Freecell’s not going to play itself.
Politico: GOP is trying to woo Fetterman
I hope Fetterman resigns, allowing Gov. Shapiro to appoint a replacement who will have the advantage of incumbency in November 2026. But Fetterman changing parties is more likely.
Lately, Republicans seem to be better at attracting party changers than Democrats.
Why would someone whose major concerns during his campaign and his term are increasing government funding for health care, protecting abortion rights, and championing LGBTQ rights become a Republican? Because he has the same position on Israel as Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi? Fetterman doesn’t live on the Internet where the only thing that matters is lining up with what the furthest 10% of the left thinks about something that is the 27th priority for the majority of voters.
Fetterman’s opinion on issues, and his voting record, are NOT why I, and a lot of other people, think he needs to step aside. I should clarify that. It’s him doing things like carelessly walking into traffic that has me thinking that he really cannot, and should not, do this job.
If those continue to be his major concerns, he won’t change parties.
But what if his major concern becomes winning reelection in 2028?
In either party, Fetterman would be primaried and might lose. But I think Republican primary voters are more forgiving when it comes to the candidate having a history with the other party. They may also care less about competency. It may depend on whether Fetterman sees it the same way.
Could Trump forgive Fetterman for the above mention of Hunter Biden? Probably yes. I predict that if Fetterman runs as a Republican, he will get Trump’s endorsement, even if he didn’t reverse himself on abortion.
Are Republican primary voters forgiving of someone who is to the left of Obama on most issues, identical to him on Israel, and also likes guns? Because that’s who Fetterman is. I guess if he completely changes his mind on literally everything besides guns he would be an appealing candidate to Republicans, much like how if my grandma had wheels she’d be a wagon.
Listen. I’ve had severe psychiatric problems. There’s stigmatizing mental illness and then there’s genuinely questioning whether someone is up to doing their job.
This NBC news article gives me pause.
Of senators who served the entirety of the 118th Congress, only Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and then-Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, missed more votes than Fetterman — and both were either running for president or on Trump’s ticket as his running mate. Of course, many of those missed votes included the six-week stretch when Fetterman was hospitalized.
…In just this year alone, Fetterman skipped 25 of the 26 hearings or business meetings the Senate Commerce Committee held, with the first hearing he attended being on Thursday, after the New York magazine article was published.
He missed all nine of the hearings and business meetings the Senate Homeland Security Committee has held this year, and skipped all 11 times the Senate Agriculture Committee has met in 2025.
Among the meetings he missed were confirmation hearings for key Trump nominees like Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.
Fetterman has also voted by proxy — meaning the ranking member of the committee announced his vote because he was absent — for every vote all three committees have taken this year on pieces of legislation, nominations or organizing resolutions.
Whatever the reason, this man does not appear to be doing his job.
I didn’t reread it the day I posted that. I didn’t see a need to go through a bunch of unnamed sources again. In that case I had the mistaken impression that there was some info from a named doctor. You have just pointed out it’s still and unconfirmed source. We have no idea if such a letter was written, sent, or seen by any doctor.
It’s all too cute, unnamed sources and unconfirmable statements. The media will be all over this so far baseless rumor, if there’s something to it we’ll find out before long, but as of yet it’s all bullshit.
Either way, that seat will be on the ballot in 2028. Even if Fetterman resigns and an appointed senator / one who wins a special election in 2026 is in that seat, that person would have to run again in 2028. Yes, that means some other Democrat would be the incumbent, but I’m not sure that really gives much of an advantage, if any, these days.
Dude, you are clearly not reading the thread. The letter was sent by his former chief of staff, Adam Jentleson, who publicly stands by its contents. (The doctor it was sent to was Dr. David Williamson, although that’s not really relevant since obviously he hasn’t commented).
The NBC news article Spice Weasel linked to in the post above yours is
based on interviews with 18 former Fetterman staffers, Pennsylvania officials and congressional lawmakers and staffers
And it’s been demonstrated that he’s not doing his job based on public records. Or do you think the official reports of attendance at Senate committee meetings and roll call votes have been altered by tEh cOnsPirAcy?
On to today’s breaking news, where an article in The Hill cites three Democratic Senators expressing concern about Fetterman’s mental health and saying that Senate Democrats are having frequent conversations about how to help him (yes, they’re unnamed, so if you want to think a Hill reporter would just make that up, go for it).
