Ben Nelson Bucks Party, Helps GOP Block Jobless Aid

[laughingliberal]

Ben Nelson is nothing if not sensitive. In May, as the Senate stuffed a Wall Street reform amendment that would have done away with exorbitant ATM fees, the Omaha World-Herald reported that the Nebraska Democrat and several other senators had never used an ATM.

"But I could learn how to do it just like I've... I swipe to get my own gas, buy groceries. I know about the holograms," Nelson said, inviting heaps of ridicule in what nearly became a series-of-tubes moment.

Some of the attention didn't sit well with the senator. "One thing I want to correct in that World-Herald story is the suggestion that I didn't know the difference between a hologram and a bar code," Nelson told HuffPost in an interview off the Senate floor. An aide cut the interview short before the senator, furiously thumbing his Blackberry, could prove his hologram expertise. But later that day, Nelson's office sent a memo to reporters with the Encyclopedia.com definition of "holographic scanner" which, it turns out, is a device most widely used "for reading bar codes at retail checkouts." Point, Nelson.

His extraordinary sensitivity extends to his own needs and those of his constituents, but not so much the needs of his party or other senators' constituents, whom he routinely leaves hanging. Only weeks into the Obama presidency, Nelson joined a handful of moderate Republicans to oppose spending in the stimulus and succeeded in reducing the bill's size. Throughout the health care reform debate, he held firm against the public insurance option, defending insurers who are major employers in his state. During the endgame of Wall Street reform, he briefly suggested he hadn't made up his mind about the bill after praising its latest revisions.

Read more about Ben's sensitivity http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/13/ben-nelson-bucks-party-he_n_644523.html

I'm not sure my vocabulary contains enough four letter words to adequately express my feelings about this...man.

[opihimoimoi]

1. He has destroyed his own Credibility, Integrity, and Sanity.... How Crude

[unhappycamper]

2. It appears we have another LIEberman turncoat.

My condolences, Nebraska.

It's too bad we don;t have another candidate to take him down. Bob?

[laughingliberal]

3. Isn't he wonderful? His state's unemployment is low so the rest of the country can suck it. nt