Another strong stand from one of the jewels in the "Real Democrat" coalition, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, who's taken a vigorous stand against the atrocious, anti-worker, anti-environment, corporate cronyism-promoting Trans-Pacific Partnership. From the Cleveland Plain-Dealer:
Sen. Sherrod Brown blocks trade nominee to protest TPP secrecy
"So Brown issued an ultimatum to the White House: Allow aides with security clearance to review the TPP drafts on their own now, without hand-holding from their bosses, or else the nomination of Marisa Lago as deputy U.S. trade representative won't get through. Lago's position holds the rank of ambassador."
What's appalling is how some combination of the Obama Administration's arrogance, incompetence, disregard for the party base and true-Blue Senators or other factors had led to this thoroughly humiliating development for Obama:
"But in this case, Brown intends to be public. He said he notified the White House of his intentions last week and gave it until noon today make the text fully accessible to those with proper security clearances. Noon passed without any response, Brown's office said."
Brown himself seems to be smelling something fishy, puzzled at how the Obama Administration could be so foolish or dismissive to fail even to address Brown's concerns, leading to the block of Lago's nomination-- AFAIK the first time a sitting Senator has issued a hold against a nominee by a president from the same party:
'"The administration would rather sacrifice a nominee for a key post than improve transparency of the largest trade agreement ever negotiated," Brown said in a statement. '
More commentary and some analysis below the doily.