Democrats didn’t really have too much of a problem when then-Lt. Gov. John Fetterman dropped out view after a stroke incapacitated him just before the 2022 Senate primary in Pennsylvania.

After a disastrous debate performance proved that the damage was more than just temporary, they still didn’t abandon him, even though it was unclear if he was going to recover.

However, there’s only so far that a lefty will let you go. According to an Associated Press article published Friday, that boundary was crossed when now-Sen. Fetterman began having opinions of his own — a bridge too far for the left.

The headline says it all: “Democrats are trying to figure out what to do about John Fetterman. One of them is stepping up.” That “one” is former Rep. Conor Lamb — originally thought to be the conservative Democratic candidate when Fetterman ran for the upper chamber in 2022.

Lamb, who was from a district that went bigly to President Donald Trump in all three of his campaigns, is, according to the AP, “crisscrossing Pennsylvania and social media, looking and sounding like he’s preparing to challenge Fetterman again.”

Fetterman has more than three years left in his term and he’s doing the job Pennsylvanians elected him to do, for better or for ill. Lamb, who is out of a job, is busy filling the void with groups who are upset at the fact that the burly Zangief lookalike has adopted common-sense positions.

“At town hall after town hall across Pennsylvania, Democrats and allied progressive groups aren’t hearing from Fetterman in person — or Republicans who control Washington, for that matter,” the AP reported. “But they are hearing from Lamb, a living reminder of the Democrat they could have elected instead of Fetterman. The former congressman has emerged as an in-demand town hall headliner, sometimes as a stand-in for Fetterman — who just might bash Fetterman.”

The reason that Lamb is getting any attention for his opportunistic volte-face on the matter — Fetterman is basically getting raked over the coals for being a watered-down version of the senator that Lamb had promised to be, more or less — is that he now fits neatly into the Democrats’ “struggle to figure out what to do about Fetterman, who is under fire from rank-and-file Democrats for being willing to cooperate with Trump and criticizing how Democrats have protested him,” according to the AP.

Normally, the answer would be to put up with him until the next election cycle. If he were a Republican — like Rep. Thomas Massie, the doctrinaire libertarian who the left has come to love because his votes against Trump have cost the Republicans in a House where they have a razor-thin margin — the headline for any primary challenge would read something like “GOP pounces on bipartisan legislator” or something to that effect.

And while Fetterman’s support for the state of Israel and America-first labor policies have put him at odds with many of the progressive laptop warrior class already, sentiments like these have really ratcheted up the loathing of the first-term senator:

I unapologetically stand for free speech, peaceful demonstrations, and immigration—but this is not that.

This is anarchy and true chaos.

My party loses the moral high ground when we refuse to condemn setting cars on fire, destroying buildings, and assaulting law enforcement. pic.twitter.com/pPYbvP6xR0

— U.S. Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) June 10, 2025

As I’ve long maintained, this was the correct move by @POTUS.

Iran is the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism and cannot have nuclear capabilities.

I’m grateful for and salute the finest military in the world. ???????? pic.twitter.com/YZ0pIaunff

— U.S. Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) June 22, 2025

It’s been enough that, last month, New York Magazine bravely reported that Democrats thought that Fetterman was off his rocker because — among other things — he was eating more junk food than he should have.

Now, am I an expert on Fetterman’s mental state? Aside from the fact that he’s sought treatment for depression before, I am not, although it’s worth noting that the Democrats had no problem voting for this version of Fetterman in November of 2022:

Fetterman opens the debate:

“Hi. Good night everybody.” pic.twitter.com/mg0X3Iwf5D

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 26, 2022

Fetterman to Oz: “He’s never met an oil company he doesn’t swipe right about.” pic.twitter.com/AW0UQ6nxRQ

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 26, 2022

Fetterman: “We all have to make sure that everyone that works is able to that’s the most American bargain that you work full time you should be able to live in dignity as well true.” pic.twitter.com/L3f4spBIiz

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 26, 2022

He’s markedly more coherent than this now. What’s changed? Simple: He’s not a tool of the Democratic machine. Lamb, who previously tried to get elected by putting himself out as that kind of independent, is now trying to get himself elected in 2028 by promising to be just that kind of tool.

While Lamb won’t explicitly criticize Fetterman — a good way to get himself branded an opportunist instead of getting glowing write-ups by the AP — he will implicitly do so, telling a crowd that he hears that Fetterman stands up to Democrats more than he stands up to Trump.

“[T]hat is, I think, what’s driving the frustration more than any one particular issue,” Lamb said.

“When I watch the person who beat me give up on every important issue that he campaigned on … the more I reasoned that the point of all of this in the first place is advocacy for what’s right and wrong,” Lamb added.

“And advocacy for not just a particular party to win, but for the type of country where it matters if, when you stand up, you tell the truth.”

This, I will remind you again, is from a guy who campaigned on being the type of senator John Fetterman has become, and is now chiding him for apparently giving up on the issues he campaigned against as a matter of “right and wrong.”

And it’s working, because apparently this conjuring trick does with Democrats. Take, for instance, Leah Greenberg, the founder of progressive nonprofit Indivisible, who turned the flagship “No Kings” rally in Philly into an anti-Fetterman rally for a bit.

“We’re looking to the leaders who will fight for us, because even today there are folks among the Democratic Party who think we should roll over and play dead,” Greenberg said during her speech, adding: “Anyone seen John Fetterman here today?”

In case you needed to know, the AP made sure you knew what happened after that: “The crowd booed.”

“Showing up matters and it really does make a difference,” said Dana Kellerman, a progressive organizer from Pittsburgh.

“Is that going to matter to John Fetterman? I really don’t know. I don’t know what he’s thinking. I don’t know if he’s always been this person or if he’s changed in the last two years.”

Rank-and-file Democrats seem to like the schtick, too.

“That he’s doing these town halls is a good indication that he’ll be running for something, so it’s a good thing,” said Janet Bargh, who attended one of the events outside of the state capital, Harrisburg.

Of course, the most appealing thing for Lamb and Fetterman in 2022 was that both of them were seen as electable in Pennsylvania by Democrats. In Lamb’s case, it’s because he marketed himself as a bipartisan moderate. In Fetterman’s case, it was because he put himself forward as a blue-collar Carhartt-wearing patriot who just happened to be a lefty.

He still pretty much is, but he’s turned out to make some sense along the road. Lamb is interjecting himself to say, in effect: “Whoa! I was just marketing myself that way — he means it!”  And, to the AP, this is Democrats “stepping up” to counter one of their own who manages to think for himself.

Naturally, I encourage this, as it makes the GOP more likely to pick up the seat in 2028. However, it goes a long way to explain why so many independents and centrists think the American left has left them. Have fun with being the darling of the Pennsylvania progressives, Mr. Lamb. My guess is that it gets you just as close to being a senator as it got you in 2022.

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