The "red line" this week wasn't courage. It was the loudest tell yet from a man who took the seat that saved our majority–and spent every day since sneering at the people who handed it to him.
I listen to Black women, and they voted for Conor Lamb or Malcolm Kenyatta in the primary. Fetterman pulled a shotgun on an unarmed Black jogger and has never apologized.
I thought that the regime might be threatening his immigrant wife, but more likely he's seeing that being a stooge for Israel is more profitable and is pissed that Democrats are realizing that we need to stop sending billions to a nation killing kids and letting them dictate American policy.
AD...you're bringing real receipts...and that 2013 incident deserves to be front and CENTER.
As Braddock mayor...Fetterman detained John Braddock...an unarmed Black man out jogging...and by his own account pointed a shotgun at him. He never really apologized.
The voters who saw him clearest...BLACK WOMEN... backing Lamb or Kenyatta...were never fooled by the branding.
On the "why," hold the follow-the-money read as suspicion...not proof..."ask who benefits"...lands harder than asserting motive. His record does the work: the shotgun, the votes...the Fox hits.
Agreed with your analysis Jack as I have watched previously and he should resign (it appears not only doesn’t care but switched sides as well) for the sake of PA and our country.
The frustrating part...is that resignation isn't something anyone can force here...short of expulsion...which takes a two-thirds Senate vote and will NOT happen; a senator only leaves when they CHOOSE to.
So...the real leverage is at the ballot box in 2028...and in the meantime...the pressure of colleagues, constituents, and coverage making the cost of the act plain.
You watching closely and NAMING IT is part of that.
I agree with you Jack, remembering what happened to Al Frankin different scenario of course. Thank you Jack as always and for being here. Sending my very best to you and your family and our community here.
You're right to remember Franken; it's a fair thing to sit with...especially the way the party can move fast to push out one of its own...while tolerating far WORSE from someone doing real damage.
Different scenario...as you say...BUT... the double standard is worth noticing!
Grateful for you...for reading...for being part of this community...and for the kindness.
A recent poll showed that Fetterman is more popular among Republicans in Pennsylvania than Dave McCormick is! Yep, I was fooled by him. Bought the whole act; hook, line, and sinker. And I voted for him. Whether he switches parties or not, I personally will do whatever I can to see that he is defeated in 2028.
John...don't be too hard on yourself for that vote...you backed the man he presented... and in 2022 that seat was EVERYTHING.
Being fooled by a good act...isn't the same as bad judgment; it just means he lied well. What matters...is that you're seeing clearly NOW...and plenty aren't.
That poll says it all, doesn't it?
When you're more popular with the other party's voters...than their OWN nominee... you've told everyone EXACTLY who you're working for.
Channel that energy toward 2028...that's where it actually counts...and organized... clear-eyed voters like YOU...are how a primary challenger gets real traction.
As a registered Independent, I take a slightly less party-related view of Fetterman, except that he essentially failed to represent the wishes of the people who voted for him. Sounds like a familiar refrain. A certain orange skinned Republican has been doing the same thing for two terms now. When I see something like this occur, the first thing I ask myself is "follow the money". Unless someone is totally self absorbed, they at least try and follow through with their promises. When they don't, like a certain sitting president, you have to ask yourself, who is paying for the change and how much is Fetterman willing to accept to sell his soul and sell out his county. I wonder why the Pennsylvania Democratic Part chair hasn't asked the same question and begun an invesitgation. To paraphrase the Nazi sympathizer occupying the White hour, Fetterman is a DINO.
Steven...that representation lens is the cleaner one...and it cuts across party lines: the betrayal isn't that he drifted ideologically...it's that he ran as ONE thing...and governed as ANOTHER.
You don't have to be a Democrat to be angry about that...you just have to believe a vote should MEAN something.
"Follow the money" is the right instinct, Stevn...with one caveat: it's a question...not yet a conclusion. Because I try to be as accurate as possible...with JHN...I will say we don't have proof...yet...he's been bought...so the strongest version is the one you framed; ask WHO benefits...and ask WHY the people positioned to investigate...seem so incurious. That silence...really is its OWN tell.
I agree. I meant the follow the money comment as a question but my lack of typing skills got in the way. My lack of careful editing probably didn't help either.
Thanks, Jack! As a nearly-lifelong-Pennsylvanian, I’m now embarrassed to say I voted for him. But I’m an Independent so I couldn’t vote in the primary. I did however vote for him in the General when he was running against “Dr” Oz. Remember that? We all had high hopes for John then. And then he had the strokes. . . As a brain-aneurysm survivor, I felt for him. No one should have to go through that. But then I heard he went to Mar A Lago, and he seemed to be a changed man when he came back. Something happened there. Something was said to him. We’ll probably never know.
A brain-aneurysm survivor writing to say they felt for him...that says EVERYTHING about your character...and it's more grace than he ever showed the people who stood by him.
