Democratic Party Cannibalizing Itself?

Following a tip from majikthise, who herself has an interesting perspective on this story, I discovered that Paul Hackett is dropping out of the Ohio senatorial race. Hackett is an Iraq veteran who made a surprisingly strong run for Congress last year in a heavily Republican district. He's not just dropping out, he was apparently forced out by both national and state Democratic higher ups.

Mr. Hackett said Senators Charles E. Schumer of New York and Harry Reid of
Nevada, the same party leaders who he said persuaded him last August to enter
the Senate race, had pushed him to step aside so that Representative Sherrod
Brown, a longtime member of Congress, could take on Senator Mike DeWine, the
Republican incumbent. (NYT article, Popular Ohio Democrat Drops Out of Race, and Perhaps Politics)