Carl Weiser and Deirdre Shesgreen

Cincinnati Enquirer

UPDATE 9:15 a.m. June 9, 2016

Connie Schultz, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and wife of Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, said Bernie Sanders called Brown Wednesday to deny a Politico story that suggested Sanders felt betrayed by Brown and other progressive senators.

On Facebook, Schultz added: "Bernie always gives the best hugs." She said she didn't fault Politico for the story, and said she didn't doubt that some "embittered staffer" made those comments. "I just don't believe he or she speaks for Bernie," she wrote.

Deep in this Politico dissection of the Bernie Sanders campaign's "bitter" final days. we learn that Sanders feels betrayed by his fellow progressive senator. Ohio's Sherrod Brown.

As Politics Extra readers know, Brown - recently profiled by our Deirdre Shesgreen - is a possible Hillary Clinton running mate.

But not, apparently, if Sanders has anything to say about it.

"Aides say Sanders thinks that progressives who picked Clinton are cynical, power-chasing chickens — like Sen. Sherrod Brown, one of his most consistent allies in the Senate before endorsing Clinton and campaigning hard for her ahead of the Ohio primary," the Politico story notes. "Sanders is so bitter about it that he’d be ready to nix Brown as an acceptable VP choice, if Clinton ever asked his advice on who’d be a good progressive champion."

Brown shrugged off the "power-chasing chicken" slight as normal bitter residue left at the end of a brutal campaign.

"People are always angry at the end of campaigns when they don’t win," Brown told Ohio reporters on Wednesday. "And I assume that staff people are saying things that Bernie probably didn’t say or didn’t necessarily agree with, so I don’t really put much stock in it."

Inside the bitter last days of Bernie's revolution

Brown said he and Sanders have a good relationship, and it hasn't been frayed by the presidential primary. "I’ve spoken with him from time to time during this presidential race," Brown said, "always in a positive way--just checked in 'How you doing? It’s amazing what’s happened with you and this race.' And we kind of laugh about that."

Asked if Clinton should pick Sanders as her running mate, Brown said he had no opinion on the matter. "I have no idea who she’s going to pick and I don’t plan to weigh in and give her any advice unless she would call personally and ask," Brown said.

He predicted that Sanders would eventually endorse Clinton and campaign for her with gusto.“I am absolutely confident that ... on his timetable, that he will be there fully, (with) full-throated, enthusiastic support for Hillary," Brown said. "Bernie will be there speaking out for Hillary in places like Ohio."

Sherrod Brown: The next vice president?