Is a plus as far as I am concerned.

http://www.progressivepunch.org/members.jsp

between not declaring and letting everyone interested know that you have decided not to run.

And I STILL AM suspicious of his timing.

Actually I think it doesnt reflect very well on all the major Ohio Dems (except Hackett) that they have to be virtually dragged by force into this race.

As I see it, they pragmatically decided that their chances of defeating DeWine were not that good and took a pass. Now that the national mood has changed, they are suddenly interested. I fully expect other fugures to reevaluate now.

I would prefer someone with a backbone, with a message, with courage to take on an opponent who looks like a difficult target.

I think that person is called Hackett!

As far as apologizing for his son of a bitch comment:

"I called the president a son of a bitch because he is."

To be honest, I was VERY surprised that Brown wasn't running for Senate given all that behind the scenes hubub that I was hearing. Everything that he was doing seemed geared towards a Senate run, and if he did I would have been on the front lines chearing him on.

BUT... he said no. Paul said yes.

If he does an about face and decides to run for Senate now he's doing so by stepping on the face of Paul Hackett. As much as I love Brown's voting record, I'm not going to stand by while Brown flexes his politcal muscles by walking on candidates who have done nothing but energize the Ohio Democratic Party.

If Brown is really sincere in his desire to Grow Ohio the smartest thing he can do now is to endorse Paul Hackett for Senate. Otherwise, it's obvious that all of his efforts were nothing more than vanity and self promotion.

Brown said he was out, we were down to our last hope, Hackett. We and the Democratic leadership pushed Hackett really hard to get into this race, now Brown changes his mind when DeWine looks more vulnerable than ever? Just kinda irks me.

Also, I think Hackett being pro-gun (considering DeWine's gun problem) will really help.

....it must be really tough to go out on a limb like that for him and declare him the better candidate.

To declare that Brown will "drive a statewide campaign that will re-engergize the party statewide, building up an organization in every county that will pay dividends way beyond this race." as if Hackett won't do the same is pretty weak even for you.

If you can't help but abuse your pulpit and this blog in an effort to make money I don't think you should be a part of this community.

I could care less who you are, what you've accomplished for the netroots or how great of a writer you are.

What you are doing on behalf of your EMPLOYER on this blog makes me sick.

And I'm a Brown supporter by the way.

no body owns a Senate Seat or the right to be the nominee for the seat.   People make decisions all the time about whether or not to run and when to run for office based both on their personal situations and their analysis of their chances of victory.  If both Hacket and Brown want to be the Democratic Nominee, then gee how about a primary where the Democratic voters get to choose.
My only concern is that both candidates remember during the primary campaign that the goal is to elect one or the other Senator in November 2006.

redstate is reporting that Hackett went off on Reid about Miers endorsement and stormed out of room.  what nonsense is this?

Real Bad.

As I said before, the best thing Democrats could hope for is that Sherrod Brown runs for the Senate in Ohio. He will drive a statewide campaign that will re-engergize the party statewide, building up an organization in every county that will pay dividends way beyond this race.

What is that ? Nonsense. Brown ran statewide before, he lost and didnt energize anyone. Hackett did. Brown is building an organization ? You keep saying that, I don't see it on the ground at all. I see progressive groups building, I see the county chairs orgnaizing, I see DFA organizing and movon too - I dont see Brown doing squat other than a scoop website and a few appearances.

So be specific, what is he building and where ? Show me the beef.

If Sherrod runs, it's because he wants to be the next Senator-- it's not a reaction to Hackett. As Brown's email said last month, he was in the middle of moving, his family was against the run at the time (it appears they are not now). Personally, I think Sherrod has wanted to run all along-- he's certainly been putting the pieces together to do so for the past year. Look, we are still over a year out from the election, the idea that people can tie down a potential candidate as "having had his chance" because he's not yet declared is laughable.

No one is arguing he doesnt have a right to run. But lets be honest here, he has had a long long time to decide, he decided not to, now he flips and decides he might. That is dithering - something that Democrats are sick off frankly. In the middle of moving ? Was he expecting the move to take 2 years ? Thats the only reason that excuse would work. His familiy was against it ? How do we know they wont be again and he wont campaign half heartedly ? Excuses - not reasons. Lets be honest here. Now that the race looks very winnable its a lot less of a personal risk - that is what is driving his change of heart. Pure and simple unspun.

The notion here that Brown should be deferential to candidate Hackett is just as silly as saying that Hackett should have been deferential and not put out his announcement of running, just after intentions of Brown running were put out. Obviously, that's reading too much into timing.

This is just plani dishonest. Brown still hasnt said he is running as far as i know. Is hackett supposed to wait ? Have his chain yanked around while Brown continues to dither ? It's been an open secret Hackett was going to run - and obvious once Brown initially announced he wasnt going to. It is Brown who is out of line and picking a primary fight here and not hackett.