For named sources, Sen. Dick Durbin, Senate Democratic whip, says that Fetterman "has largely withdrawn from casual interactions with Democratic colleagues, and that due to his frequent absences, Durbin "hasn’t developed a relationship with him, which I usually do.
Also,
Former Pennsylvania Rep. Ron Klink (D) said Fetterman’s office appears to be suffering from a high rate of staff turnover and voiced his own frustration over not getting calls back when he asked for Fetterman’s help on certain issues, such as health care topics and the cleanup of toxic coal ash in Pennsylvania.
I hadn’t been aware that Fetterman actually isn’t allowed on the Senate floor except during votes, because he refuses to comply with the dress code that the Senate unanimously put in to place specifically to stop him from showing up in cargo shorts. So he values his cargo shorts more than the opportunity to interact with his colleagues? (FTR I think the Senate was being stupid and petty to pass a dress code, but it seems like a very odd choice of a hill to die on)
The fact that he voted for a dress code he didn’t intend to follow indicates a problem.
IMO Fetterman is indeed well down the road to mental incapacity.
But one hell of a lot of Congressmen in every Congress vote for things they have no intention of abiding by themselves. So I hardly think that’s any reliable indicator of incapacity.
The Hill’s top story today:
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5293058-democrats-concerns-over-fetterman-behavior/
Nuggets from the link:
“Every time I see him, I’m worried about him,” said a Democratic senator who requested anonymity.
Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.) said Fetterman has largely withdrawn from casual interactions with Democratic colleagues.
A breaking point between Fetterman and his Democratic colleagues came in September 2023, when the Senate voted unanimously to establish a formal dress code for the floor in direct response to Fetterman’s habit of wearing a baggy shirt and shorts — or a hoodie and shorts — to work.
So far this year, he’s missed more votes than any other senator. According to GovTrack.us, he’s missed 174 of 920 roll call votes, or about 19 percent.
Shaheen, the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, approached Fetterman about opposing a House-passed bill sponsored by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) to sanction to the International Criminal Court after it issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
During the conversation about the bill, Fetterman expressed his anger about not being given a seat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Sources familiar with the interaction found Fetterman’s response odd because Shaheen, as the ranking member, doesn’t determine committee assignments — the Senate Democratic leader does.
It seems to me like he’s really struggling with understanding the basics of his job.
Well, the Hill article says “unanimously”, so I assume he must have abstained. He presumably wouldn’t have voted for it, and if he’d voted against it, it wouldn’t have been unanimous.
All these allegations of mental incompetence would be a lot more effective if they didn’t keep coming out and admitting that they think he’s crazy because of his stance on Israel.
Like, I understand that’s why they want to get rid of him, but just shut up about it until he’s gone, or you’re giving away the game.
That might be a wee bit too cynical.
If the guy is indeed a drooler, the sooner they get an appointed replacement in there, the sooner that person starts building all the advantages of incumbency for themselves come the next election. Which will be real important to defeat whatever slavering MAGAturd the other side puts up in that hotly contested election.
The majority of the Senate currently is not fit to serve in my opinion. I hardly see Fetterman as a problem for the country based on the information that can be confirmed.
Dude, you clearly can’t find a credible source of information. Why is this Chief of Staff no longer working for him? What is his motivation for speaking out? You aren’t a journalist, you’re not talking to these sources. Politicians and reporters don’t aren’t credible based solely on their own unconfirmed statements. You are jumping to a conclusion based on rumor and innuendo. Frankly I think you’ll have something to rely on before long, just qualify your conclusions better until then.
The strength of my argument (but not Thing.Fish’s) turns on this question. US Senate re-election rates remain high, though not as astronomical as US House re-election rates. They might be attenuated for someone who has only served for 2 years, but the underlying data suggests a substantial advantage to incumbency.
This doesn’t settle the matter of course, but it does strongly suggest the plausibility of my argument.
The y-axis is weird: I suspect the data got mangled. Underlying source:
In our hyperpolarized era, split voting is increasingly rare. So my guess would be that in 2028, Pennsylvania will elect a Senator of the party it gives its electoral votes to, and that the quality of the Presidential candidate will matter much more than the quality of the Senate candidate.
I think the danger for the Democrats here is not so much that that particular Senate seat might be endangered, but that the Party leadership just made itself look ridiculous by trying to cover up an incumbent’s cognitive impairment. Another scandal like that could seriously reinforce the notion that our leaders aren’t to be trusted. (To be clear, this is a developing story and I’m not saying that the Party is currently being overly defensive of Fetterman)