party still healing after last year's shocking losses and the divisive Democratic primary when Wasserman Schultz appeared to favor Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders.

"This adds to Debbie being re-branded as the Democrats' disastrous destruction," Barnes said. "Those of us on the DNC know we have to rebrand ourselves and earn the people's trust. And unfortunately Debbie's name does not scream trust. It screams power. It screams limited access. It screams WikiLeaks now. DNC lawsuit. It screams a lot of negative things to the public. That's not how we want to rebrand ourselves."

Barnes said she couldn't understand why Wasserman Schultz made herself a target of attention by becoming the lone Democrat to employ Awan. Wasserman Schultz then drew even more negative attention to herself by publicly threatening the Capitol Police chief with "consequences" in a dispute over an office laptop under examination from investigators.

The drama ensured Wasserman Schultz would play a central role in a murky congressional summer "scandal" story playing out from Washington to Weston, her South Florida congressional district's base.

In fact, DWS is already wounded prey out on the D.C. savannah:

Over the years, as her circle of trust shrank, loyalty became an ever-more precious commodity to Wasserman Schultz, according to former staffers and top Democrats in Florida and Washington. Now, Wasserman Schultz has become such a polarizing figure in her own party that some longtime Democratic allies, when contacted by POLITICO, struggled to say kind words about her or explain how and why she got into this latest jam. They describe a hard-working politician with a sharp mind but an equally sharp tongue and hot temper that leads her into otherwise avoidable dustups and troubles.

Though admired by Democrats for her fierce advocacy of progressive causes, she nevertheless turned natural allies to enemies at the DNC, in the Obama White House and even in Florida, where she picked an explosive fight with top Democratic donor and trial lawyer John Morgan after she trashed his popular medical-marijuana initiative, seemingly without cause.

"In politics, you're as strong as your friends. And she doesn't have as many as she used to. And that's her fault," Morgan said.

Morgan and those who have known and observed Wasserman Schultz for decades say her demeanor began to change when she was DNC chair; power went to her head, they say, and mounting criticism then made her paranoid.

People are now saying this sort of thing out in the open, and Politico makes it legitimate.

DWS had better watch her back.

Hat tip: Ed Lasky