And...please don't be embarrassed about the vote. In 2022...against Oz...you voted for the man they sold ALL of us. That's not on YOU. It's on HIM.
I trust people, now usually to my disadvantage. One example was when someone expressed interest in a front end clip of an Alfa Romeo GTV I was selling but he didn’t know if it’d work, so I let him borrow it. Without a deposit. Into the wind went both.
Or the time an old guy walked into my shop, saw some baseball photos from the time I went to Candlestick with the head photographer with the SF Examiner. Some good ones he admired, offered to take them to be copied, in return he’d mount and frame them. Gone. I’d like to think he just died.
Gullible? I suppose, but the point is, I used to trust people a lot more. It was a thing back then.
Fetterman sealed the end of that particular deal. I sensed something was off, I really did, but still convinced myself he deserved the job.
Randy...those losses sting twice; once for the thing...and...once for what they take out of your WILLINGNESS to trust.
The Candlestick photos especially sound irreplaceable...and that you'd rather joke he "just died" than call him a thief tells me everything. That's not gullibility...it's decency operating on the assumption others share it.
That's why Fetterman cuts deep. You sensed something was OFF...and talked yourself out of it...because you wanted to believe he deserved the shot. He counted on EXACTLY that good faith...then spent it AGAINST you.
No refund...BUT...you can keep the trust that got you THIS far...and still add clear eyes going forward. Sounds like you already have!
I remember the 2022 race clearly. Josh Shapiro was running against Doug Mastriano, a neanderthal PA legislator who charted buses for J6'ers, and John Fetterman was running against Dr Oz for Senate. I was one of the door knockers. I recall knocking on the door of an older Black woman from Pittsburgh who remembered Fetterman's good deeds in the community. I was aware of the Black jogger incident and when weighed against the prospect of carpetbagger Mehmet Oz was a lesser evil.
Fetterman's performance, post-stroke, surprised and disappointed me. Your quote of Brendan Boyle, who happens to be my House representative, sums up my feelings accurately.
I was particularly surprised by his support for Trump's immigration policies given that his wife, Gisele, emigrated from Brazil. As late as May, he was stating he had no intent to switch parties
When the Graham Platner sexual allegations came out in the open and sank his candidacy, I felt a sense of deja vu. another "working man of the people" who wasn't.
Yo' Democrats, you've got to do a better job of picking candidates. We can't afford to screw this up.
Ellen...THIS... is the kind of on-the-ground perspective worth more than ANY pundit's take.
You were at the doors...making the actual 2022 calculation...Fetterman with the jogger incident already on the ledger...weighed against a carpetbagger like Oz...and Mastriano up-ticket. That wasn't naivety. That was TRIAGE... with your eyes OPEN...and nobody gets to second-guess it from the couch.
The immigration turn cutting deep makes sense; his wife emigrated from Brazil...and in May...he STILL swore he'd never switch. And...when Boyle...your OWN rep...matches what you feel on the ground...that's not narrative...that's your district converging on the TRUTH.
Your closing line is the WHOLE point: VET. THE. CANDIDATES.
The Platner déjà vu is the tell...another costume the party didn't check...before handing over the machine. Voters like you keep doing your job. The party needs to start doing its!
File the date: July 16, 2026. A sitting senator announces, on camera, that his loyalty to his party is conditional on a foreign policy position, and calls this his “red line.” Note the direction of the threat. It does not point outward, at an adversary. It points inward, at the people who elected him.
Note which word does the work in that sentence. Not “principle.” Not “conscience.” Red line. This is the vocabulary of deterrence, borrowed from statecraft and pointed at a caucus. Jack is correct that the press mistook the borrowed vocabulary for courage. Threats aimed at one’s own coalition are not, historically, a sign of independence. They are usually a sign of which side the threatener has already decided to serve, dressed in the language of the side he has not yet formally left.
Historians of party realignment have a term for the period before a defection becomes visible: the pre-announcement. It is not a single dramatic break. It is a long accumulation of small votes, each described as principled dissent, that only cohere into a pattern in retrospect. A vote to advance a hostile nominee. A missed caucus meeting. A public insult aimed at a colleague from his own side. Individually, each is defensible. Together, they describe a man already governing as if he had switched, while retaining the formal designation that gives him institutional standing his actual votes no longer earn.
Note also where the man spends his time, because location is data. A member of the governing coalition who appears more often on the opposition’s friendliest platform than in his own conference room is not communicating with the people who elected him. He is auditioning for the validator’s role the other side will need the next time it wants a Democrat’s face attached to its position. That is not a slip of scheduling. It is a rational strategy for someone who has already priced in where his actual future support is coming from, and it costs him nothing with the voters he has stopped trying to persuade.
