Fences still need mending

Update: Plunderbund has audio of Sherrod Brown on Air America

Paul Hackett has an op ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer: Culture of careerism scuttled a political bid, which is getting some attention around the blogs.

Today I saw these two posts on Ohio blogs:
What Sherrod Can Do: Suggestions for Rebuilding the Kwai Bridge by Psychobilly Democrat

Sherrod Brown: Just Give Me A Reason by Eric at Plunderbund

What follows here are excerpts from an article about how "bloggers ruined Sherrod Brown's month". Initially I posted this in the comments, but given that there still clearly are hard feelings which the Ohio Democratic Party is ignoring, and which some bloggers at Daily Kos (and most likely elsewhere as well) feel are best dealt with by browbeating those who don't "fall in line", I've decided this should be front-paged. It's the only acknowledgement that *I've* seen in the media that Sherrod Brown really does need to do some genuine fence-mending. Plunderbund has a pdf of the whole article here.

The article is from The Other Paper, one of our local newsweeklies, but only some of their articles are available in the online edition. The cover story, available online (but they replace the stories every week, so the link won't work next tomorrow) is about the Bad Man who wants to be governor of Ohio.

It must occasionally occur to the folks at the Ohio Democratic Party that things would be a lot easier if only Al Gore had never invented the Internet.

Sure, there would still be folks upset about Paul Hackett's withdrawal from the U.S. Senate race, but their collective despair wouldn't be endlessly feeding itself on the pages of Democratic blogs.

While the state party is trying to get folks excited about beating Mike DeWine, the anguish of disappointed Hackettheads is chronicled on an hourly basis."

Hackettheads? I bet columnist Dan Williamson made that one up minutes before his article went to print.

And the mood among Democrats following the Senate race is rather sour.

Buckeye Senate, perhaps the best read liberal political blog in the state, has kept up a continuous assault on the Democratic Party apparatus ever since Hackett's Feb. 14 withdrawal.

Bloggers dubbed that day--when Hackett formally left the Senate race and Democratic state Sen. Eric Fingerhut abandoned his campaign for governor--the "Valentine's Day Massacre," a term that quickly caught on nationwide.

Meanwhile, other bloggers, picking up on a Mother Jones story, accused the state and national Democratic Party of trying to "swiftboat" Hackett by spreading false rumors about his military service in Iraq."

With this din in the background, the state Democratic Party must try to get voters enthused about Sherrod Brown.

"Brown, a congressman from suburban Cleveland, is now guaranteed the Democratic nomination to face off against DeWine, the Republican incumbent, in the fall. Though he has statewide name ID and a respectable campaign bank account, Democratic bloggers exhibit as much excitement about Brown's candidacy as they would a plate of Brussels sprouts.

Chris Redfern, the state party chairman, acknowledged hard feelings over Hackett's exit could present a "short-term" challenge and that "there's healing to be done."

But some of Hackett's supporters seem to already have given up on the Senate race.

Democratic bloggers this week made note of the new Rasmussen poll, which indicated the fallout over Hackett's withdrawal had significantly damaged Brown's chances against DeWine."

Redfern said the Ohio party didn't pressure Hackett, but bloggers--many of whom were opposed to Redfern's selection as party chairman in December--aren't sure they believe him, and they're nowhere near close to dropping the subject.

"There's an underlying current in the blogosphere that these establishment Dems are just trying to railroad everybody," said Delaware resident Eric Vessels, who runs a site called Plunderbund, which gets 400 to 500 different visitors a day and coined the "Valentine's Day Massacre" phrase.

Of course, politics is a rough business, and it's fair to ask why they don't move on.

The first answer to that question is they really loved Hackett.

"I think a lot of bloggers feel like this was our guy," said Vessels.

The second answer is that Brown has never gotten along with bloggers.

"I don't know why they write what they write," Brown said earlier this year when asked about blogs' disaffection with him.

But Vessels said it's Brown's own fault. He said many bloggers, who agree with Brown's liberal politics, wanted to like him.

"The route that Sherrod Brown took was very dismissive of blogs," Vessels said. "Extremely dismissive of blogs."

That's understandable. Brown probably wondered why a prominent congressman should spend his valuable time appeasing folks who sit at their computers for hours typing about politics.

But he probably doesn't wonder anymore.

One more thing--check out Ohio 2nd's post, A Proposal, about finding a way to bury the hatchet, but not in anyone's head. Check out his suggestion, and weigh in if you have thoughts on this.


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