Because it’s a company town where the monopoly industry is politics, Senators get covered in the Style section of the local paper. I wish the reporter had talked more about Brown’s actual accomplishments and less about the horse race, but here’s the Washington Post with a “scoop”:
… By almost any standard, Sen. Sherrod Brown, 62, a former Eagle Scout with a voice like Tom Waits, is the kind of pol who should at this very moment be making the rounds of the Sunday shows, growling to packed audiences in Iowa and all the while insisting to major media outlets that he is not currently considering running for president at this time. Or at least you’d expect a bunch of liberal activists to be mounting a Draft Sherrod campaign. No?
“Huh, I really had not thought about it until this phone call,” said Adam Green of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.
That, of course, is because all the attention has been heaped onto another, fresher-faced member of the Senate: the progressive rock star from Massachusetts, Sen. Elizabeth Warren…
“I don’t see it as a competition,” Brown said in an interview from his Senate office. “I’m always looking for allies, so was thrilled when she ran and am thrilled to have her in the Senate.” …
“I don’t think you can do your job well in the Senate if you’re looking over your shoulder wanting to be president,” he said. He may be a fan of Warren and Sanders, but he isn’t above taking minor potshots at their headline-grabbing ways — pointing out, for example, that it’s much easier to be a progressive in Massachusetts and Vermont than in his home state of Ohio.
Asked if Brown should run for president, Warren would not take the bait.
“Sherrod really has been a great leader for years,” she said. “He has been true on core issues that matter to hardworking families.”
Back during Obama’s first term, Brown was an advocate for a bigger stimulus package, a proponent for the reenactment of the Glass-Steagall Act, a critic of “fair trade” and its impact on manufacturing jobs back home. Recently he was one of the first Democrats to go on the offense to fight for more Social Security benefits. When Sen. Al Franken decided to run for Senate, he sought advice from Brown on how to run as a progressive in a purple state.
Brown said he understands that the press attention that comes with a presidential run can be good for getting a message out, but it can also have a negative effect on building credibility with his colleagues…
Brown’s not competing with Warren, and she’s not competing with him — they’re colleagues working towards the same ends. We need another several hundred people like Sherrod Brown in Congress, and a few thousand like him in the various statehouses. But the Media Village is only interested in American Idol-style competition, so stories only get written in the context of picking the one “winner” who gets to the Oval Office.
Quaker in a Basement
That, of course, is because all the attention has been heaped onto another, fresher-faced member of the Senate who isn’t going to run for president either: the progressive rock star from Massachusetts, Sen. Elizabeth Warren…
Gin & Tonic
Senator Warren is “fresher-faced” despite being three years older than Sherrod Brown? How does that work?
KS in MA
“We need another several hundred people like Sherrod Brown in Congress, and a few thousand like him in the various statehouses.”
You have hit the nail on the head.
jl
@Gin & Tonic:
” Senator Warren is “fresher-faced” despite being three years older than Sherrod Brown? How does that work? ”
Though expert generation of news information product with savvy. Aka, mindless BS to fill space.
Edit: Seems as though the horse race is the accomplishment. The piece if full of implicitly cynical BS, cult of savvy garbage. “Rock stare” ‘took potshots” “At least he knows how to speak like a potential VP pick”. etc. Who reads this dreck, and among those, who takes it seriously? Boring political Entertainment Tonight stuff, except that would be an insult to Entertainment Tonight (if that thing is still on)
Cacti
Since it’s an open thread…
Just when you think the boys in blue can’t go any lower…
A pair of San Francisco cops get caught on camera bullying a quadriplegic black man and trying to dump him out of his wheelchair for arguing with them over the detention of his cousin.
The paralyzed man has been charged with obstructing a police officer.
jl
@Cacti: Yes, that ugly incident has been in the news here. Prettty discouraging, since SFPD has developed some good actual community policing and community relations programs in recent years.
From what I understand from the news, the officer is claiming the guy was running over his foot, and generally insisting on battering him with the wheelchair, and refused to quit and talk things over. Unless the wheelchair had some MadMax spikes in its tires, or was Bond-style weaponized, not sure how the officer’s actions were justified.
BGinCHI
I have a huge man-crush on Sherrod Brown, based entirely on his accomplishments and policy.
Unfortunately he’s probably too good a man to run. Ego not outsized enough.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Heh. Says a lot about the Professional Left.
What “bait”, exactly? Just echoing AL, that kind of phrasing betrays someone schooled to think in the patterns that metastasized to form Politico. See also Morning Joe. Which gets you to this kind of stuff, and I suspect the NYT reporter, at least in this blurb, accurately reflects Republican wishful, reductive thinking.
