Ben’s Last Big Vote?
It’s apparent that Ben Nelson doesn’t have a spine. The notion that he’s a courageous moderate just got torched. Now that he’s been outed as just another spineless politician, it’s time for him to go. According to this article, the Nebraska GOP is getting started with defeating him:
The chairman of Nebraska’s Republican Party predicts that Sen. Ben Nelson’s decision to back sweeping health care legislation will be his downfall.
Mark Fahleson says, “I think this is the end of his political career in the state of Nebraska.”
On Saturday, the state party launched a Web site, Give Ben The Boot, to collect funds to oust the Democrat in the 2010 election.
Nelson said earlier Saturday that he decided to support the measure after winning concessions to limit the availability of abortions in insurance sold in newly created exchanges, as well as tens of million in federal Medicaid funds for Nebraska.
Fahleson says Americans are outraged by the legislation and “they’re going to punish politicians at the polls.”
I’d be wrong in saying that Ben Nelson is a wild-eyed hardline progressive. The facts don’t bear that out. What the facts do tell us is that he’s spineless, unprincipled and willing to sell out his constituents when his puppetmaster starts pulling the strings. Sen. Nelson’s lack of principles is apparent. What it isn’t is flattering.
What we desperately need in Washington are politicians (a) with spines, (b) with wisdom and (c) with the courage to say no to bad legislation. Sen. Nelson is missing these three things.
It won’t be difficult talking Nebraska AG Jon Bruning to run against Nelson. He was prepared to challenge Chuck Hagel in a GOP primary because Hagel was a spineless politician who marched to the beat of a different drummer. If he jumps in, Bruning would be immediately competitive. In fact, he might be the immediate favorite.
If the elections were held today, the GOP would pick up seats in Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Nebraska, Nevada and Pennsylvania, with California, Indiana, New York, Oregon and Washington being possibilities. North Dakota will flip, too, if Gov. Hoeven runs against Sen. Dorgan.
The thing that this debate has done is that it’s exposed to the nation that supposed Democratic moderates are nothing of the sort. It’ll be difficult for Evan Bayh to sell himself as a moderate in Indiana. The only question left there is whether the Indiana GOP can recruit a high quality candidate. If they do, then they’ll put Bayh in a difficult position of defending voting for this health care monstrosity.
While the initial topic of this post was Sen. Nelson, it’s really about all Democratic senators. Each of them cast the vote that imposed the tax increases contained in this health care legislation on the American people. Because it was a straight party-line vote, the American people will know that the Democrats are the politicians to blame.
Sen. Nelson will undoubtedly attempt to rebuild his moderate image with other votes. People in Nebraska won’t buy it the minute their tax increases and their higher premiums hit their wallets.
Only in Washington, DC would they call a bill that increases health insurance premiums, hikes taxes and leaves 25,000,000 people uninsured health care reform.
Technorati Tags: Payoffs, Tax Increases, Health Insurance, Premiums, Uninsured, Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu, Evan Bayh, Moderates, Democrats, Jon Bruning, Mark Fahleson, Republicans, Election 2010
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog
December 21st, 2009 at 9:55 am
Bottom line is this, Gary: Mr. Nelson was willing to sell out the other 300 M Americans, besides his own citizenry, in order to pick up a lousy thirty pieces of silver for himself and his campaign contributors.
No more, no less.
He is a sleaze bucket, and a political whore of the worst kind. I’d rather have a Jefferson with his cold cash in there than a slime whose only concern is himself. At least one knew how Jefferson would vote beforehand.