By Michael J. Smith on Thursday September 14, 2006 11:03 PM
... and it's Sherrod Brown, formerly the drab apparatchik
who quashed Paul Hackett's chance of "crashing the gates".
Paul, you recall, was last year's Kosnik pinup boy, the
prototype ex-military "fighting Democrat". The Kosniks,
and presumably Paul himself, thought he had a shot at
the Democratic senatorial nomination this year -- until
the Bush administration imploded, and the Democrats, now
running against a quadriplegic, suddenly thought they might
have a chance. At that point, the time-servers -- Sherrod Brown
prominent among them -- popped up to claim their
due, and got it.
Now that Sherrod is the Designated Democrat, the Nation scents the odor of sanctity hanging about him:
The road to the Democratic Party's renewal runs through Allen County, Ohio. And Sherrod Brown is on it, looking for the towns his party forgot and the voters who got away.Can't let those voters get away. Who, after all, do they think they are?
Theoretically, Lima [Ohio] should be Democratic turf. A blue-collar town with a solid union base and a substantial African-American population, this city of 40,000 has lost 8,000 manufacturing jobs and a quarter of its population over the past two decades. A few years back, a PBS documentary crew titled a report from Lima "Lost in Middle America." Though Lima still has a Ford plant and an Army tank facility, the deindustrialization that has hammered Ohio during George W. Bush's tenure has taken a particular toll here."Past two decades" -- "George W. Bush's tenure" -- geez, has Bush really been President for twenty years? I know, it seems like forty, but counting on my fingers.... Hmmm. And who was President for the eight years before that?
The inability of the Democrats to capitalize on economic issues to put towns like Lima in their column has contributed mightily to Republican domination of Ohio, where all major statewide offices are in GOP hands and where the last two presidential elections handed Bush the electoral votes he needed to secure the presidency.Strange people, these Ohioans. What's the matter with them?
"Sherrod understands that Ohio can remain a manufacturing state if we've got a federal government that supports the development of new industries," says Thomas Willis, president of Precision Energy & Technology, a fuel-cell firm, who appears with the candidate to vouch for Brown as the real friend of small manufacturersAh. Well, all the big manufacturers are taken, aren't they?
Comments (3)
Excellent comment, Michael. If only we had a government, or a political party, that supported "the development of new industries". As chief cheerleader for NAFTA and the latest rounds of trade negotiations, it certainly wasnt Clinton.
Posted by bobw | September 14, 2006 11:59 PM
Posted on September 14, 2006 23:59
This is best that heap of donkey-doo over at the The Nation has got? A democrat party stack of waffles who voted for the Iraq Liberation Act back in '98? The guy Rahm shivved Paul Hackett for?
Puh-leeze!
Posted by AlanSmithee | September 15, 2006 11:30 AM
Posted on September 15, 2006 11:30
Here's a few of Sherrod's Greatest Hits - courtsey of the Patrick Henry Think Tank's Easy House Score Chart:
~Voted YES on H Con Res 461, the vote for the first step towards war with Iran. It condemned the government of Iran and backed Bush's plan to moved the matter of Iran through the first step of going to the Security Council. This is the same course the war with Iraq took.
~Voted YES on H R 5122: the National Defense Authorization Act, a bill that steals $513 billion from the U.S. Treasury for the benefit of war profiteers
~Voted YES on S 2803 was the Make Mines More Dangerous and Limit Recovery for Victims Act (although the people who want to limit the liabilty of the mines for injuries to the miners through this act have a name that exresses the opposite of what it really stands for).
~Voted YES on HR 282 a bill aimed at leading the United States into war with Iran.
~Voted YES on H Res 921, a resolution to support the bombing of hundreds of children in revenge for the alleged capture by alleged criminals of two soldiers who were reportedly trespassing on foreign soil when apprehended.
~Voted YES on HR 5427 provided more funding for Yucca Mountain, a dangerous project that endangers the health and safety of Americans in more than 2/3rds of the states and which threatens California's food and water supply.
~Voted YES on the motion to suspend and pass DOPA (as in dope misspelled) the Destroy the Internet Bill, a bill aimed at preventing teens, immigrants and others from organizaing on line for demonstrations.
Looks like Sherrod is not only a walking environmental disaster, he's also never met a war resolution he didn't like. Peach of a fella.
Posted by AlanSmithee | September 15, 2006 12:00 PM
Posted on September 15, 2006 12:00