I want to be careful here, because the history of dismissing a man’s account of his own recovery is not a good history. Fetterman disclosed his depression publicly, and that disclosure did real good in the world; people struggling with the same thing were, by many accounts, helped by his candor. The illness is not the story, and deserves no mockery. But note what happens after an illness in politics is not determined by the illness. It is determined by whether the person returns humbled or returns certain. A chief of staff, in writing, to a doctor, used the word “concerns.” That is not political theater. That is the language of someone with a duty of care registering an alarm about judgment, which is a different thing entirely — and Fetterman’s response, dismissing it as a “hit piece” and a “grudge,” is worth noting for what genre of response it belongs to. It is not rebuttal. It is dismissal, and across every case I have studied, dismissal without engagement is the tell that the concern had substance.
Here is the sentence I would ask readers to sit with longest: the one loyalty that has not moved is the one that requires him to move against his own side. Immigration: moved right, publicly, on friendly platforms. A hostile confirmation vote: cast to help the other side, over his own caucus’s objection. But Israel is where the threat gets made, not where the flexibility gets shown. If this were principle applied consistently, the pattern would look different. It does not. It looks like a man who has already decided where his actual allegiance sits, and has chosen the one issue where declaring it publicly costs him nothing with the audience he has spent years building on the platforms where he actually appears.
Jack is correct, too, that the more telling development this week was not Fetterman’s threat but Congressman Boyle’s response to it. When a member’s own state colleague says the quiet part in public — calling him “Trump’s favorite Democrat” — the quiet part was never actually quiet. It was waiting for someone with less institutional caution than party leadership to say it first. That is how the pre-announcement period usually ends: not with the defector’s own statement, but with the moment his own side stops pretending not to notice.
Barr said no in December 2020. Rosen said no. Cuccinelli said no. The pattern I keep returning to is that institutions hold only when the people inside them choose, individually, to hold them. A caucus is not a wall. It is people. When one of those people spends more time on a hostile network than in his own conference room, the caucus does not weaken abstractly. It weakens by exactly one vote, on every question that matters, for as long as he holds the seat that was built, at real cost, to prevent that outcome.
Ask, as the historian must, what happens next. Not whether Fetterman leaves — that is a question of timing, not of substance, since his votes already answer it. Ask instead how many others are positioned the same way, waiting for their own moment to declare a red line that was, in truth, decided years before the camera turned on.
Jane...this is the comment section doing what it's SUPPOSED to do.
"Dismissal without engagement is the tell that the concern had substance" ...that's the whole New York Magazine story in one sentence...AND...it's cleaner than anything I wrote.
Assuming he runs again in 2028, I expect Fetterman to run as a Republican.
A small but telling detail here. As a constituent (and probably like many readers here), I have sent out a fair share of emails and phone calls. Despite the fact that my other Senator, Dave McCormick, quietly supports every dirtbag cabinet nominee and every retrograde Trump position including the SAVE Act and his immigration policy, he has been far more accessible to constituents than Fetterman.
Occasionally I've gotten through to McCormick staffers when calling to voice my opinion. Fetterman's site immediately switches calls to voice mail. Occasionally McCormick hosts telephone town halls. I have yet to see a Fetterman town hall.
What I do see in Fetterman's constituent newsletter communications are consistent mentions about his pride in working with his compatriot across the aisle, Sen. McCormick.
The take away message is, at least McCormick puts on a show for caring about his constituents concerns, but Fetterman cannot be bothered.
Ellen...you just did...in ONE comment...what takes most of us a full essay: the Republican you oppose on everything still routes you to a human and holds a town hall...the Democrat you helped elect...sends you to VOICEMAIL. Access isn't ideology...it's whether he thinks YOU'RE... his damn job.
"At least McCormick puts on a show" is brutal...PRECISELY because it's fair. A Republican run in 2028...would NOT be a prediction...just paperwork...catching UP to his votes.
I read this as a Pennsylvanian who voted for John. I am beyond ready for him to leave the democratic party and join the oligarchs. He has been more interested in hanging with our republican senator Dave McCormick on a mutual book tour than standing up for the rights of those of us who sent him to Washington. He is truly a DINO! I am totally disgusted and angered by his actions. The sooner he leaves the party the better. Don't care if the door hits him in the ass on the way out! Good riddance!
DG...duplicitous is the POLITE word for it. The honest version: he tells PENNSYLVANIA one thing...and FOX...ANOTHER...and...counts on the two audiences NEVER comparing notes.
When Fetterman went to Maralargo to bow before Trump early in Jan 2025- and then said his loyalty is to the President- no Matter who: Fetterman became a complete Quisling. And Fetterman definitely went straight downhill from there.
Why Weak kneed Schumer keeps Fetterman on Committees is out right disgusting!
Lillian...the trip is real; first Democrat to Mar-a-Lago, January 2025...AND... you don't even need the paraphrase, because what he said on the record is WORSE: "no one is my gatekeeper," Trump was "kind" and "cordial," a "singular political talent."
