In LL’s column this week, he quotes an anonymous D.C. Democratic State Committee member as saying: “There a lot of people on the state committee who see it as: you have to pay your dues … It’s very much a closed, inside network.”

For proof backing up that statement, let’s look at a digital catfight brewing online between two members of the committee. (Why this matters: the 81-member DCDSC will be picking the city’s next councilmember at the beginning of next year.)

It begins with Paige Wedderburn, a Ward 2 committee member, sending the DCDSC’s private listserv this e-mail: “Why is it that I hear the chair wants nothing but Ward 5 people as the heads of the DCDSC? And why urge us to vote for Vince Orange?”

To which ex-officio member Barrie Daneker, who LL is assuming is a Ward 5 resident since he just lost an ANC race there, responds: “For a member who on a rare occasions attends meetings (albeit in hip pajamas) and hardly does anything for the DCDSC, you sure have taken a big liberty! I’ll be sure to reach out to you if I’m having a slumber party!”

Wedderburn, obviously no shrinking violet, tells Daneker to “back off.” “And yes I attend meeting in my pajamas. What of it? IS THERE A DRESS CODE I’m NOT AWARE OF? … I’ve aways [sic] been an advocate of the truth and am not about to cover it up. That is just not fair and not what a representative of DC should be doing. … And I’ll be sure to reach out to you to remind you when you’re voted the village idiot.”

Yikes! Nobody said democracy was pretty, people.