Just a quick post to relate something that just happened to me.

My Caller ID showed an incoming call from DC. 202-618-6970. I thought it was probably my tea party nutjob Congressman, Jim Renassi. Actually, it was from an organization calling itself the "Constitutional Responsibility Committee." Now I'm thinking, hmm, this could go either way. I don't know if this was a professional phonebanker or not. She sounded a little older, maybe just a little hesitant.

Then the caller said "With the recent opening on the Supreme Court..." and I knew where this was going.

"... some Senators have said they will not perform their Constitutionally-mandated function to evaluate ANY nominee the President puts forward.

"The President recently nominated Judge Merrick Garland, a highly respected judge who has received many accolades over his long career as judge of the Federal Appellate Court.

"Do you think Senators should do their job and hold hearings on the President's nominee?"

Well, naturally, I said hell yes. Which I think surprised her a little bit.

She recovered and asked if she could connect me to Senator Rob Portman's office so I could ask him to push for hearings for Judge Garland. When I agreed, she gave me a few tips: be respectful, give your full name and the town in Ohio where you live, and to state that I want hearings on Judge Garland's nomination. She also offered to give me the direct number in case the call got disconnected.

I'm pretty good at navigating the intertubes and figured I could look it up if need be, so I said no, let's do this. A second later, I heard the outgoing message from Senator Portman's office - at least, the start of it. It cut off after a few seconds, and then the call did indeed get disconnected.

Honestly, I don't have a clue what this means. Is some pressure group harassing Republican Senators in swing states that are up for re-election? Who was behind it - the Strickland campaign? DSCC? DNC? Labor? OFA? I have no idea.

But the fact that the outgoing message didn't even complete gives me hope that a crap-ton of calls are going to Portman's office. Smarmy asshole deserves every one of 'em. The Constitution says I'm supposed to have TWO senators - not one and proxy out the other to whatever McConnell says to do.

On the other hand, I am concerned about the outcome of this election. Other than politi-geeks like me (OK, like us) I don't know many Ohioans who are getting exercised about the Senate sitting on its hands. Ted Strickland seems like a good guy. I thought he was a good governor. In my opinion he was saddled unfairly with the job losses in the state due to the Bush economic meltdown. I think he'd be an OK senator, along the lines of John Glenn rather than Howard Metzenbaum or his modern day avatar, Sherrod Brown. But I don't think he brings enough excitement to drive people to the polls, and he's going to need big turnout if he hopes to unseat Portman. And trying to stir people up over a vacant chair on the Supreme Court doesn't strike me as generating that kind of enthusiasm, either.

And then it hit me: We need Bernie to be the nominee if we're going to flip the Senate.