Best and Worst Senators of the Past 50 Years: Ohio

[Mr. Smith]

And here's Ohio.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Glenn best/Taft worst

[Antonio the Sixth]

Metzenbaum/DeWine

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Brown/DeWine

Voinovich comes an extremely close second for best though.

[Mr. Smith]

Young/DeWine

[OSR stands with Israel]

Voinvich/Brown

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Metzenbaum/Taft

[Mr. Reactionary]

Best: Glenn
Worst: Metzanbaum

[This account no longer in use.]

Voinovich/DeWine

[Kingpoleon]

Saxbe/Taft

Glenn and Voinovich are great, too.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Best: Glenn
Worst: Metzanbaum

Strange mix. Did they disagree on much?

[Intell]

Vovonich/Tat Jr.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Best: Glenn
Worst: Metzanbaum

Strange mix. Did they disagree on much?

Glenn was a bit of a centrist (I wouldn't quite say a conservaDem, but definitely more moderate than you'd expect an OH Dem to be) and he was also one of the more decidedly non-partisan Senators, but in a good way, rather in an Evan Bayh way (i.e. he was able to work pretty well with most members of both parties with a few exceptions like Fred Thompson).  Additionally, Ed Harris' excellent (but kinda lionized) portrayal of Glenn in The Right Stuff sort of cemented in many Ohioan's minds that Glenn was a hero and a regular guy who'd gone on to do great things (i.e. "he's not really a politician"). 

Lest you think I'm exaggerating that movie's effect on his brand, it got to the point where Glenn's staff started offering free screenings of the movie to members of the press when he ran for President because they hoped it would influence public perception of him nationally the way it did in Ohio.  Ironically, it sounds like the book The Right Stuff is based on depicted Glenn as being an obnoxious, self-rightious, holier-than-though type rather than the heroic everyman we see in the movie

Metzanbaum was extremely different than Glenn and while they were members of the same party, stylistically they had about as much in common as fire and water.  While the latter was fairly centrist guy who could work with most members of the Senate, Metzanbaum was an arch-liberal, hyper-partisan street fighter.  Oddly enough while I agree with Metanzbaum's policy positions more than I do Glenn's (and am not as huge a fan of Glenn as most Ohioans...actually Glenn's kind of a bipartisan folk hero here now that he's been out of politics for a while ), I actually like Glenn a lot better than Metzanbaum. 

Metzanbaum could get really aggressive in a way that was often unproductive and when he decided to go on offense, he could get more than a little over the top (even for a political campaign).  For example, when he unsuccessfully ran against Glenn for the Democratic nomination for Senate, one of Metzanbaum's main attacks on Glenn (a man who had served in the military and was seen by Ohioans as something of a minor war hero) was claiming that Glenn had never done any "real" work his life (Glenn's response was to go to a VA hospital and challenge Metzanbaum to look the wounded solider's bodies and then tell their mothers that their sons had never had a real job).  A lot of folks (myself included) will probably never forgive him for that, tbh.  Metzanbaum also had a Schumer-level addiction to the media spotlight.

That all being said, Metzanbaum was a remarkably effective Senator, especially for someone who had basically made being extremely partisan a core part of their brand.  Additionally, whatever else you may say about him, he always stood up for his beliefs and championed a number of progressive causes (and he did it at a time when Ohio was a much more Republican state than it is today, despite the Democratic resurgence in the 80s where we controlled almost everything in the state until the early 90s).  In other words, I can easily see why someone (especially a conservative) would like Glenn, but hate Metzanbaum. 

For my part, I really like Sherrod Brown because I think he combines the best of both.  He's really liberal and has been a consistent champion of progressive causes, regardless of whether or not it is the "politically smart play" for a Democrat from Ohio.  At the same time, Brown doesn't really dabble in smears from what I've seen and is not a hyper-partisan hack (yes, he is obviously very active in Ohio Democratic politics even for a Senator, but he's also capable of working with Republicans on lower-profile issues – i.e. the only ones Senate Republicans are still willing to occasionally work with Democrats on – and from what I've read still has an excellent working relationship with Portman despite Brown's strong support for Strickland). 

