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Heard on the Hill: Democratic Dames to the Defense

Rep. Donna Edwards (Md.) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.) have got Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s back.

After Rep. Allen West (R) slammed his Florida colleague in a spectacularly aggressive email and CC’ed all the cool-kids-oops-we-mean-House-leadership onto the email, the ladies joined forces.

On Wednesday morning, Edwards tweeted — well, she told staffers what she wanted tweeted and they did it for her — that she has Wasserman Schultz’s back.

She argued that Wasserman Schultz’s floor speech, which West had taken exception to, was right on.

“The truth’s like ice water,” she wrote. “It’s all just the facts.”

“I was shocked to read the disgraceful e-mail Rep. West sent to my friend, colleague and teammate Debbie Wasserman Schultz,” Edwards said in a statement later in the day. “Rep. Wasserman Schultz has every right to debate Republican policy proposals to change entitlement programs on the House floor.”

Instead of engaging constructively in that debate, Edwards wrote, West “chose to resort to unprofessional, vitriolic and offensive personal attacks.”

“Shame on him,” she said.

Gillibrand also leapt to her friend’s defense, sending out an email to her supporters and starting an online petition.

“Tell [Wasserman Schultz] we have her back on the outrageous and unacceptable attack against her,” she tweeted Wednesday.

Duly noted.

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