Ben Nelson - arguably the sheer worst of the Dino senators
is a whore (or as we would pronounce it back in my home state of New Jersey, a "hoowhaa"). That is, a whore to elite special interests and antidemocratic forces. In short, he sucks! I don't wish to share a political party with him.
Multiple examples of Nelson's whoring ways follow.
On the issue of student loans and college affordability, Nelson sides with private banking interests
On health care, Nelson is poised to oppose the public health plan. As reported on Crooks and Liars,
And so, Nelson has decided to bow to the wishes of his campaign contributors, instead of standing up for what 73% of the American public want: A choice of a public health insurance option.
In his opposition, Nelson can't even muster the courage to be honest about his motives. Instead, he parrots the latest right-wing talking point, that a public health insurance option will somehow undermine the employer-based health care system.
This point, of course, is ludicrous. How exactly would this undermining happen? Every person in America will be offered a choice. If they choose the public health insurance option, how exactly is anything being forced upon them? And if businesses choose the public health insurance option, again, how is that not a choice?
Nelson's stand on various other issues are shown this profile.
Iraq War
Nelson voted for the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq in Oct. 2002.
In March 2007, it was revealed that Sens. Nelson and John Warner (R-Va.) had been discussing the possibility of breaking ranks and coming up with a compromise piece of legislation regarding the President's plan for a troop "surge" in Iraq and the over $120 billion Iraq War spending bill.
On March 15, Nelson was one of two Democratic Senators who voted against a joint resolution to revise U.S. policy in Iraq. The measure failed 48-50.
Gang of 14
On May 23, 2005, Nelson was one of fourteen Senators to forge a compromise on the Democrats' use of the judicial filibuster, thus blocking the Republican leadership's attempt to implement the so-called "nuclear option". Under the agreement, the Democrats would retain the power to filibuster one of President Bush's judicial nominees only in an "extraordinary circumstance", and the three most conservative Bush appellate court nominees (Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen and William H. Pryor, Jr.) would receive a vote by the full Senate. Subsequently, he was the only Democratic senator to vote in favor of Brown; he was later the first Democratic senator to support Samuel Alito's confirmation to the Supreme Court.
Vote against stem cell bill
Nelson was one of two Democrats in the Senate who voted against the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007 which would have lifted restrictions on stem cell research. It passed the Senate in a vote of 63-34. It was later vetoed by President George W. Bush.
John Bolton - He voted twice, with three other Democrats, to end Senate debate over President Bush's United Nations Ambassador nominee John Bolton.
Campaign reform - He was one of only two Democratic senators to vote against the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002.
Other issues - He has voted with Republicans on matters of bankruptcy reform, environmental protection, lawsuit reform, and trade. He opposes most gun control laws and supports expanding use of the federal death penalty. He was one of only three Democratic senators to vote to invoke cloture on the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment. Nelson has also voted against increasing funds for Head Start and energy assistance for people with low incomes.
More recently, on the stalled appointment of Dawn Johnsen to the Office of Legal Counsel, Nelson proved to be an impediment for change, seeming to be playing hardball with the White House, and in part, for ideological reasons.
Greg Sargent reports that centrist Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson (NE) — who voted to confirm both Sam Alito and John Roberts — will oppose Dawn Johnsen’s nomination to lead the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. Nelson says he opposes Johnsen, a noted legal scholar and outspoken critic of the Bush administration’s torture program, because of her pro-choice views:
Senator Nelson is very concerned about the nomination of Dawn Johnson, based on her previous position as Counsel for NARAL. He believes that the Office of Legal Counsel is a position in which personal views can have an impact and is concerned about her outspoken pro-choice views on abortion.
Nelson is buying into the right-wing’s war against Johnsen. Outspoken anti-choice Republican Rep. Chris Smith (NJ) said Johnsen has a "a prejudice against motherhood, the family and a fundamental respect for all human life." The National Review’s Andy McCarthy claimed she would be a "culture-war agitator." Republicans have threatened a filibuster against her.
Incidentally, I called Nelson's DC office a few weeks ago, when the Johnsen confirmation failed because of failures of leadership by Senate Democrats, and was told by one of his staffers that the blocked vote was simply because "he opposes her," i.e., never mind what a majority of Senators in his party might think.
And as Sam Stein, in Huffington Post points out,regarding Nelson's hypocrisy,
Where was the principled opposition from the Senator during the Bush years? Why is he refusing to show Obama the same deference that he offered the previous administration?
The votes, they argue tell the story. Nelson supported cloture or confirmation for some of Bush's most controversial judges and political nominees, including several who were never able to be confirmed even under a GOP-controlled Senate. Moreover, Nelson often defended his positions by citing presidential prerogative.
Also, one other issue. Rolling Stone has in its current issue a truly excellent piece of reportingon the campaign by wealthy right wing ideologues to repeal the estate tax, or what they propagandistically call the "death tax." Noting that this campaign has some Democratic support, author Michael Crowley observes that
...the battle over the "death tax," as Republicans have shrewdly labeled it, is just beginning — and it involves one of the best-funded and most effective lobbying operations that Washington has ever seen. It is a movement that conservatives often portray as the work of a grass-roots uprising but in large measure has been propelled by a very small number of extremely rich people. "You have a group of wealthy families that are funding a very sophisticated effort," says Michael Graetz, a law professor at Yale who has studied the movement to repeal the estate tax. Over the past 20 years, those families have exerted their power in ways that can be traced, in a surprisingly direct way, to many of the Democrats who voted for Blanche Lincoln's amendment — and who are hoping for bigger victories this fall.
Sure enough, among those sellout Democrats mentioned in this article: Senator Ben Nelson.
Senator Nelson - on call as a servicing whore to vested, monied interests.