He didn't get cornered into that. He walked in there...OFFERING it. (I was pissed)
On Schumer keeping him on committees...I agree...that IS maddening. EVERY damn seat is a vote...and a vote...handed to a man who'd rather be on FOX... is a vote leadership CHOSE to gamble. I say again: a vote leadership CHOSE TO GAMBLE.
But...here's what unsettles me MORE than a hidden story: what...just what...if there isn't one?
Think of it.
A man who bends on immigration...on nominees...on his own caucus...and the single thing he will NOT move on...is the one that requires moving against his OWN side.
The consistency...itself...is the tell. If there's a story...it could very well be...that this is the ONE belief...he decided to build a brand on.
If...it's something more concrete...than conviction...THAT part...tends to be public record...the kind of thing you follow, not the kind you have to imagine.
I could not agree more. You hit every major part of what has been making my skin crawl for so long.
I’m one of the ones who elected him, who had his name on my front lawn. Let’s not forget a couple things:
1) The other option was Dr. Oz.
2) Not sure why Conor Lamb lost—he got my vote in the primary. I do think there was an element of the Democratic Party that wanted to live dangerously like the other guys did with their guy?
3) He has always gone his own way, argued with his own people, made his own rules. He can push *back* but not forward. Eg. He couldn’t afford to be mayor bc it only paid like $3,000/year. So his parents supported his family of 5 for how many years so he could be mayor? And he threw himself into that job. For every death by gun violence, he got the name or initials (I think name) tattooed on his person so he would never forget. Maybe that’s what he used the stipend for? He also didn’t want to live in the Lt. Gov.’s mansion, so he stayed in Braddock. I think I read that he opened up the mansion’s pool to the city’s kids. He didn’t work well with Gov. Tom Wolf and can’t stand Josh Shapiro. Surprise.
4) If/When he trades the D for an R, he will behave exactly the same way with different people. He will trash the very far right anti-Israel branch of the party and will trash the rest of them over the progressive ideas he does hold. It’s the only dance he knows.
5) I think he’s miserable, like extremely so. Based on his behavior, he 100% deserves to be. He’s making money trading stocks, getting endorphin rushes from his right wing bros and from shit-talking everyone else. He antagonizes people so they trash him and he justifies his rage and misery. That’s the dance.
6) He’s still voted over 90% Dem.
7) The single consistent value he has proven is simply, whatever the fuck he feels like doing or saying, that’s what he’ll do or say. Now, I can’t compare that with pre-stroke. He definitely could be suffering from neurological damage that hardened his worst impulses or just erased any measure of self-restraint.
8) Someone pointed out that we have not heard from his wife—she’s keeping a very low profile now. I’m not sure what that means, but it is not reassuring.
I had heard a rumor that he told someone that his wife was the democratic. I can't verify it so won't guarantee he said it.
90% is pretty high but he still voted wrong on some pivotal issues. I was pissed that he insisted the senate change the dress code to allow shorts, etc!
I hadn’t heard that about Gisele. Hmmm. That’s very interesting if true. He’s all the way to the left on abortion and transgender issues. I wonder if that occurred after he met her. From something I read long ago, I thought he came from liberal money. Hard to believe Conservative parents would subsidize his mayoralty of an impoverished, predominantly minority city. Hmmm.
She was undocumented as a kid—you’d think he would have a more generous view of immigrants.
The shorts and hoodies only bothered me in that the insistence that he shouldn’t have to conform to a professional dress code revealed his profound immaturity. I get that he’s more comfortable in his preferred attire. We all are. But even neurodivergent adults like me can adjust. Plus there is a sense of decorum that often accompanies a well-dressed person. I taught middle school for 33 years. Kids were better behaved at formal events partly bc they weren’t completely comfortable.
The senate had always been the chamber of formality and decorum. By design. That's why there are only 2 senators from each state. It was supposed to be the chamber of deliberation and civility. John just blew that away. Because he refused to bend to the tradition. Whatever it takes he's gone in 2028. #HoldFast
I listen to Black women, and they voted for Conor Lamb or Malcolm Kenyatta in the primary. Fetterman pulled a shotgun on an unarmed Black jogger and has never apologized.
I thought that the regime might be threatening his immigrant wife, but more likely he's seeing that being a stooge for Israel is more profitable and is pissed that Democrats are realizing that we need to stop sending billions to a nation killing kids and letting them dictate American policy.
AD...you're bringing real receipts...and that 2013 incident deserves to be front and CENTER.
As Braddock mayor...Fetterman detained John Braddock...an unarmed Black man out jogging...and by his own account pointed a shotgun at him. He never really apologized.
The voters who saw him clearest...BLACK WOMEN... backing Lamb or Kenyatta...were never fooled by the branding.
