FETTERMAN ISN'T DOING HIS JOB, BUT HE'S DOING EVERYTHING HIS REPUBLICAN FANS THINK A POLITICIAN SHOULD DO

This Wall Street Journal story (free to read here) won't hurt John Fetterman at all in the eyes of his current fanbase:

... behind closed doors, the first-term senator shows little interest in doing the job beyond cultivating relationships with conservative media figures and advocating for Israel, according to interviews with more than a dozen former staffers and lawmakers, as well as text messages and other internal records.

For example?

One morning in June, three paralyzed military veterans in wheelchairs from rural Pennsylvania arrived at the office of Sen. John Fetterman for a long-awaited meeting to discuss legislation that would improve their care.

Fetterman’s staff greeted them with bad news: The Pennsylvania Democrat had to cancel. He’d told his staff he may have eaten something bad and wasn’t feeling well, according to people familiar with the matter.

Less than an hour after his staffers met with the veterans in his place, Fetterman walked into his office, showing no signs of illness. He had an appointment he didn’t want to miss, he told staff: an interview on Fox News to discuss Israel and the war in Iran.

Another example?

Last September, when an aide told Fetterman that officials with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, known as CHOP, wanted to meet because they were worried about Medicaid cuts, he was dismissive.

Also:

In April 2025, veteran Pennsylvania state lawmaker Anthony Hardy Williams brought a busload of constituents to Washington from Eastwick, a poorer, flood-prone neighborhood in Philadelphia, to meet with their representatives in Congress and discuss Trump administration cuts to a grant program that had helped the area.

Fetterman was the only one who refused to meet with them, Williams said in an interview. At one point, they saw Fetterman walking the halls and yelled, but he didn’t acknowledge them, according to Williams.

Fetterman isn't just failing to stay in touch with his constituents:

Last May, several media reports highlighted Fetterman’s paltry attendance record at Senate hearings.... At that point, records transcripts show, Fetterman had skipped 11 of the 12 full hearings that year of his assigned committees—Homeland Security, Commerce and Agriculture.

Nevertheless, Republicans in his state love him:

In Pennsylvania, Fetterman’s shifting politics and public stances have led to a once unthinkable outcome in recent polling by the New York Times: He is more popular among Republican voters than the state’s Republican senator, Dave McCormick.

In that poll, Fetterman's favorable rating among Pennsylvania Republicans is 73%.

And why not? Sure, Fetterman seems to do nothing all day except go on cable news programs and bash Democrats, while burnishing his Israel-right-or-wrong credentials. He doesn't do the work. He just talks trash. A vile recent example:

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) is raising the stakes for Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Abdul el Sayed, offering the Senate hopeful up to $100,000 if he hosts a rally about 9/11.

“I’m offering $50,000 for you to do a rally with Hasan Piker on 9/11, the anniversary, and you can all explain to people why America deserved that 25 years ago,” Fetterman said on Fox News’s America’s Newsroom on Wednesday.

But that's everything the hardcore Republican base wants from politicians. They don't like government. They don't expect politicians to do anything. All they want their pols to do is make liberals howl. They vote based on who will make their enemies the angriest and hurt them the most.

Polls show that the GOP's soft supporters are abandoning the party, but the hardcore base is still loyal because Donald Trump, in particular, still makes Democrats furious. Fetterman does the same thing. And that's really all his Republicans fans ask.