Plus, I've met him a number of times and while you obviously never know with these people, I've always really gotten the impression that he's in politics for all of the right reasons in a way I haven't with many of the other politicians I've met (Mark Warner, Evan Bayh, Michael Coleman, Paula Brooks, Zach Scott, and Johnny Isakson in particular struck me as folks who were more or less just in it for themselves).  Honestly, I'm pretty surprised that even a conservative would consider Brown to be Ohio's worst Senator in the past 50 years.  Even if you don't want to pick DeWine because he's a Republican, surely there are worse Democrats in this poll, no?  To each his own, I suppose.

[Antonio the Sixth]

That's very interesting, thank you. For some reason I was under the impression that Glenn was fairly liberal too.

I don't regret my vote. Metzenbaum sounds like the kind of Senator I like, ill-advised attacks aside.

[Gass3268]

Brown/DeWine

[Mr. Reactionary]

Best: Glenn
Worst: Metzanbaum

Strange mix. Did they disagree on much?

Glenn was a bit of a centrist (I wouldn't quite say a conservaDem, but definitely more moderate than you'd expect an OH Dem to be) and he was also one of the more decidedly non-partisan Senators, but in a good way, rather in an Evan Bayh way (i.e. he was able to work pretty well with most members of both parties with a few exceptions like Fred Thompson).  Additionally, Ed Harris' excellent (but kinda lionized) portrayal of Glenn in The Right Stuff sort of cemented in many Ohioan's minds that Glenn was a hero and a regular guy who'd gone on to do great things (i.e. "he's not really a politician"). 

Lest you think I'm exaggerating that movie's effect on his brand, it got to the point where Glenn's staff started offering free screenings of the movie to members of the press when he ran for President because they hoped it would influence public perception of him nationally the way it did in Ohio.  Ironically, it sounds like the book The Right Stuff is based on depicted Glenn as being an obnoxious, self-rightious, holier-than-though type rather than the heroic everyman we see in the movie

Metzanbaum was extremely different than Glenn and while they were members of the same party, stylistically they had about as much in common as fire and water.  While the latter was fairly centrist guy who could work with most members of the Senate, Metzanbaum was an arch-liberal, hyper-partisan street fighter.  Oddly enough while I agree with Metanzbaum's policy positions more than I do Glenn's (and am not as huge a fan of Glenn as most Ohioans...actually Glenn's kind of a bipartisan folk hero here now that he's been out of politics for a while ), I actually like Glenn a lot better than Metzanbaum. 

Metzanbaum could get really aggressive in a way that was often unproductive and when he decided to go on offense, he could get more than a little over the top (even for a political campaign).  For example, when he unsuccessfully ran against Glenn for the Democratic nomination for Senate, one of Metzanbaum's main attacks on Glenn (a man who had served in the military and was seen by Ohioans as something of a minor war hero) was claiming that Glenn had never done any "real" work his life (Glenn's response was to go to a VA hospital and challenge Metzanbaum to look the wounded solider's bodies and then tell their mothers that their sons had never had a real job).  A lot of folks (myself included) will probably never forgive him for that, tbh.  Metzanbaum also had a Schumer-level addiction to the media spotlight.

That all being said, Metzanbaum was a remarkably effective Senator, especially for someone who had basically made being extremely partisan a core part of their brand.  Additionally, whatever else you may say about him, he always stood up for his beliefs and championed a number of progressive causes (and he did it at a time when Ohio was a much more Republican state than it is today, despite the Democratic resurgence in the 80s where we controlled almost everything in the state until the early 90s).  In other words, I can easily see why someone (especially a conservative) would like Glenn, but hate Metzanbaum. 

This is a really spot on explanation. I also like Glenn because my dad wrote him in for President in 1984 and dislike Metzanbaum because he was very anti-gun.

[Anti-Bothsidesism]

I'm not voting for the worst because Voinovich just died recently. (RIP FF)

[Mr. Smith]

1 hour left, 3 way tie for worst.

[Mr. Smith]

Closed

Best: Sherrod Brown (38.4%)
Worst: Mike DeWine (26.3%)

[Antonio the Sixth]

Glad of how it turned out, though it would have been kinda hilarious to have the same person win for best AND worst.