Obama To Ben Nelson: We're Going Around You

[babylonsister]

Ryan Grim

Obama To Nelson: We're Going Around You


04/24/09 05:06 PM


It might not be the most glamorous hill, but it's the one that Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) has vowed to die on. President Obama, however, isn't going to give him that chance.

Nelson is perhaps the Senate's fiercest protector of subsidies for student lending institutions, which, not coincidentally, are an engine of job growth in Nebraska. He has vowed to block any effort to reduce those subsidies. And given that Democrats have 58 members and generally need 60 to break a GOP filibuster, he can enforce his will on his colleagues.

An agreement struck between the president and House and Senate negotiators won't give Nelson that chance. A process known as "reconciliation" allows budgetary measures to be moved through the Senate with a simple majority, rather than 60. Multiple congressional sources say that congressional Democrats have decided to use reconciliation to go after student-lending subsidies, specifically to get around Nelson.

The Nebraska Democrat has become the bane of liberal bloggers and other progressive activists for his insistence on pushing legislation in a more conservative direction. Nelson's critics will no doubt relish the decision to make his threat of a 'no' vote meaningless.

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/24/obama-to-nelson-were-goin_n_191201.html

[AllentownJake]

1. Be part of the change that is good for the country

or Go fuck yourself.

[roguevalley]

17. ha! I hope he loses in the next election. He's more repuke than the

repukes.

[indepat]

2. One get the feeling that the President is going to politically roast any dem senator who

would stand to block his proposed legislation by aligning with the 'puke minority. Roast 'em real good, hell, this is strategic: send 'em to hell! :P

[babylonsister]

3. This is what Ben Nelson did today with his 'conservative' standards...

:grr:

Greg Sargent's blog
Key Dem Senator Likely To Vote Against Top Obama Legal Nominee


Uh oh. This could signal real trouble for a key Obama nominee under assault by the right: Office of Legal Counsel chief Dawn Johnsen, a fierce Bush critic who would be at the center of the war over whether Obama will meaningfully reverse a host of Bush-era legal policies.

Conservative Democratic Senator Ben Nelson is all but certain to vote against Johnsen, Nelson spokesperson Clay Westrope tells me. Westrope confirms that while Nelson will take into account any further information that emerges, the Senator cannot now envision a scenario under which he’d support her — potentially making it an uphill climb to get her confirmed.

Johnsen is an important nomination: The OLC is the office where the torture memos were produced, and Obama’s pick of Johnsen cheered many liberals because it signaled a desire for his lawyers to aggressively articulate what the law allows. Johnsen has written that OLC lawyers should be “prepared to resign” if the White House ignores their opinions.

Johnsen has been under relentless attack by Republicans who claim her harsh legal criticism of Bush’s war on terror proves she’s weak on national security and cite her previous pro-choice statements as proof she’s an ideological hard-liner. But now a Democrat is echoing the latter criticism. Westrope emails:

“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.”


GOP Senators may filibuster the Johnsen nomination, meaning it will require 60 Senate votes to get through. So the loss of a Dem like Nelson could be a big deal.

[indepat]

6. With 'pukes still voting in lockstep, the political nuts of any dem aligning with these

un-American obstructionists should be permanently castrated: as the Colonel in 'The Longest Day' said, "this is strategic: send them to hell." :P

[Canuckistanian]

11. "Conservative Democratic Senator Ben Nelson"

It's almost a political oxymoron, isn't it? Like "Log Cabin Republican", or "Jews for Jesus".

Bullshit. He's a Republican who managed to get the Democratic nomination in his state.

He should have the courage to do what Jeffers did. Declare himself an independent.

[firedupdem]

4. Gawwwd! I hate living here!! Nelson is absolutely horrible!

Why he's a Democrat is beyond me! I have written his office and called so many times it's ridiculous. I will never cast a vote for that guy ever!

[AtomicKitten]

5. Excellent! The Blue Dogs killed Pres. Obama's farm subsidy cuts.

:mad:

[depakid]

7. "his insistence on pushing legislation in a more conservative direction. "

This isn't about conservatism- it's about corruption.

[babylonsister]

8. How does corruption tie in with NARAL and Dawn Johnsen's

confirmation?

[jbnow]

9. Pretty sure it's the refysal to save so much money by change in

student loans and then comment blue dogs blocked subsidies to richest farms, not the judge

There is no "conservative" reason (or liberal one) to waste all that money...it's about the power and money of lobbyists

[depakid]

10. That's as good an explanation as any

Nelson's protecting parasites in the system in return for campaign cash and politcal support.

[Duke Newcombe]

15. Exactly.

He wants the gravy (and his slice of it) to remain in Nebraska. This type of "back-scratching" isn't the sole domain of Blue Dogs.

[The River]

12. We'll See Which So Called Dems

are really Democrats or DINO's in the next 2 years.
Senators like Nelson and other very right
leaning Dems need to be challenged and replaced
in state primaries.

[bvar22]

13. It wouldn't be so bad if there was only one conservative Dem...

...but there about 8 - 12 who regularly vote with Republicans to obstruct DEMOCRATIC initiatives.
They are New Dem/Blue Dogs/DLC, and the magical "60 vote majority" doesn't mean shit with these aboard.

Nelson Nelson (DLC, Neb.) may be the one taking the heat on THIS issue (Student Loans) but you can find his little club blocking everything that is even modestly to the Left of George Bush.

Just go take a look at all the important votes taken in the Senate over the last decade, and the same names keep turning up.

Here is a list of Democratic Senators who voted with the Republicans on the Military Commissions Act 2006:
Carper (D-DE)

Johnson (D-SD)

Landrieu (D-LA)

Lautenberg (D-NJ)

Lieberman (D-CT)

Menendez (D-NJ)

Nelson (D-FL)

Nelson (D-NE)

Pryor (D-AR)

Rockefeller (D-WV)

Salazar (D-CO)

Stabenow (D-MI)


Funny how its always the same people obstructing the Democratic Party.

[cooolandrew]

14. The President is on our side folks this is the clearest indicator.He's just playing this ultra smart

The seed of growth but more importantly sustainablity are sewn all we need do is wait and ride the storm.

[MindMatter]

16. Corporate welfare, plain and simple

Beyond Nelson's constituency, there is the big bureaucracy that is SLMA. Supposedly a not-for-profit, they reaped loads in "excess revenues". At least in Nelson's case, that corporate welfare resulted in some jobs in his state. In the case of SLMA, they outsourced thousands of those jobs overseas. I mean, what could sick worse than that? We give them hundreds of millions in corporate welfare and they they skim even more by outsourcing the jobs.

It was really ironic when they discovered that Obama was dead serious about pushing direct lending to bypass all this welfare. SLMA suddenly discovered that they don't have a lot of clout when most of their jobs are in the Philippians and Singapore. So they hurriedly put together a plan to start up dozens of call centers, all of them carefully placed in the districts of influential Congressmen. Hopefully Obama will get this whole deal done before those sleazy bastards are able to recover.

Get rid of those corporate welfare jobs and spend the money creating new industries that we really need, like green energy. Stop rewarding the money changers and start rewarding the engineers and true entrepreneurs.