Clinton vs. Warren Could Be a Dream Match, for G.O.P.
By AMY CHOZICK
Many Republicans see a challenge by Elizabeth Warren as their party’s best hope to weaken, and potentially defeat, Hillary Clinton in a contentious Democratic primary.
geg6
Love me some Senator Brown. Love his wife, too.
jl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Hey, did I not hear in late 2007 early 2008 pundits say that HRC versus Obama would be a dream primary match for the GOP in 2008? The Dems would be parading a women and a black around as their potential nominees? Losers!
Who were they?
Edit: I remember Kristol was one.
Tommy
@KS in MA: Yes. One of my best clients is in Clevland. Knows his wife well because as a reporter she has talked to him a lot for the Plain Dealer. I don’t think he would offer himself out as an expert on Sherrod, but pretty sure he’d say what we have talked about, which is his desire to be President is close to zero.
Betty Cracker
@geg6: Wasn’t it great when that wingnut ass confronted her about kissing Sen. Brown, not realizing they were married? Hahahaha!
Kay
Well, then! So much for that idea! :)
jl
@Tommy: Brown, like Warren, have always looked like particularly sane people to me. I take your comment as more evidence for Brown
jl
@jl: I guess the GOP thinks it would be great for them if the Dem primary contained two people who were willing to be unashamed and unapologetic advocates of progressive policies with real passion and substance, and do so very articulately… while the GOP tried to put on a fakey dog and pony show version?
The GOP is completely out of it in so many way. Hope that damages them in 2016 as much as it deserves to in 2016.
Tommy
@jl: I think Warren is the same. She knows what she has to do to run for president and isn’t willing to do it. She can get elected to her Senate seat but a higher office is something else.
the Conster
Sherrod Brown is my fantasy candidate, so this is truly bad news. Yes, we need him and a million others, but he checks all my boxes, plus OHIO!
Just Some Fuckhead
@Gin & Tonic: She’s fresh, exciting. She’s so inviting to me.
Tree With Water
I was rooting for Obama to put Brown on the 2008 ticket (and what a mismatch that would have been). The Man From Ohio will make an ideal VP candidate for the democrat who knocks Hillary Clinton off in the primaries. God willing, I mean. Because if she does gain the nomination, the Wall Street status quo will be maintained, and democrats like Brown will spend another democratic administration in soft exile..
Davis X. Machina
@jl:
Damages them to the extent that the GOP candidate draws 45% of the popular vote in the general, compared with Mitt’s 47.2%.
That’s the worst case.
jl
@Davis X. Machina: That would be a win for us. Good enough for me.
Roger Moore
@Gin & Tonic:
She has less seniority, so she’s fresher faced in the sense that she’s been in the Senate- and the news- for less time.
Tree With Water
From today’s TPM.com:
“The Daily Caller’s Matt Lewis, an early champion of Sarah Palin, now says he regrets boosting the former Republican vice presidential nominee and shaming her conservative critics…..Even Sean Hannity, whose primetime Fox News program is friendly territory for Palin, was reaching for an explanation for Palin’s poor performance at the Iowa summit when he asked if her TelePrompTer had broken. As Lewis put it, “it’s probably time to concede that the early critics of Sarah Palin had a point.”
I have no way of knowing if his common sense admission is entirely out of character or not, but it’s republicans like Lewis who are the most dangerous. It’s republicans like him that that went extinct in California, and thank god for it.
Roger Moore
@Davis X. Machina:
So long as that difference is reasonably well spread around, and as long as the voters see things the same way when it comes time to vote for Senators and Representatives, that would be a big win for Democrats. It would almost certainly get them back control of the Senate and quite likely the House. If they were smart enough to put maximum priority on revamping the VRA, they might be able to hold on to a lot of those gains, also, too.
fuckwit
The fucking media is exactly what you said it is: American Idol, Survivor, Hunger Games. THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE.
I’ve been wondering for years where the idiotic idea that we have some kind of elected dictatorship where only the President matters, had infected the entire country, even the left (especially the left?). And it is pretty clear this disease started from and is maintained by the media.
I wish every single elected Senator, Congressperson, and State representative, whenever asked about the Presidency by some idiot media fluffer, WITHOUT FAIL drops the whole interview right at that second and gives a two-minute review of Schoolhouse Rock for these fucking morons. The CONGRESS makes the laws. The STATES draw the congressional district boundaries. The COURTS interpret the law. The President ONLY EXECUTES THE LAWS, he or she is merely a cop, a clerk, an administrator. The most important branch of government by far is the Congress, since we are a nation of laws, and Congress makes those laws. To be in Congress is much more powerful and a better avenue for change than being President.
