As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Nebraska's only majority member in Congress, Ben Nelson is the indispensable man for Nebraska funding.
Posted: Monday, May 11, 2009 12:00 am
Go-to man.
Cloture on the employee free choice act. A critical 60th vote will be needed.
Health care reform. Fifty votes needed at the end, and they might be hard to get once the health care industry has flooded the zone with 30-second TV scare ads.
Student loan reform. Fifty votes needed at the end.
Earmarked appropriations for Nebraska projects.
As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Nebraska's only majority member in Congress, Ben Nelson is the indispensable man for Nebraska funding.
Even more so now that Mike Johanns has decided not to seek any earmarked appropriations for Nebraska projects, at least this year.
Ben Nelson, go-to guy.
Are you the keymaster?
Positioned in the center somewhere between moderate and conservative, Nelson is like a vehicle maneuvering one of Washington's traffic circles.
When you're in the circle, there are many paths to choose. And you can even keep going around until you pick one.
Nelson voted for the president's economic stimulus package and against his budget plan.
So far, he's uncommitted on the cloture vote that eventually will be required to clear the way for the Senate to enact or reject the biggest union organizing legislation in decades.
Nelson is not on board for the president's major domestic initiatives in health care, climate change and student loan reform.
The Nebraska senator's influential position in the middle stirred media attention again last week.
"Nelson, and a handful of other Democrats who call themselves centrists, are suddenly key to the new arithmetic of power in Washington, D.C.," Howard Fineman wrote in Newsweek.
Congressional Quarterly reported that Nelson says he cannot support a health care reform package that includes a public option because that would unfairly compete with private health care plans.
That puts Nelson on the opposite site of 66 percent of Americans who support the opportunity for a public health plan option, the Huffington Post declared.
That figure comes from a poll by Consumer Reports National Research Center.
Meanwhile, the Public Campaign Action Fund, which describes itself as a non-partisan campaign finance watchdog group, pointed to past contributions to Nelson from insurance interests.
Nelson was an insurance attorney before he was elected governor in 1990 and served as state insurance director at one time.
At mid-week, Nelson took to the Senate floor to stake his position on health care reform.
"Some have called for establishing a public plan, but I think it would undermine health care services for millions of Americans and squander this unique opportunity for substantial reform," he stated.
"I would suggest we empower consumers and demand that private insurers compete on service to restore a true marketplace for insurance."
Finishing up:
* Ted Sorensen, wordsmith, said he thought carefully before choosing the word he'd use to describe President Obama in a brief reference during his Law College commencement address. He picked "wonderful."
* Disagreement over Sorensen's remarks concerning torture and the rule of law is understandable, but some of the comments online and in my phone mail are the latest reminder about how many haters are out there.
* Some, and perhaps even most, of that hate is media-driven.
* The University of Nebraska Medical Center brings its "Science Cafe" to Lincoln on Thursday. Dr. Sanjay Singh will talk about how the brain works during a discussion at red9, located at 322 S. Ninth St., from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.
* Steve Achelpohl, former Democratic state chairman, has been inducted into the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, an organization that limits its U.S. membership to 500.
* Grateful for spring, the return of outdoors and baseball's long season. Winners are not determined in May.
Reach Don Walton at 473-7248 or at dwalton@journalstar.com.