Fetterman Takes Time Out Of Busy Schedule Sucking To Plug New Book
It's book review day!
Sen. John Fetterman from Pennsylvania announced last week that he’s written a new book that’s available for pre-order. “In my career, I’ve picked the battles that matter,” he boasted on social media. “This story started by a single vote 20 years ago. My public service path, the stroke, depression — UNFETTERED lays it out and pays it forward for anyone dealing with mental health challenges.”
The title of this book, like its author, is terrible: Unfettered sounds like the title of some cheesy late 1980s TV sitcom featuring a standup comic: “You loved John Fetterman on Leno! This fall, on NBC, he’s Unfettered!” I could imagine this show using Bill Medley’s theme song from Just Ten Of Us (yes, that’s Fantastic Four: First Steps director Matt Shakman as the son.)
Come to think of it, Fetterman’s entire persona feels like what you’d see on a standup comedy stage: He’s the grouchy contrarian in a hoodie and sweat pants but it’s all an act. He’s actually Ivy League-educated and grew up in the suburbs. Of course, a successful comic shows up for his standup dates. Fetterman doesn’t bother doing his real job.
The Philadelphia Inquirer slammed Fetterman’s shoddy performance in a June editorial:
“He has missed more votes than nearly every other senator in the past two years. He regularly skips committee hearings, cancels meetings, avoids the daily caucus lunches with colleagues, and rarely goes on the Senate floor.
Fetterman, a first-term Democrat, is also following the path of Republican elected officials by not holding town halls with constituents for fear of being heckled.”
Fetterman responded to this criticism with his usual eloquence: “The more kinds of — left kind of media continues to have these kinds of an attack,” Fetterman told Fox News’ Shannon Bream. “And it’s just part of a smear and that’s just not … it’s just not accurate. And we’ve moved on and why we’re still having this conversation — why at this point?”
We are still having this conversation because Fetterman is an elected official who has shown his constituents, particularly the ones who elected him, the back of his hand. The same week of the op-ed, Fetterman whined that he was stuck in D.C. while his family was at the beach. (Watch below.)
“Oh my God, I just want to go home,” Fetterman said out loud. “I've already missed our entire trip to to the beach. There’s no drama that we know the votes are going to go. And I don't think it's really helpful to put people here till some ungodly hour.”
The bad guys might have won in the end, but fighting against them was still important. It’s like Fetterman has never seen an episode of Angel. There was also a clear political benefit to forcing Republicans to pass their bloated, hideous bill in broad daylight. But the beach was calling Fetterman.
The Philadelphia Inquirer endorsed Fetterman in 2022, calling him the “best choice to represent Pennsylvania’s priorities in the U.S. Senate.” He’s now dismissing them with his typical coherence as “left kind of media.” He’s a lousy employee who’s on a performance improvement plan and when his next review comes up, he tells his employers, “Well, I’ve written a book while I was on the clock. Can I get a blurb?”
I’m obviously not buying this book, nor should you. Although, Unfettered would be a good tag line for Conor Lamb’s primary campaign against the part-time senator.
Don’t buy this book, either
Former Sen. Joe Manchin has his own memoir coming out: Dead Center: In Defense Of Common Sense. Manchin’s self-serving centrism helped send almost 4 million children into poverty when he voted against extending the child tax credit. He thought their parents would use the money on drugs, which is more of a child services issue than a “let’s starve children” solution.
Billed as a “a memoir — and a manifesto — like no other, by a true maverick in American politics,” Dead Center celebrates Manchin’s defiant break from the extremism of “both sides.” Of course, his embrace of the filibuster and his desperate appeals for “bipartisanship” only enabled right-wing extremism. It’s telling that former Tea Party Republican Joe Walsh actually understands the true difference between the parties — “The Democratic Party is wrong on some issues,” Walsh said. “The Republican Party is a threat to democracy & the rule of law.” This isn’t complicated. Manchin’s refusal to pick a side was how he alway kept picking the wrong one.
Manchin’s publishers insist that Dead Center “combines eyebrow-raising, never-before-told stories from inside the Senate and the White House with insights into how government does — or doesn’t — work.” I get the sense he’s going to drag Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, who made every effort to work with him as the unofficial Senate God King Emperor.
Dead Center sounds like the title of a 1990s “tough guy” series starring Chuck Norris: “This former Texas Ranger is armed and ready to fire some common sense at D.C. Dead Center, coming this fall on CBS!”
Buy this one instead …
Former Vice President Kamala Harris announced last week that she’s not running for governor of California. However, she is releasing her own account of the 2024 presidential campaign: 107 Days. (I would’ve suggested the subtitle “Should’ve Been 562, Thanks A Lot Joe!) She said in a video announcement, “I believe there is value in sharing what I saw, what I learned and what I know it will take to move forward. In writing this book, one truth kept coming back to me: Sometimes the fight takes a while.”
I know I’ve gotten spoiled by those Zohran Mamdani videos, but did Harris’s people really have her just hold the book and speak into the camera for the entire announcement in one, unbroken shot?
I don’t begrudge Harris for writing a book. She needs to earn money, and unlike Fetterman, she actually did her job while in office. It’s fair that Harris gets to tell her version of the campaign, although we probably won’t get very much dirt. In Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s Original Sin, they describe how pissed Harris was when Biden actually put on a Trump 2024 cap at an event, which the Trump campaign seized on immediately. “What is he doing?” Harris asked her advisers. “This is completely unhelpful. And so unnecessary.”
I doubt 107 Days will include much about that particular day. Hillary Clinton let readers know what she really thought about Bernie Sanders in What Happened? and while that was hardly a surprise, it was still a fun read.
However, I will probably at least read Harris’s book, even if I already know the ending and it sucks. I think 107 Days sounds like a disaster movie, because that’s how it all played out.
Kyrsten Sinema in a hoodie.
I wonder about the marketability of a book written by either John Fetterman or Joe Manchin. Who really even remembers who Joe Manchin is/was at this point? And of those who do, how many would want to read his memoir? I understand that certain publishers arrange for bulk book sales to boost their numbers, but really, what’s the point?
Fetterman I guess still thinks he has a “Mavericks” Fan Club out there, but again, even if he does, how many of them buy and read books? OTOH, Kamala has the bona fides to warrant keen interest in her story. And like with Hillary post-2016, I’m eager to read all about it, because she, unlike these two self-serving, do-nothing white guys, was right there at the top of the fight.