Joe Sudbay:
Last month, Ben Nelson did a TV ad defending his vote on health care. He talks straight to the camera and disses those "who wanted a government takeover." That sounds like an attack on people who supported the public option, because that's as close as Congress got to a "government takeover." You'll recall that Nelson helped kill the public option in the Senate and the Medicare buy-in (after he'd already agreed to it), insisted on the inclusion of harsh anti-abortion language, and then threatened to join the Republicans in filibustering the conference report on the deal he already cut. That Ben Nelson.
Turns out, though, that it's not a Ben Nelson campaign ad. It's hard to read the disclaimer, but the ad was paid for by the Nebraska Democratic Party. It's one of a series of ad touting Nelson's "courageous" effort to bring down real health care reform. More of the ads can be seen here and here.
So, one wonders, where did the Nebraska Democratic Party get the money to pay for these TV ads
Who gave the cash to the Nebraska Democratic Party? Well, if you've donated to the Democratic National Committee this cycle, you did.
That's right, the Democratic Party paid for ads attacking health care reform, for an incumbent senator who isn't even up for reelection until 2012, and for a senator who has made it his life mission to stymie every significant item in the Obama/Democratic agenda. The same Ben Nelson that fought hard to include regressive anti-choice language in the Senate bill, backing off only when Democrats agreed to pay him off with $100 million for Nebraska's Medicaid expansion.
This is the same Ben Nelson that cut $60 billion in school reconstruction funds in last year's stimulus plan, and the same Ben Nelson that has signed on to the odious Murkowski amendment that would prevent the EPA from regulating greenhouse gasses. And of course, the same Ben Nelson that stripped the health care reform bill of any meaningful cost constraints.
The DNC has denied a deal to fund the ads in exchange for his vote (along with putting American taxpayers on the hook for his state's Medicaid expansion).
“We, the Democratic Party, were defending a Democratic senator from attacks from the health insurance industry and other special interests for his support of reform. Senator Nelson is not the first Democrat we have defended from these attacks and he will not be the last. We've spent money directly in support of House Democrats who have supported reform in the form of TV and radio ads and we've also worked with state parties to defend Democrats like Senators Nelson, Lincoln and Dorgan who have stood up to the insurance industry in support of reform,” said DNC spokesman Hari Sevugan.
What a laughable piece of shit response. The health insurance industry was attacking Nelson? He was their biggest champion!
Insurance giant Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Nebraska, for instance, would pay between $15 million and $20 million less in fees under the Senate bill than it would have without a change the Nebraska Democrat helped broker, according to Nelson's office. Another insurer, Mutual of Omaha, won't have to pay taxes on so-called Medigap insurance that buttresses Medicare insurance used by the elderly.
Unlike the Blue Cross/Blue Shield deal, that tax break will be extended to other companies. Mutual of Omaha spokesman Jim Nolan said he didn't "have a figure to share" about how much the company may save.
A Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Nebraska spokesman estimated that the cost-savings figure released by Nelson's office was probably close to accurate and added that the company didn't ask for the break.
Nelson was actually under attack from Republicans for cutting a sweetheart deal not available to other states, and for busting teabagger expectations that he'd help them outright scuttle any reform. Had he kept his mouth shut and done the right thing from the start, he'd be in much better shape. Instead, he has made a spectacle over himself, and now everyone is so unhappy that he even exists, that he's felt the need to go up on the air. Yet rather than manning up and covering the costs himself, just like his sweetheart Medicaid deal, he went begging elsewhere for the cash.
Ben Nelson is sitting on over $1 million in campaign funds. He could've spent some of his cash. Or, he could've had his buddies in the insurance world to pick up the tab. They can do that now, according to the Supreme Court.
But for the Democratic National Committee to spend hard-earned money on the caucus' most disloyal member, while incumbents due for reelection in 20-freaking-10 go unhelped is political malpractice.
Not only is it bad electoral politics, denying those funds to needed campaigns this cycle, but it's bad politics -- ensuring that no elected Democrat feel any pressure to vote with the caucus for the good of the party and the country.
Why should Nelson and his friends give a shit what the Democratic leadership thinks, if his "fuck you" to the party is rewarded by a shiny check for half a million dollars?
Tim Kaine is worthless. And for the first time ever, I'm looking forward to a primary to Ben Nelson in 2012. He'll never survive a GOP challenge, so I want it to be the Democrats who have the satisfaction of ending his career.
(Discussion is also going on in slinkerwink's recommended diary. SusanG).
Update: To be clear, the DNC isn't denying funding the ad -- they've admitted it. They're denying that the money was part of a quid pro quo for his vote. I think it's clear they're lying.