Oh, but that doesn’t fit the narrative. You know what? FUCK THE FUCKING NARRATIVE. This is not entertainment.
Villago Delenda Est
The Villagers are desperate for a horse race on the winning side of the 2016 general election.
So they’ll djin one up if they have to, because unless they can invoke the “Democrats in disarray” narrative, they’ll have to come up with something original, which means work, which they hate, because it gets in the way of cocktail weenies and tiger shrimp at Sally’s.
Villago Delenda Est
@Roger Moore: She’s new to the vermin of the Village, in short.
Citizen_X
So are all too many of us rank-and-file progressives.
ETA: @fuckwit: What you said.
Major Major Major Major
Another double whammy of Major General & Seasonal depression day for me. The trade off seems to be feeling ok but having seizures, or feeling like shit. I’m sure the doctors can figure something out though…
Gene108
@Tree With Water:
The dangerous Republicans are guys like Ed Gillespie, who helped launch Operation Red State, in 2010 to use CU money to flip state and local races.
Or Mitch McConnell, who held to an all out obstruction strategy that has pad off nicely for him.
It is not the folks getting in the media saying stupid stuff.
Woodrowfan
@Betty Cracker:
that was great!!!!!
Cacti
Just saw from ABC that Gene Hackman has died.
:-(
Cacti
It’s a hoax.
Never mind.
Hackman alive and kicking at 85.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Cacti: he’s always been a favorite of mine. I was bummed when he retired, but apparently he meant it. I hope he’s enjoying it.
rikyrah
I never thought Brown would get into it. He never even remotely seemed the type. I would like about 10 more Sherrod Browns in the Senate.
Cacti
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I’m a big fan too.
He always plays his roles with such a polished ease, it looks like he isn’t even trying.
AnonPhenom
Shorter Washington Post:
“Hey Democrats, you know it would be a lot easier for the media to pretend that the Republican 2016 field wasn’t such a joke if you’d help out with a few ‘looney Liberals’ running also! Then we could laugh and point and say ‘see, both sides’ ….”
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Major Major Major Major:
For the seasonal stuff, have you tried a full-spectrum light box? I know that Cole swears by his. It sucks that you get the nasty side effects from Wellbutrin — that’s the one that worked best for me, too. Would splitting it into two doses instead of one long-release dose help at all?
Also, if you haven’t done cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), several studies have shown that it’s nearly as effective as medication alone, and even better when combined with medication, so it’s definitely worth seeking out (or getting a refresher if you’ve done it before).
sempronia
Sonia Sotomayor came to my hood today! Full arena, even here (Salt Lake City). What a lovely, down to earth lady. She spent the entire talk answering questions while roaming around the arena taking pictures with the middle- and high-school students. The Secret Service guys were having kittens, stoically, watching her dive into the audience. Best line, to a middle-schooler: “No selfies, sweetie, they make you look ugly”.
Bobby Thomson
@sempronia:
She really is a wise Latina.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): it’s so hard to ask, you know?
I’m trying to get into the UCSF clinic ASAP. I’m at a half dosage right now which is just enough to keep me motivated to do that I guess.
Brains, man.
Haven’t tried CBT yet but I’ve read good things.
rikyrah
Hackman is one of those actors where I’d see a bad movie just because I wanted to see his performance.
Tree With Water
@Gene108: Actually, I had in mind California republicans more in the mold of Tom Cambell, and George Deukmajian, and Pete Wilson (before he lost his ever loving political mind and launched a concerted attack upon Hispanic California). Republicans who could soft-soap with the best of them. Those republicans no longer exist out here.
Linnaeus
I remember back in 2006 when Brown got into the race to replace Mike DeWine, Paul Hackett dropped out, and that was supposed to be a bad thing among some Serious Thinkers in the blogosphere because Brown was “too liberal” to win a statewide election.
balconesfault
Like a Marine, there’s no such thing as a “former Eagle Scout”. Unless he sent his Eagle Badge back to BSA over their gay scoutmaster discrimination policy or something.
balconesfault
@Gin & Tonic: Moisturizer, probably.
Amanda
Two of my favorite people, bar none. If we could clone my senior Senator and Senator Brown several times over, the world would be a better place indeed.
But yeah the Beltway journalism thing, trying to pit them against each other, so stupid! Here’s hoping Senator Warren & Senator Brown are colleagues for the next few decades, raising all kinds of hell in the Senate together.
Oh and I’m a huge Connie Schultz fan, too. Got to meet her once a few years ago & it was such an honor, she’s fantastic