Sep.10

electoral-vote.com

Dem 52

Ties 2

GOP 46

The Republiconvention, Part II: Who Is John Fetterman?

The other big story of last night's convention was that Sen. John Fetterman (D?-PA) made a surprise appearance to advocate for "commonsense politics" and to advocate for his junior colleague, Sen. David McCormick (R-PA). You can watch here, if you wish:

It's less than 2 minutes, so not nearly the time suck that Trump's speech is.

We remain perplexed by what Fetterman is playing at, between his meetings at Mar-a-Lago, and his bromance with McCormick, and his regular Fox interviews, and his appearances at the other party's political convention/rally. However, Sherlock Holmes frequently observed that there was little new in the annals of crime, and that it has all happened before, if you just know where to look. Similarly, there are few paths that Fetterman could be traveling that haven't already been traveled by senators who came before. Hence the question we ask in the headline. To wit:

• Maybe he is Joe Manchin. Manchin retained a Pollyanna-like devotion to bipartisanship, because of his memories of the halcyon days of his early career, when working across the aisle was a real possibility. He refused to adapt, and is still carrying that torch as a private citizen. Fetterman could be another radical bipartisanist (is that a word?), willing even to give up his career in service of the dream.
  
  
• Maybe he is Kyrsten Sinema. Sinema quite obviously soured on being a senator over the course of her term, and did several things that made her reelection untenable. Recognizing that she was one-and-out, she spent her last 2 years or so positioning herself for her post-Senate career as a lobbyist. Fetterman could have a sweet, sweet K Street job in his sights, possibly working for AIPAC or some other pro-Israel group. Or, he could be positioning himself to be the token Democrat on some right-wing show, like Fox's The Five.
  
  
• Maybe he is Joe Lieberman. Lieberman became so wedded to one issue that it alienated him from his party and made him a pariah. Interestingly, it's the non-Jewish guy, Fetterman, who has made Israel the object of his obsession. For Lieberman, it was opposition to socialized medicine.
  
  
• Maybe he is Ben Nighthorse Campbell. During his time in the Senate, Campbell squabbled so much with other Democrats, particularly Democrats from his home state of Colorado, that he decided he wasn't a Democrat anymore and switched parties. Fetterman is now feuding with nearly every Democrat in Pennsylvania, from Gov. Josh Shapiro to Reps. Brendan Boyle and Chris Deluzio. And yet, the Senator is very tight with the Republican McCormick.
  
  
• Maybe he is Arlen Specter: Specter took the temperature of Pennsylvania, and decided the best way to stay in the Senate was to switch parties (to Republican). It worked the first time, and bought him 12 more years in Washington. Then he switched back, and got booted out. We don't think Fetterman really wants to keep his job. But if he does, he might have decided that his future in Pennsylvania involves some combination of Republican, independent, and moderate/conservative Democratic voters. He could theoretically pursue such a coalition as a Democrat or a Republican, depending on the year, just as Specter did.
  
  
• Maybe he is Karl Mundt. Mundt suffered a stroke, and could not do the job the same way (or at all, really) for his last 3 years in office. Nonetheless, he refused to step down. Fetterman is clearly not incapacitated, but he does seem to be a different person since he had HIS stroke. Plus, Fetterman has known issues with serious depression. It's not impossible that he's really just not up to this job anymore.
  
  
• Maybe he is Zell Miller. You pretty much don't get into politics unless you enjoy being the center of attention. As Miller's conservative Democratic politics slipped further and further out of alignment with his party, he wasn't getting much love from Democrats anymore. So, he became a regular guest at Republican events of all sorts, most famously appearing at the 2000 RNC to talk about how much he (and many other Democrats, allegedly) love George W. Bush. Miller still had his stage and his platform, even if the color of those things shifted from blue to red. Fetterman has always had show-horse instincts, and maybe now that left-leaning outlets and organizations won't touch him with a 10-foot pole, he's getting his fix by going on Fox and appearing at Trump events.

We'll eventually see if we've guessed right. In any case, it sure seems like the Democrats manage to come up with one or two of these in every Senate. Once Fetterman is gone, probably in 2028, we wonder who the next person to occupy the role of "Democratic apostate" will be? Our money is on Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI). (Z)