On the "why," hold the follow-the-money read as suspicion...not proof..."ask who benefits"...lands harder than asserting motive. His record does the work: the shotgun, the votes...the Fox hits.
-Jack
Agreed with your analysis Jack as I have watched previously and he should resign (it appears not only doesn’t care but switched sides as well) for the sake of PA and our country.
Joan...appreciate that.
The frustrating part...is that resignation isn't something anyone can force here...short of expulsion...which takes a two-thirds Senate vote and will NOT happen; a senator only leaves when they CHOOSE to.
So...the real leverage is at the ballot box in 2028...and in the meantime...the pressure of colleagues, constituents, and coverage making the cost of the act plain.
You watching closely and NAMING IT is part of that.
Thanks for reading and for being here!
-Jack
I agree with you Jack, remembering what happened to Al Frankin different scenario of course. Thank you Jack as always and for being here. Sending my very best to you and your family and our community here.
Joan...thank you...that means a lot. Truly.
You're right to remember Franken; it's a fair thing to sit with...especially the way the party can move fast to push out one of its own...while tolerating far WORSE from someone doing real damage.
Different scenario...as you say...BUT... the double standard is worth noticing!
Grateful for you...for reading...for being part of this community...and for the kindness.
Sending my best right back to you and yours!
-Jack
A recent poll showed that Fetterman is more popular among Republicans in Pennsylvania than Dave McCormick is! Yep, I was fooled by him. Bought the whole act; hook, line, and sinker. And I voted for him. Whether he switches parties or not, I personally will do whatever I can to see that he is defeated in 2028.
John...don't be too hard on yourself for that vote...you backed the man he presented... and in 2022 that seat was EVERYTHING.
Being fooled by a good act...isn't the same as bad judgment; it just means he lied well. What matters...is that you're seeing clearly NOW...and plenty aren't.
That poll says it all, doesn't it?
When you're more popular with the other party's voters...than their OWN nominee... you've told everyone EXACTLY who you're working for.
Channel that energy toward 2028...that's where it actually counts...and organized... clear-eyed voters like YOU...are how a primary challenger gets real traction.
I'll be right there with you, John.
-Jack
As a registered Independent, I take a slightly less party-related view of Fetterman, except that he essentially failed to represent the wishes of the people who voted for him. Sounds like a familiar refrain. A certain orange skinned Republican has been doing the same thing for two terms now. When I see something like this occur, the first thing I ask myself is "follow the money". Unless someone is totally self absorbed, they at least try and follow through with their promises. When they don't, like a certain sitting president, you have to ask yourself, who is paying for the change and how much is Fetterman willing to accept to sell his soul and sell out his county. I wonder why the Pennsylvania Democratic Part chair hasn't asked the same question and begun an invesitgation. To paraphrase the Nazi sympathizer occupying the White hour, Fetterman is a DINO.
Steven...that representation lens is the cleaner one...and it cuts across party lines: the betrayal isn't that he drifted ideologically...it's that he ran as ONE thing...and governed as ANOTHER.
You don't have to be a Democrat to be angry about that...you just have to believe a vote should MEAN something.
"Follow the money" is the right instinct, Stevn...with one caveat: it's a question...not yet a conclusion. Because I try to be as accurate as possible...with JHN...I will say we don't have proof...yet...he's been bought...so the strongest version is the one you framed; ask WHO benefits...and ask WHY the people positioned to investigate...seem so incurious. That silence...really is its OWN tell.
-Jack
I agree. I meant the follow the money comment as a question but my lack of typing skills got in the way. My lack of careful editing probably didn't help either.
Thanks, Jack! As a nearly-lifelong-Pennsylvanian, I’m now embarrassed to say I voted for him. But I’m an Independent so I couldn’t vote in the primary. I did however vote for him in the General when he was running against “Dr” Oz. Remember that? We all had high hopes for John then. And then he had the strokes. . . As a brain-aneurysm survivor, I felt for him. No one should have to go through that. But then I heard he went to Mar A Lago, and he seemed to be a changed man when he came back. Something happened there. Something was said to him. We’ll probably never know.
Joanne...thank you for this.
A brain-aneurysm survivor writing to say they felt for him...that says EVERYTHING about your character...and it's more grace than he ever showed the people who stood by him.
And...please don't be embarrassed about the vote. In 2022...against Oz...you voted for the man they sold ALL of us. That's not on YOU. It's on HIM.
Really glad you're here.
#HoldFast
-Jack
Thanks, Jack. #HoldFast
Agreed! As the first democrat to go to Mar a lago I was concerned then. I just got worse.
I trust people, now usually to my disadvantage. One example was when someone expressed interest in a front end clip of an Alfa Romeo GTV I was selling but he didn’t know if it’d work, so I let him borrow it. Without a deposit. Into the wind went both.
