A Prediction for 2018 — Sen. Sherrod Brown

Back in November, Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio took on Republicans for the then-pending phony tax bill’s craven catering to its wealthy donor class in this clip… https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/11/16/hatch_blows_up_on_dem_sen_brown_tired_of_that_crap_that_republicans_only_help_the_rich.html

Finance Committee Chair Senator Orrin “I come from the poor people” Hatch replied that he’d been “working my whole stinking career for people who don’t have a chance” and that he’s sick and tired of hearing how Republicans only help the rich (he then laughably cited the CHIP program, which insures nearly 10 million Americans and Republicans want to kill*). Brown responds that he himself is “sick and tired of watching the richest people in this country get richer and richer and richer while the middle class…” only to be gavelled out of order. The exchange gets pretty heated, you’ll see, but Brown doesn’t back done and he’s got a certain charm to his voice and presence lacking in other better-known Democrats, particularly Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

So, my first prediction for next year is that Senator Brown, if not a declared candidate for President in 2020, will be everything but one come year end. And he’ll be a very good one, too. But first he’ll have to win re-election this coming November, likely against Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, whom he beat by six points in 2012. Stay tuned.

Happy New Year and keep the Resist faith.

*Elsewhere (on the Senate Floor in fact), of the CHIP Program, Senator Hatch said, “the reason CHIP’s having trouble is because we don’t have money anymore.” Gee. Where’d it go?