Sherrod Brown Pulling Out?

With proper attribution to
http://www.OhioHonestElections.org
and the Cleveland Plain Dealer

Does anyone know if Brown has rented a hall for an announcement? Is he in or is he out?

Note the poke at dailykos where there was a battle yesterday over Brown's lifted words.

"Wednesday, November 09, 2005

The Cleveland Plain Dealer editorial (Sherrod Brown's wife works at the paper) questions whether the Brown campaign is already out of gas before it even begins. We have heard that Sherrod Brown has rented a hall for an announcement. Will the announcement be that he is getting in, or that he is getting out? "It's been a bad few weeks for Rep. Sherrod Brown, the 13th District Democrat from Avon. First, his dilatory decision to enter the U.S. Senate race next year set him at loggerheads not only with Paul Hackett, the up-and-coming Cincinnati Democrat who had announced for that contest on Brown's word that he would not run, but as well with other Democratic officeholders who had pushed Hackett's candidacy."

"Then Brown, a seven-term congressman, mistakenly voted "no" on a base-realignment package, the passage of which meant many hundreds of jobs for Greater Clevelanders. It passed handily, but his explanation of support, later entered in the Congressional Record, won't make it any less attractive campaign fodder for his future opponents."

"Now it turns out a Brown staffer lifted from an Internet blog, without attribution, most of what was contained in a letter Brown fired off to the senator he hopes to unseat, Republican Mike DeWine. The scorching missive challenged DeWine's quick support of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito with words apparently first typed by blogger Nathan Newman, taking to task Alito's labor rulings."

"The word for that is plagiarism -- in newspapers a firing offense, in politics a cause of deep embarrassment. Just ask Sen. Joe Biden, the Delaware Democrat whose stump speech borrowing some paragraphs from a British politician's repertoire helped take him out of the 1988 presidential race."

"Brown's staff has fallen on the sword for him, claiming all responsibility for the paper placed on the boss's desk. And blogger Newman is incensed that The Plain Dealer even cares where the language came from."

"But we do -- and voters should, too. Here's why: We need to know who is speaking. Is it a responsible, elected public official, or an Internet dilettante? Or is theirs a seamless relationship that makes a vote for Brown a vote for nathannewman.org or the Daily Kos? In their minds, does it make a difference? In ours, it does."

"Brown, a bright, energetic liberal who has gone almost 15 years with this page's endorsements and without a serious challenge, has let his campaign skills get out of shape. This transgression shows a staff that's already intellectually gassed -- and the race has yet to begin. What will happen once the gun sounds?"