Or the time an old guy walked into my shop, saw some baseball photos from the time I went to Candlestick with the head photographer with the SF Examiner. Some good ones he admired, offered to take them to be copied, in return he’d mount and frame them. Gone. I’d like to think he just died.
Gullible? I suppose, but the point is, I used to trust people a lot more. It was a thing back then.
Fetterman sealed the end of that particular deal. I sensed something was off, I really did, but still convinced myself he deserved the job.
Wow. I want a refund.
Randy...those losses sting twice; once for the thing...and...once for what they take out of your WILLINGNESS to trust.
The Candlestick photos especially sound irreplaceable...and that you'd rather joke he "just died" than call him a thief tells me everything. That's not gullibility...it's decency operating on the assumption others share it.
That's why Fetterman cuts deep. You sensed something was OFF...and talked yourself out of it...because you wanted to believe he deserved the shot. He counted on EXACTLY that good faith...then spent it AGAINST you.
No refund...BUT...you can keep the trust that got you THIS far...and still add clear eyes going forward. Sounds like you already have!
-Jack
Each state should have the ability to recall someone they find has sold them a bill of goods.
Agreed, Roberta.
-Jack
Pennsylvania voter here.
A little perspective:
I remember the 2022 race clearly. Josh Shapiro was running against Doug Mastriano, a neanderthal PA legislator who charted buses for J6'ers, and John Fetterman was running against Dr Oz for Senate. I was one of the door knockers. I recall knocking on the door of an older Black woman from Pittsburgh who remembered Fetterman's good deeds in the community. I was aware of the Black jogger incident and when weighed against the prospect of carpetbagger Mehmet Oz was a lesser evil.
Fetterman's performance, post-stroke, surprised and disappointed me. Your quote of Brendan Boyle, who happens to be my House representative, sums up my feelings accurately.
I was particularly surprised by his support for Trump's immigration policies given that his wife, Gisele, emigrated from Brazil. As late as May, he was stating he had no intent to switch parties
https://share.inquirer.com/ofloMO
When the Graham Platner sexual allegations came out in the open and sank his candidacy, I felt a sense of deja vu. another "working man of the people" who wasn't.
Yo' Democrats, you've got to do a better job of picking candidates. We can't afford to screw this up.
Ellen...THIS... is the kind of on-the-ground perspective worth more than ANY pundit's take.
You were at the doors...making the actual 2022 calculation...Fetterman with the jogger incident already on the ledger...weighed against a carpetbagger like Oz...and Mastriano up-ticket. That wasn't naivety. That was TRIAGE... with your eyes OPEN...and nobody gets to second-guess it from the couch.
The immigration turn cutting deep makes sense; his wife emigrated from Brazil...and in May...he STILL swore he'd never switch. And...when Boyle...your OWN rep...matches what you feel on the ground...that's not narrative...that's your district converging on the TRUTH.
Your closing line is the WHOLE point: VET. THE. CANDIDATES.
The Platner déjà vu is the tell...another costume the party didn't check...before handing over the machine. Voters like you keep doing your job. The party needs to start doing its!
-Jack
File the date: July 16, 2026. A sitting senator announces, on camera, that his loyalty to his party is conditional on a foreign policy position, and calls this his “red line.” Note the direction of the threat. It does not point outward, at an adversary. It points inward, at the people who elected him.
Note which word does the work in that sentence. Not “principle.” Not “conscience.” Red line. This is the vocabulary of deterrence, borrowed from statecraft and pointed at a caucus. Jack is correct that the press mistook the borrowed vocabulary for courage. Threats aimed at one’s own coalition are not, historically, a sign of independence. They are usually a sign of which side the threatener has already decided to serve, dressed in the language of the side he has not yet formally left.
Historians of party realignment have a term for the period before a defection becomes visible: the pre-announcement. It is not a single dramatic break. It is a long accumulation of small votes, each described as principled dissent, that only cohere into a pattern in retrospect. A vote to advance a hostile nominee. A missed caucus meeting. A public insult aimed at a colleague from his own side. Individually, each is defensible. Together, they describe a man already governing as if he had switched, while retaining the formal designation that gives him institutional standing his actual votes no longer earn.
Note also where the man spends his time, because location is data. A member of the governing coalition who appears more often on the opposition’s friendliest platform than in his own conference room is not communicating with the people who elected him. He is auditioning for the validator’s role the other side will need the next time it wants a Democrat’s face attached to its position. That is not a slip of scheduling. It is a rational strategy for someone who has already priced in where his actual future support is coming from, and it costs him nothing with the voters he has stopped trying to persuade.
