Which democratic party?

• Author: Conniff, Ruth
• Position: Sherrod Brown, Mike DeWine

Sherrod Brown, the progressive Democrat running against incumbent Republican Senator Mike DeWine of Ohio, has become a lightning rod in the contentious 2006 midterm elections. Brown's outspoken opposition to the Iraq War, his votes against the free trade agreements NAFTA and CAFTA, and his critique of corporations' corrupting influence on government have made him a hero to a base that wants to see a more robust Democratic opposition to the Bush Administration--and an object of derision for Washington poohbahs. David Broder recently wrote a column warning of a battle between sensible centrists and "vituperative, foul-mouthed bloggers on the left" and their heroes--Ned Lamont in Connecticut and Brown. Broder failed to note that leftwing bloggers vehemently opposed Brown in the primary against their favorite candidate, Iraq veteran Paul Hackett. Unrestrained, Broder called Brown "a loud advocate of protectionist policies that offer a false hope of solving our trade and job problems." He praised DeWine, along with Joe Lieberman, as an "an ally ... in forming a center for the Senate." Never mind that DeWine's brand of "centrism" is hard to separate from Bush Administration policy. He has consistently supported the White House on everything from its Iraq War policy (which Broder decries) to tax cuts to his refusal to sign on to a bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report outlining the Administration's intelligence failures.

Broder's ire, according to leftwing blogger and political activist David Sirota, shows how media establishment types and defenders of the status quo are "freaking out" because a majority of Americans are not forming their opinions according to the opinion-makers' predictions. Change is in the air, and the people who have been holding on to power in Washington are worried.

Ohio may be make-or-break in this increasingly tight election year. Many national themes resonate here: political corruption and influence peddling, economic decline, election fraud, and voter dissatisfaction with the Republican-controlled government.

As Brown arrived to give a speech at the University of Akron on September 22, the day after Broder's column came out, it was a pivotal moment in the campaign. Polls were shifting. The National Journal had just moved Brown up in its candidate rankings. "Is John Edwards the Democratic nominee or is Sherrod Brown?" the magazine wrote, saying he'd turned his "liberal" record into a poll-topping "populist"...