Is There More to the Fetterman Story?

So the big recent exposé on Sen. John Fetterman in New York Magazine has many Republicans trying to excuse his erratic behavior by claiming his Senate staff “dimed” him out because of his evolution into a hard-core supporter of Israel.

That alone does not come close to passing the smell test.

It’s clear Fetterman’s staff is at war with their boss, and it’s impossible for a senator to serve our large and diverse state with that distraction at hand. Perhaps it was their way of pushing the senator to return into some form of treatment?

Either way, having our senior U.S. Senator’s office hamstrung like this is not a good thing for Pennsylvania.

But first, some background.

The new phrase we’re all learning now, since we’re living in it, is the “attention economy.” As the Berkeley Economic Review noted: “The term ‘attention economy’ was coined by psychologist, economist, and Nobel Laureate Herbert A. Simon, who posited that attention was the ‘bottleneck of human thought’ that limits both what we can perceive in stimulating environments and what we can do. Our attention has always been limited, valuable, and scarce … But what distinguishes the present day is that technological advances have made an overwhelming amount of information available, strategically aimed at capturing our attention. As for the general public, it has never been easier to garner such personal levels of attention though means like social media.”

President Trump excels at dominating the country’s political attention economy. Whether that’s good for him and/or the country remains an open question – even as we recently passed the 100-day mark of his second term.

Is there any Democrat around today who even comes close to Trump’s dominance in the attention economy? To me, there’s just one: John Fetterman. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are a distant second.

Fetterman is a walking “look at me” sign – given the contrast between his appearance and his diction and his education pedigree. Plus, he lives poor but has a multi-million trust fund at his disposal.

Who had access to world class health care but ignored his doctors for five years and then lied to his boss, then Gov. Tom Wolf, about it.

Who later suffered a bad stroke and then lied to the state about it and his recovery as he campaigned for higher office while, of course, serving as the state’s lieutenant governor.

A true renaissance Yinzer … who of course, grew up in south-central Pennsylvania’s York.

So, as he recently played footsie for a time with Trump and his administration – it captivated the political media … and our attention.

In the end, he met with Trump in Florida before the swearing in, met with many of his cabinet designees, and voted for about half of them, including Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to a CBS News round up on Trump Cabinet confirmation votes.

Against this backdrop, Fetterman continued to excel at his true love – social media shit-posting.

He had indeed angered mainstream progressive Democrats over his dalliance with Trump and increasingly, his support for Israel – and opposition to PLO/Hamas – in which he sounded more like a Republican.

Many in-state Democrats are counting the days until someone, anyone, takes him down in the 2028 primary, still three-plus years away. Whether that could happen is another open question, as is: who would Republicans rather try to defeat in ‘28 – Fetterman or a Democrat who had just defeated him in their primary?

Against this backdrop came that New York magazine story, which paints a picture of an isolated senator: “Fetterman’s staffers, his truest believers, now question his fitness to be a senator. They worry he may present a danger to the Democratic Party and maybe even to himself.”

Of course, this will raise all sorts of alarm bells, especially given the senator’s previous and ongoing mental and physical health struggles.

After digesting the story, many Pennsylvania Democrats went “a-ha!,” agreed with their findings, and said or thought the senator needed some mental health help. Meanwhile, many Republicans, both in and out of the state, dismissed the article as just a hit piece, brought on by his pro-Israel shift.

They took it as an opportunity to blast the senator’s staff for turning on him, and decided there was no there there, and it was just all sour grapes because of his vocal support for Israel.

Is real life ever that neat?

It’s difficult to get through New York magazine’s entire report and think it’s just about disgruntled staffers acting out.

And where is Fetterman’s wife, who has a new book coming out in early July titled: Radical Tenderness – The Value of Vulnerability in an Often Unkind World.

In a normal “playing defense” situation like this, the staff would bring out the spouse to vouch for the elected. We’ve seen it a million times.

A complicating factor: there are several vignettes in the report about the Fettermans having arguments – in-person and on the phone – relating to the situation in Israel and Gaza.

There had been no response from Team Fetterman on this until late Tuesday afternoon when the senator himself echoed the hit piece narrative.

Then over the weekend a story – with video – dropped about Fetterman apparently refusing to fasten his seat belt on a flight to Pittsburgh back in February. Reports out this week note Fetterman's bizarre actions and remarks at a meeting with local labor leaders.

So, there’s something going on here, and it’s not just about an issue or position that Fetterman now espouses. Let’s hope Fetterman gets the help he needs – especially since it clearly helped him earlier.