OK, so who is this cat that I speak of? Well, he has an incredible voting record. He started by having the balls to stand in favor of cutting funding to this illegal war. He then voted against Kyl-Lieberman. Later he voted against Mukasey's "not every violation of the law is a crime" confirmation. Afterwards he voted against Bush's FISA "compromise." Just recently he co-sponsored a bill to put an end to the Speculation driving up our energy costs.
He's proudly and honorably been on the right (uhm,,, left) of almost every vote of his brief tenure in the Senate.
Before sweeping into office (one of the few members of the class of '06 who has been true to progressive promises) with a TWELVE point win in a purple state that always seems to have just a bit more red than blue in its palette, he served in the House of Reps for 14 years. There he voted against NAFTA, against giving China most favored status, against CAFTA, against the Iraq war, and against the Patriot Act.
While being fiercely anti-war in the House, as a Senator he's been just as vocal (like Obama, he's a member of the Committee on Veteran's Affairs) in his support of health benefits for our troops and often forgotten vets.
While not every vote has been perfect, how many others have been better on key issues like the war, trade, the economy, our vets, our Constitution, issues which effect the day-to-day lives of working class Americans? Again, this is not a rhetorical question. Out of the 535 members of Congress, how many have been unabashedly progressive enough, and have been around long enough to hold a better voting record? Maybe 3/4? At most 5/6!?!
Think of that number for a bit (5 out of 535) while I talk more about this purple state. It's not just a purple state. Over the past two elections it's been inarguably the single most important purple state of them all! Infamous for helping Chimp Boy gain and keep power. Of course I'm speaking of Ohio. Even today, it's still the most crucial state for either party to win.
Does it not make sense to almost guarantee victory by selecting a VP from this state? Someone who, at 55, is still fairly young for a Senator, and can compliment Obama's appeal to the youth vote. Someone who just won this state by TWELVE points. All while Obama even more recently lost this same state, in the primaries, by 10 points. Someone who won't later cost Democrats a Senate vote b/c Ohio also has a Democratic Governor in place to appoint this Senator's replacement.
Forget the MSM. Even forget the rumors coming from Obama's inner circle. Why aren't Kossacks, showering this man, SHERROD BROWN, with love?
Is it that even Kossacks feel that he's too progressive? If we still hafta hedge our votes, if we still can't be as progressive as we wannabe when the sitting President holds a 29% approval rating, when his party's successor doesn't see the irony of reprimanding Russia for attacking other nations, doesn't understand the differences between Shiaa's and Sunni's, gets Al-Queda confused with Iran as easily as he does the Czech Republic with the old Czechoslovakia, then when can we ever have a true progressive ticket? Better yet, when will we ever deserve one?
This is finally the open door that progressives have been longing for since the days of Great Society, or to go further back, the New Deal. But for some reason, even many here would prefer to yet again look past Ohio and instead extend an olive branch to some unnecessary DLCer while the old guard smiles, even from the loser's podium. For some reason some would chose the safe bet (remember how "safe" LIEberman seemed in '00, or Edwards seemed in '04?) over the winning bet. Then again, maybe I'm just missing something. Maybe Sherrod Brown is the worst pick of them all and deserves to, even here on Daily Kos, lose in polls to Pie.
But from what I know, there is no secret love child out there. From what I know, he's happily married to Connie Schultz, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, which leads one to think that she's not just a great writer but also a bit media savvy as well.
From what I know, his personal life is as clean as his political record and his political record is as important as the state from which he's from.