Ohio heating up

Sherrod Brown may run for Senate - interesting. I've been watching his performance in the House for over a year now, and I have to say I'm generally quite impressed. He seems to be of real progressive stock. Which should make for an interesting primary with Paul Hackett, the Iraq war veteran who narrowly lost in southern Ohio just recently, but got closer to victory there than any Democrat has for 30 years- and not by running as a Republican look-alike.

Kos is unhappy, which I understand if he's an ardent Hackett supporter, since it might seem like Brown is a threat. But I think it's important to set aside personal loyalties to the candidates and focus on what is important here - taking back the Senate to mitigate the extremist effects of the Bush administration. Either man, or any other Democrat, would do in that respect. Beyond that, both would add a progressive voice to the Senate, which is currently a bit lacking even with the number of Dems we have. The question, then, as both will help us achieve our goals, is whom will be able to win statewide? I guess Hackett has shown himself to some degree capable of gathering votes in the south, but Brown has the experience that may be necessary to challenge DeWine, who might make the claim that Hackett lacks qualifications. Serving in the Senate, after all, is a pretty important job, and Democrats may by that time have made the case that Bush's nominations to the Supreme Court have lacked experience. It would be difficult, in such a climate, to run as a Democrat with little history working in government.