Outspoken and aggressive: Meet Ohio's two senators

As if the fact that Ohio's two U.S. Senators are both from northern Ohio isn't bad enough, here's another fact that might be hard for Republicans in southwest Ohio to swallow:

Both lawmakers - one Republican and one Democrat - say they plan to continue riding the Bush administration on several issues, namely the budget deficit and Iraq war.

Sen.-elect Sherrod Brown, a Lorain Democrat, told reporters Wednesday that he plans to press the president for a plan to withdraw from Iraq in the next year or two. And he doesn't plan to alter his intense anti-Bush rhetoric one bit.

“I’m going to be outspoken,” he said. “I think you run as you serve.”

Meanwhile, Sen. George Voinovich, a Cleveland Republican, told reporters on a conference call Wednesday that the election outcome has emboldened him to be more forceful in the need to cut federal spending and eliminate the budget deficit.

"I am going to be much more aggressive with my colleagues and the administration that we have to deal with some of these problems," he said.

Voinovich also said, although it was in an extremely cautions and overly diplomatic way, that if he were Bush, he'd ask Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who has been criticized by Democrats and Republicans alike for his handling of the Iraq war, to resign.

UPDATE: Rumsfeld has announced his resignation.