Regarding Paul Hackett. As soon as Hackett won the Ohio 2nd primary, Sherrod went down to hold a fundraiser for Hackett; Sherrod had Dan Lucas go lobby the DNC to get involved with the field campaign (and they did); Sherrod Brown paid for Tim Tagaris to go down to the Hackett campaign and drive the netroots interaction for Hackett.

Good thats what Democrats are supposed to do. But the way you talk you would think it was a one man Brown effort - he was a TINY TINY piece of the puzzle that came together. Let's not make it out ot be more than what it was. HE spent a few grand paying Tim and made a few phone calls. That's it.

It's not a stretch to say that without Sherrod Brown putting into place the foundation of resources for Hackett; it would have turned out far different. I'm sure, if Sherrod were not to run, he'd work just as hard for Hackett as he did in the Ohio 2nd special election. If Sherrod runs, and Hackett decides to run for some other office, I'm sure he'll have full backing. If not, well, that's why primaries exist.

Yeah it is a stretch, a massive one. And worse of all you know it is. You're engaging in the worst kind of Democratic politics here and frankly it stinks.

In fact i think what you are doing is going to be highly damaging to Sherrod Brown and his reputation, not to mention Democrats in Ohio.

Tell ya what, instead of all this yakking and what-if's - who about you take this message back to your Boss - Declare or shut up already - quit dithering around its pathetic.

then we can all decide where to go from there. This right now is just divisive and destructive and serves no purpose.

As many of you know, I'm a huge Hackett fan. Jerome is a huge Brown fan. And all of this talk about Jerome supporting Sherrod because Jerome built Grow Ohio is total fucking crap.

The reality is, there really aren't that many of us who do netroots focused consulting. Those of us who do, come at it from the perspective of activists first. This means we pitch the people we want to work for, instead of getting gigs through help wanted ads.

The ethical situation is turned on it's head when you get to write your own job discription. And Sherrod Brown is that rare member of congress who one can feel good about working with.

As the blogosphere matures, we will see more and more instances where loyalties collide. Which is good and healthy.

My hope is that Brown won't run, but if he does I understand he'll have Jerome's support because of admiration, respect, loyalty, and because Brown has inspired Jerome to believe in him.

The suggestions that Jerome's motives are otherwise are crap -- total crap. I think it is bullshit for people to pull such crap after all Jerome has done to build a great community at MyDD and foster the strength and growth of the progressive blogosphere.

Of course, some asshole will probably say I'm writing this because I was paid by Jerome's PAC to do thereisnocrisis. But I think it is pretty easy for everyone to understand that I was honored to put that together with the BlogPAC team because I believed in them and the campaign. Likewise, I know in my heart that Jerome is supporting Brown because he is proud to.

Any suggestion otherwise is crap.

There's this inherent attitude from some people that Brown has paid his dues and is an experienced, sitting Congressman and, thus, should be shown deference.

That's bullshit.  It's this attitude that gave us John Kerry in 2004 and gave the repugs Bob Dole in 1996.  It's a prescription for losing.  Brown wanted the Senate race to be easy and basically handed to him without any risk.  When DeWine looked unbeatable, Sherrod didn't want to risk giving up his congressional seat.  Now that DeWine's in trouble, he suddenly wants to run, fucking Hackett in the process.  Brown seems like a pussy and that's not who we want as our Senator on Ohio.

Sherrod Brown:  you had your chance and you were too scared.  You blew it.  Now get out of the way for someone who isn't afraid to have a fight.

Btw, the moving excuse has to be one of the lamest excuses I've EVER heard from a politician.  rolls eyes

When you posted this did you know this:

OH Rep. Sherrod Brown has told key Dems today that he plans to challenge Sen. Mike DeWine (R) (Last Call! sources)

Or is this still just your personal space?

Do you think this posting hurt or helped Brown?

I think Jerome is wrong about Brown but if we insist that our allies agree about every single issue/candidate we're screwed completely.

But if Jerome is wrong about Brown, he's not wrong about using this site to post pro-Brown posts.  Jerome--nor anyone who runs a major blog--has not taken a vow of political celibacy or joined some sort of above-the-fray monastic order. Moreover, unlike most everyday posters, his affiliations and associations are right out there for everyone to read.  The pattern of posts by some individual posters sometimes makes me wonder what undeclared affiliations might be involved but I've never been so rude as to ask.

If we eliminated the posts by everyone who didn't have an axe to grind for a candidate or issue, we'd only have eight people posting and at least six of them would be idiots.

JFC.  Sometimes you folks remind me of feuding Scottish clans fighting the British:  No discipline, no eye on the big picture, intramural squabbles and ancient enmities trumping the common opponent.