Sen. John Fetterman must have health concerns — since he supports Israel

During John Fetterman’s campaign for Senate, the morally indignant harrumphs filled the media at the mere intimation that the candidate’s health should be an issue. Now just midway into his first term, the very handwringers who scolded Pennsylvanians for legitimate concerns about competency are not only speaking out of the exact opposite sides of their mouths, but doing so in such a way as to offer grievous insult both to the senator and to the commonwealth’s voters of both parties.

The press is filled with what Democrat Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona calls “despicable hit pieces” about Fetterman and is surprised that “anyone would publish such obvious vendettas.” If wrong, she certainly can’t be faulted in her estimation, as what’s been dredged up and thrown at her colleague does indeed seem scurrilous and backstabbing on its face.

According to those supposedly in the know and willing to prattle on to news fonts, Fetterman is given to outbursts, slamming desks, picking arguments, shouting and repeating himself. He’s taken to skipping medical appointments and engaging in “reckless” behavior like texting while driving, and good heavens, at high speeds as well. The liberal media and fellow Democrats who were blind to the obviously age-challenged president stumbling about in plain view in front of them for four years now see the light and have unaccountably yet instantly developed acute diagnostic skills — concerning Fetterman’s health, that is. And their thoughtful concern heightens coincidentally with each occasion on which the senator speaks out in favor of normalcy rather than fringe lunacy.

Get The Jewish Chronicle Weekly Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up

When it was chic to rip down posters of Jews kidnapped by Hamas, and Fetterman dared make it clear he stood with Israel, plain and simple and with no reservations, this was the first indication for many keffiyeh-wearing activists that there may be a mental health relapse at hand. Months later the senator’s confirmation of even a couple of the current president’s cabinet picks raised concerns further.

But then Fetterman voted with a few other Democrats to pass the Laken Riley Act to protect Americans from illegals charged with crimes. He followed that up with having the temerity to support a bill to impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court for it absurdly bringing war crimes charges against the prime minister of Israel. So it’s now becoming clear to one and all — at least those tribalists who demand that no legislator back any common sense facet of normalcy in governance while their opposition party is in power — that Fetterman’s health is back to being a potentially huge problem.

There is, however, another possibility, and one which might instantly grant Fetterman a clean bill of health, the same course Sen. Joe Manchin from neighboring West Virginia took. If Fetterman were to separate himself from the party currently brandishing the long knives in his direction, were he to register as independent or Republican, it’s almost a surety that his health woes would quickly recede into the background. The faux-“progressive” faction having taken over the once-sane Democrat party would instantly shift their attention from concerning themselves with his well-being to figuring out which of the contemptible figures from authoritarian history — Franco, Pinochet, Mussolini, etc. — with whom he might be conflated.

And that’s as surefire a cure as can be offered at UPMC or anywhere else. PJC

David Nabhan is a Pittsburgher who writes a science column for both Newsmax (“Shaking Up Science”) and The Times of Israel (“Tectonic Shifts”).