I want to be careful here, because the history of dismissing a man’s account of his own recovery is not a good history. Fetterman disclosed his depression publicly, and that disclosure did real good in the world; people struggling with the same thing were, by many accounts, helped by his candor. The illness is not the story, and deserves no mockery. But note what happens after an illness in politics is not determined by the illness. It is determined by whether the person returns humbled or returns certain. A chief of staff, in writing, to a doctor, used the word “concerns.” That is not political theater. That is the language of someone with a duty of care registering an alarm about judgment, which is a different thing entirely — and Fetterman’s response, dismissing it as a “hit piece” and a “grudge,” is worth noting for what genre of response it belongs to. It is not rebuttal. It is dismissal, and across every case I have studied, dismissal without engagement is the tell that the concern had substance.
Here is the sentence I would ask readers to sit with longest: the one loyalty that has not moved is the one that requires him to move against his own side. Immigration: moved right, publicly, on friendly platforms. A hostile confirmation vote: cast to help the other side, over his own caucus’s objection. But Israel is where the threat gets made, not where the flexibility gets shown. If this were principle applied consistently, the pattern would look different. It does not. It looks like a man who has already decided where his actual allegiance sits, and has chosen the one issue where declaring it publicly costs him nothing with the audience he has spent years building on the platforms where he actually appears.
Jack is correct, too, that the more telling development this week was not Fetterman’s threat but Congressman Boyle’s response to it. When a member’s own state colleague says the quiet part in public — calling him “Trump’s favorite Democrat” — the quiet part was never actually quiet. It was waiting for someone with less institutional caution than party leadership to say it first. That is how the pre-announcement period usually ends: not with the defector’s own statement, but with the moment his own side stops pretending not to notice.
Barr said no in December 2020. Rosen said no. Cuccinelli said no. The pattern I keep returning to is that institutions hold only when the people inside them choose, individually, to hold them. A caucus is not a wall. It is people. When one of those people spends more time on a hostile network than in his own conference room, the caucus does not weaken abstractly. It weakens by exactly one vote, on every question that matters, for as long as he holds the seat that was built, at real cost, to prevent that outcome.
Ask, as the historian must, what happens next. Not whether Fetterman leaves — that is a question of timing, not of substance, since his votes already answer it. Ask instead how many others are positioned the same way, waiting for their own moment to declare a red line that was, in truth, decided years before the camera turned on.
#HOLDFAST
Jane...this is the comment section doing what it's SUPPOSED to do.
"Dismissal without engagement is the tell that the concern had substance" ...that's the whole New York Magazine story in one sentence...AND...it's cleaner than anything I wrote.
Thank you for reading this closely.
#HOLDFAST
-Jack
Excellent and insightful, HK Jane.
Assuming he runs again in 2028, I expect Fetterman to run as a Republican.
A small but telling detail here. As a constituent (and probably like many readers here), I have sent out a fair share of emails and phone calls. Despite the fact that my other Senator, Dave McCormick, quietly supports every dirtbag cabinet nominee and every retrograde Trump position including the SAVE Act and his immigration policy, he has been far more accessible to constituents than Fetterman.
Occasionally I've gotten through to McCormick staffers when calling to voice my opinion. Fetterman's site immediately switches calls to voice mail. Occasionally McCormick hosts telephone town halls. I have yet to see a Fetterman town hall.
What I do see in Fetterman's constituent newsletter communications are consistent mentions about his pride in working with his compatriot across the aisle, Sen. McCormick.
The take away message is, at least McCormick puts on a show for caring about his constituents concerns, but Fetterman cannot be bothered.
Ellen...you just did...in ONE comment...what takes most of us a full essay: the Republican you oppose on everything still routes you to a human and holds a town hall...the Democrat you helped elect...sends you to VOICEMAIL. Access isn't ideology...it's whether he thinks YOU'RE... his damn job.
"At least McCormick puts on a show" is brutal...PRECISELY because it's fair. A Republican run in 2028...would NOT be a prediction...just paperwork...catching UP to his votes.
-Jack
Hey, John. I’ll hold the door for ya.
I love it, Rae!
-Jack
I read this as a Pennsylvanian who voted for John. I am beyond ready for him to leave the democratic party and join the oligarchs. He has been more interested in hanging with our republican senator Dave McCormick on a mutual book tour than standing up for the rights of those of us who sent him to Washington. He is truly a DINO! I am totally disgusted and angered by his actions. The sooner he leaves the party the better. Don't care if the door hits him in the ass on the way out! Good riddance!
#HoldFast
Robert...from one who's watched him closely...to a Pennsylvanian who actually cast the vote...thank YOU.
The McCormick book tour is the part that should END the debate. You do NOT tour with the other team...while CLAIMING to fight for your own.
DINO fits. And...I'm glad you're not worried about the door hitting him on the way out; that's not OUR problem to solve. If it does...it does!
Good riddance is right.
#HoldFast
-Jack
Fetterman is duplicitous.
DG...duplicitous is the POLITE word for it. The honest version: he tells PENNSYLVANIA one thing...and FOX...ANOTHER...and...counts on the two audiences NEVER comparing notes.
