TASK DEFINITION: Given a document, find the main entity about whom the author is writing. Write the full name if mentioned in the text. Note that URLs in the text have been replaced with [Link].
PROBLEM: Donna Brazile . (Joe Raedle/Associated Press)
On Thursday  former Democratic National Committee interim chair  Donna Brazile  made a surprising revelation: An August 2015 agreement gave Hillary Clintonâs campaign partial control of the DNC months prior to Clinton winning the nomination. The âagreement was not illegal â  Brazile  writes  âbut it sure looked unethical.â The news reignited a debate among politicos and activists over whether the DNC influenced the Democratic primary. Whether the primary was âriggedâ or just business as usual though  Brazileâs allegations are only the latest evidence of the Democratic Partyâs troubles  and why the party establishment is ill-equipped to solve them.
Start with something that  Brazile âs article doesnât touch on: the electoral record. At the federal level  Republicans control the White House and both houses of Congress. The GOP House majority is at its largest in 70 years. Though two-thirds of the Senate seats contested in 2016 were held by Republicans  Democrats only gained two seats  losing races against very vulnerable GOP incumbents. At the state level  Republicans are at their strongest since the 1930s. Republicans control both the state legislatures and governorships in 24 states  compared with Democratsâ five. The GOPâs ruthless exploitation of gerrymandering â aided by its control of so many states â has helped increase GOP control  but much blame still lies with Democratic leaders.
Here is what you need to know about the political storm sparked by  Donna Brazile 's allegations against the Clinton campaign. (Amber Ferguson Melissa Macaya/The Washington Post)
Then thereâs the financial mismanagement. Money troubles for the DNC are hardly unprecedented  but the struggles appear to have worsened considerably in the past few years.  Brazile  says that the partyâs monthly expenditures had doubled in the previous five years  in large part because of former DNC chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and President Barack Obama keeping expensive consultants on the payroll. (Given Democratsâ electoral failures  what these consultants were doing is anyoneâs guess.) Of course  itâs in  Brazile âs interest to blame things on  her  predecessor. But a former senior party official independently confirmed the troubles to the Interceptâs Ryan Grim  adding that the DNC was unable to make payroll in August 2015 and was âapproaching the equivalent of bankruptcy.â

SOLUTION: Donna Brazile

PROBLEM: Hope Academy founder Bob Muzikowski  was blunt in  his  assessment of the forfeiture.
âI donât want to judge them  but if it were the reverse  weâd come to their place no matter what â  Muzikowski  said. âMaybe weâre not reading the same Bible. Thereâs âdo not fearâ all over it. I said it to both of the heads of (St. Francis and Bishop McNamara) â we had had an opportunity to do something great and they chose not to do it.â
 Muzikowski  said part of the reason Hope did not want to change venues was because it was impossible to find a neutral site. But mainly   he  said   he  doesnât want to set a bad precedent for  his  students and the neighborhood.
âIf we go down to (Bishop McNamaraâs) place  itâs âWhere you live is good  where we live is bad â â  he  said. âMy kids go to Hope. Our Christianity is actually a little radical â we think you should go where itâs bad.â

SOLUTION: Bob Muzikowski

PROBLEM: Iâve made no secret of my belief that Robert Mueller has created more of a hit squad than an investigatory team. Iâve never had it explained to my satisfaction why  in a nation awash in lawyers  that Mueller has assembled a team which consists  in its majority  Democrat donors and partisans. Primary among those is Muellerâs deputy   a guy named Andrew Weissman .  Weissman  is a civil service employee in the upper ranks of Department of Justice.  He  was at Hillary Clintonâs âvictoryâ party on the night of November 8  2016.  He  praised Sally Yates for refusing to do her duty under the Constitution and defend President Trumpâs travel executive order in court.
 Weissman  also has a history of being willing to prosecute people on scant evidence and bullsh** legal theories  letting them rot in jail as their appeals run their course  then seeing the freed but ruined professionally and financially.
A senior Justice Department prosecutor in Robert Muellerâs Special Counsel office held a meeting with Associated Press journalists last spring to discuss an investigation into Paul Manafortâs financial record  a day before the wire service published a major expose disclosing alleged money laundering made by the former and now embattled Trump campaign chairman.  Federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann  now a senior attorney in the special counselâs office   met with AP journalists on April 11 after reporters informed  him  of their own investigation into Manafortâs dealings with Ukrainian officials. The reporters had reached out to Weissman on a different story earlier in the year and it was during that conversation  that the AP team told  Weissmann  of their investigation into Manafort  stated the sources. The AP published the explosive expose on April 12  a day after their meeting with  Weissmann . According to sources familiar with the meeting  the reporters had promised to share documents and other information gleaned from the own investigation with the Justice Department.
Most of this is utter bullsh** as Mueller wasnât appointed until May 17. BUT AP reporters donât meet with the head of Justiceâs Criminal Fraud Section for funsies. And a senior official doesnât take a meeting on the day before a major story runs for sh**s and grins. It doesnât work that way. AP obviously had information they wanted corroborated by Justice.  Weissman  didnât have to meet with them but  he  did. Now you have to ask yourself  why? According to the stories there was no open investigation into Manafort. So what could  he  possibly contribute that a press officer couldnât. Perhaps the AP  animated by civic spirit  decided to just give  Weissman  all  their  source material. Perhaps  they  flew there on broomsticks  too. Iâd rate both options just as likely.
Then you have to ask why  Weissman  made the jump to Muellerâs team? Did  him  having APâs source material represent  his  buy-in to get on a high profile investigation that could offer  him  the satisfaction of a bit of payback after sitting in the âvictory celebration â shell-shocked and dumbfounded  as the election was called for Donald Trump?
And you saw  Weissman  try to get Manafortâs bond revoked for editing an op-ed.
Weissmanâs history of legalized thuggery  his obvious and egregious partisanship  his collaboration with AP on their investigative work on Paul Manafort  and the abusive way  Weissman  has gone after Manafort all reeks of a personal animus. One hopes that eventually there will be enough heat on Rosenstein that heâll remember who the boss is and impose some type of discipline on Mueller posse. But Iâm not counting on it.

SOLUTION:
Andrew Weissmann