Ex-DNC official to top DHS post

As Director of Party Affairs and Delegate Selection, angry Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama supporters directed their rage at Phil McNamara during the 2008 Democratic primaries.

Now, McNamara — a decade-long Democratic National Committee veteran — will serve a different constituency as executive secretary at the Department of Homeland Security.

Appointed in June, McNamara will oversee correspondence and briefings flowing to and from Secretary Janet Napolitano’s office. It would be a daunting task for anyone, but perhaps less so for McNamara.

A long-time party rules expert, McNamara was a driving force behind the 2008 delegate selection plan that added Nevada and South Carolina to the early primary roster occupied by Iowa and New Hamshire. Since coming to the DNC in 1998, McNamara has overseen delegate selection twice and coordinated key committees at national conventions in 2000, 2004 and 2008.

During his time coordinating one of those committees, last year’s platform committee, he worked with then-Arizona Gov. Napolitano, who headed the body.

His new job promises a lot of interaction with bureaucrats and time sentenced to endless meetings. Perhaps most impressive about his resume, McNamara was perhaps the only person to sit through every minute of every Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting during the 2008 primary.

This writer sat through most of them, and we can attest that McNamara’s endurance is a thing of wonder.

–Reid Wilson