Good call!
-Jack
When Fetterman went to Maralargo to bow before Trump early in Jan 2025- and then said his loyalty is to the President- no Matter who: Fetterman became a complete Quisling. And Fetterman definitely went straight downhill from there.
Why Weak kneed Schumer keeps Fetterman on Committees is out right disgusting!
Lillian...the trip is real; first Democrat to Mar-a-Lago, January 2025...AND... you don't even need the paraphrase, because what he said on the record is WORSE: "no one is my gatekeeper," Trump was "kind" and "cordial," a "singular political talent."
He didn't get cornered into that. He walked in there...OFFERING it. (I was pissed)
On Schumer keeping him on committees...I agree...that IS maddening. EVERY damn seat is a vote...and a vote...handed to a man who'd rather be on FOX... is a vote leadership CHOSE to gamble. I say again: a vote leadership CHOSE TO GAMBLE.
-Jack
The absolute red line on Israel must have a story behind it.
Pamela...there damn sure could be, no doubt.
But...here's what unsettles me MORE than a hidden story: what...just what...if there isn't one?
Think of it.
A man who bends on immigration...on nominees...on his own caucus...and the single thing he will NOT move on...is the one that requires moving against his OWN side.
The consistency...itself...is the tell. If there's a story...it could very well be...that this is the ONE belief...he decided to build a brand on.
If...it's something more concrete...than conviction...THAT part...tends to be public record...the kind of thing you follow, not the kind you have to imagine.
-Jack
You are more charitable the I am. I want my donations back!
I could not agree more. You hit every major part of what has been making my skin crawl for so long.
I’m one of the ones who elected him, who had his name on my front lawn. Let’s not forget a couple things:
1) The other option was Dr. Oz.
2) Not sure why Conor Lamb lost—he got my vote in the primary. I do think there was an element of the Democratic Party that wanted to live dangerously like the other guys did with their guy?
3) He has always gone his own way, argued with his own people, made his own rules. He can push *back* but not forward. Eg. He couldn’t afford to be mayor bc it only paid like $3,000/year. So his parents supported his family of 5 for how many years so he could be mayor? And he threw himself into that job. For every death by gun violence, he got the name or initials (I think name) tattooed on his person so he would never forget. Maybe that’s what he used the stipend for? He also didn’t want to live in the Lt. Gov.’s mansion, so he stayed in Braddock. I think I read that he opened up the mansion’s pool to the city’s kids. He didn’t work well with Gov. Tom Wolf and can’t stand Josh Shapiro. Surprise.
4) If/When he trades the D for an R, he will behave exactly the same way with different people. He will trash the very far right anti-Israel branch of the party and will trash the rest of them over the progressive ideas he does hold. It’s the only dance he knows.
5) I think he’s miserable, like extremely so. Based on his behavior, he 100% deserves to be. He’s making money trading stocks, getting endorphin rushes from his right wing bros and from shit-talking everyone else. He antagonizes people so they trash him and he justifies his rage and misery. That’s the dance.
6) He’s still voted over 90% Dem.
7) The single consistent value he has proven is simply, whatever the fuck he feels like doing or saying, that’s what he’ll do or say. Now, I can’t compare that with pre-stroke. He definitely could be suffering from neurological damage that hardened his worst impulses or just erased any measure of self-restraint.
8) Someone pointed out that we have not heard from his wife—she’s keeping a very low profile now. I’m not sure what that means, but it is not reassuring.
I had heard a rumor that he told someone that his wife was the democratic. I can't verify it so won't guarantee he said it.
90% is pretty high but he still voted wrong on some pivotal issues. I was pissed that he insisted the senate change the dress code to allow shorts, etc!
I hadn’t heard that about Gisele. Hmmm. That’s very interesting if true. He’s all the way to the left on abortion and transgender issues. I wonder if that occurred after he met her. From something I read long ago, I thought he came from liberal money. Hard to believe Conservative parents would subsidize his mayoralty of an impoverished, predominantly minority city. Hmmm.
She was undocumented as a kid—you’d think he would have a more generous view of immigrants.
The shorts and hoodies only bothered me in that the insistence that he shouldn’t have to conform to a professional dress code revealed his profound immaturity. I get that he’s more comfortable in his preferred attire. We all are. But even neurodivergent adults like me can adjust. Plus there is a sense of decorum that often accompanies a well-dressed person. I taught middle school for 33 years. Kids were better behaved at formal events partly bc they weren’t completely comfortable.
The senate had always been the chamber of formality and decorum. By design. That's why there are only 2 senators from each state. It was supposed to be the chamber of deliberation and civility. John just blew that away. Because he refused to bend to the tradition. Whatever it takes he's gone in 2028. #HoldFast
Of course! “The world’s greatest deliberative body” and I completely forgot! Which is kind of on point.