Ohio: Sherrod Brown

Joining other GOP state chairmen in Washington for a meeting sponsored by the Republican National Committee, DeWine will vote no on a scheduled resolution calling on Democrats to rename their party the "Democrat Socialist Party."

"That sort of noise is unproductive; it is not helpful," DeWine said.

To Democrats, the re-branding resolution symbolizes the plight of a party stuck in the past and searching for a leader, its rebirth stunted by divisive voices filling the void, namely former Vice President Dick Cheney and talk radio's Rush Limbaugh.

"They've got to start offering real solutions," said Sherrod Brown, Ohio's Democratic senator. "Name-calling, telling the Democrats to change their name, it just hurts them.

The Ohio Democratic Party's Saturday dinner in Cleveland, organized to celebrate its 2008 victories, was actually dominated by talk of victories in 2010. (Finally, the party is looking ahead!)

Five Democrats - Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, Lt. Governor Lee Fisher, Cincinnati State Rep. Tyrone Yates, Dover Congressman Zack Space and Cuyahoga County Commissioner Lee Fisher - pitched themselves for the U.S. Senate seat occupied by Republican George Voinovich, who is retiring at the end of next year.

U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown urged party members to avoid a costly primary. (He had a brief but nasty tangle with Cincinnati lawyer Paul Hackett in the 2006 primary.

Is art political? Well of course. But that doesn't make it a political statement to say, as I did in a blog post yesterday, that the giant Calder mobile-sculpture in the atrium of the Hart Senate Office Building "bugs some Republicans." In fact, two Republicans I saw in that very building today continued their criticism. One called Calder's creation "crap." A Democrat I spoke with, who works in the Hart building, said she just doesn't "get" the thing.

Take a look at the mobile here and judge for yourself.

Alexander Calder said he intended to show black aluminum clouds suspended above black steel mountains, but some of the building's occupants say it doesn't work for them.

What do you think?

WASHINGTON — For the last two years, Sen. Sherrod Brown has occupied offices in the Russell Senate Office Building, a grand but aging place with lots of marble -- and not enough space for Brown's staff in the same suite. No more. Today, Brown and his staff are moving to the Hart building, a modern place with a giant Calder mobile-sculpture in the atrium (which bugs some Republicans) and linear patterns more attuned to architects than bureaucrats.

The previous occupant of Brown's office on Hart's seventh floor: Barack Obama, before he won the presidency in November.

Ohio's other senator, George Voinovich, is on Hart's fifth floor.

Obama left his old digs in good condition, Brown's staff reports.

"So far, it looks like no tuna fish sandwiches in the desk drawers or things like that," says spokeswoman Meghan Dubyak.