Fetterman accuses Democrats of socialism problem, gets branded lazy trust fund baby, tapes video for Republican convention

…(cont) Records sent me upstairs to the historical society, which turned out to be the wrong office too — they only pull old calendars Tuesdays and Thursdays, and it was neither — but the woman at that counter had a paper folded open on her blotter while she went to check a drawer, dated the fourth of September, and I read that one as well. A congressman from Fetterman's own state, his own party, had called him a "lazy trust fund baby" on social media that Thursday, and said Pennsylvania "deserves better." Is that the kind of line a senator's own party colleague uses over a disagreement about policy, or is it the kind of line that gets used about somebody the party has already decided it's done defending?

They sent me across to the courthouse annex next, a state office when I wanted federal, so that one was wrong on its face too — but the guard on the door had a Washington Examiner open on his podium, a piece from the ninth, a Wednesday, about a video the senator had recorded for the Republican Party's convention. Not the usual kind — this was a midterm convention, the paper called it unprecedented — and in it Fetterman called Senator David McCormick, the Republican who holds Pennsylvania's other seat, a "great friend," and said he'd work with President Trump. Does a senator record a friendly video for the other party's convention in the same stretch of days he's telling his own party it has a socialism problem?

I never did get my day of the week — I found it eventually, a fourth office, and it was a Friday, and by then I couldn't remember what I'd needed it for. What I had instead was three pages from three rooms I wasn't supposed to be standing in, and I laid them on the hood of my car, which needs a fan belt and does not enjoy being asked to sit through all this. Friday, the socialism problem. The following Thursday, the trust fund baby. The Wednesday after that, the video.

A man came down the courthouse steps behind me while I was gathering the pages back up, lanyard and all, and said excuse me, before you get in that car — he'd seen what I was reading. He had a fourth page in his coat pocket, also from the Washington Examiner, dated the third of September: Democrats, it said, were split on how to counter the Republican convention. That page is dated one day before the page calling Fetterman a lazy trust fund baby. On the third, the party was split on how to answer the convention. On the fourth, it had a line about one of its own senators. How many days apart is that?