Leavenworth Street - the talk of Nebraska politics
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Total Suttle Recall...
This is sort of a non-story, but it's Thanksgiving morning, so you get what you get and you don't complain...
Channel 6 is reporting about...a phone survey.
Yup, that's their top story. SOMEONE is calling with questions about recalling Omaha Mayor Jim Suttle.
No info on who the survey company is. No info on who is paying. Not even a comment from Ron Penzkowski. (Hey! Ron! Back to work! We're not paying you to eat turkey!)
Or anything much else. But Suttle's wife did call them back.
Well, at least this may have distracted you from THIS STORY! (Honestly, do NOT click the link for this other story. We're begging you...)
During the news hours last night, and probably today, you may have noticed the new ad out against Nebraska Senator Mike Johanns on health care re-form.
If not, see it here:
We always chuckle a little when they talk about not allowing "debate", as if they are a bunch of high school sophomores battling it out. Senators, before the cloture vote, had all kinds of floor speeches.
And frankly, does anyone think a Senator is sitting on the floor going, "Hmm. Good point. I'll change my vote!"
Anywho, the most interesting thing in this spot is the target.
Johanns? Really?
Best way to spend you money there "Health Care for America"?
Because: 1) Johanns was just elected; and 2) You really think you're going to change his vote? Or even influence it?
There's not a fence sitter they could go after?
Well. It's their money. They're welcome to blow it as they wish...
A group called the 60 Plus Association is spending 2 million bucks on ads in Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, North Dakota, South Dakota...and Nebraska focusing on the Health Care re-form bill and cuts to Medicare.
60 Plus calls itself, "the conservative alternative to the AARP". The spot starts running today.
See it here:
They go on to say:
"Senator Nelson would be smart to read the bill and listen to the experts that run Medicare, instead of hiding behind the rhetoric and accounting gimmicks in Sen. Reid’s bill."
Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson is back in Nebraska talking to "folks" about the Health Care Re-form bill in the Senate.
You may remember that Nelson voted for cloture on the bill so it could proceed to floor debate. He has been criticized by the state GOP as well as Nebraska's other Senator, Mike Johanns, for letting the bill proceed, as it just makes it that much more likely to pass.
Nelson has been telling people the last few days, "Hey, I won't let it go forward if it still has the abortion provision and a federal public option."
And now Joe Lieberman has drawn a line in the sand, taking the exact same positions. He says he would NO on cloture for final passage of the bill. That's sort of a big deal.
If the bill won't pass anyway, Lieberman's siding with the GOP filibuster would then give Nelson the cover he needs to take whatever position is most politically expedient.
He can vote NO, and say the bill is not good for Nebraskans. He can vote YES, and say it could still be fixed in the conference committee (i.e. the Tom White route). Either way Nelson (and White) will say they were in favor of the bill -- just not the WHOLE bill.
And attempt to claim the high-ground.
***
But consider Nelson's position for a minute. He is essentially saying...no, he IS SAYING, "this bill is fine, except for the abortion provisions and the public option." Really? That's it?
So Obama and Pelosi and Reid can just jam whatever they want down America's throat, just so long as it doesn't include abortion and a public option? Doesn't matter about massive new taxes. Doesn't matter about what it will do to care in general. Doesn't matter how it will affect doctors and hospitals. Doesn't matter what it will do to the deficit.
Just so long as Nelson placates the anti-abortion and anti-government and insurance interests.
Interesting.
And Nelson has also said he's against any state opt-out provisions, but may be OK with a states opt-IN provision. So, in other words, let Dave Heineman and the gang take the heat for opting IN to some new health care scheme. Well that's one way to make your life easier. Let Governor Dave take the blame.
While we're generally in favor of the Federalists-esque plans for a "state solution", uh...what's the solution? And has Nelson proposed such an amendment? That's why he voted for it to go forward, right? To propose all these amendments.
We'll be looking for the Nelson Amendments on this to see what he has in store for America. Maybe they're up his sleeve. We don't know.
But be watching EBN to see if he pulls what he did with the "Stimulus" bill -- cutting $20 out of a zillion dollar plan and calling it a win.
"Try again!" may be the new "Contract with America" slogan...
***
And on the subject of who is Barack sending "BFF" notes to, you'll see that Senator Nelson did NOT receive an invite to the State Dinner coming up.
Interesting turns as the Senate's version of the Health Care Re-Form has gone public.
For one, Nebraska's Senior Senator, E. Ben Nelson said that the abortion language is not up to snuff:
"I think you need to have it eminently clear that no dollars that are federal tax dollars, directly or indirectly, are used to pay for abortions and it needs to be totally clear. [It’s] not clear enough, I don’t think."
So, does that mean that Nelson would not vote for cloture -- i.e. not let it proceed for debate or an up or down vote?
"Faced with a decision about whether or not to move a bill that is bad, I won't vote to move it," he added. "For sure."
Of course, then Nelson seemed to blink after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's threat to take the vote to reconciliation -- where it only needs 51 votes, instead of the filibuster breaking 60. (Though many have said that there aren't a majority of Dems that are willing to go this route anyway...)
Nelson talked of trying to (Hey Jude!) take bad bill and make it better by advancing it to the floor for amendments.
So where does Nelson officially stand now -- seeing as the Dems need his vote to get past a likely GOP filibuster?
Don't know.
**UPDATE 3:40PM**
Sen. Reid is now saying that HE WON'T use reconciliation if cloture is not invoked. So...will that encourage Nelson to vote against cloture???
"We don't need 40 Democrats to stand up for what's right. We need just one. if just one pro-life Democrat would say i will not vote to move this bill until it's fixed, until it's truly pro-life, that would happen. So those who say they are pro-life but refuse to take that stand, I worry are not standing up for life."
Johanns issued a challenge that surely had his senior colleague from his home state, Dem Sen Ben Nelson, in mind, saying that merely voting to proceed just to try to change the bill was unacceptable.
And Nelson's response? Seems to be throwing right back to MJ. Though he still seems to think amendments after a cloture vote are the way to go, saying:
Republicans who oppose abortion rights also have an obligation to offer solutions, not just criticisms, of the relevant language in Reid's healthcare bill, Nelson said.
"The folks on the other side of the aisle who seem to have an interest in the language, you know, maybe they ought to be coming forward with some amendment, as well," Nelson said.
Is there any love lost between these two former Governors?
Not sure.
But there sure are a lot of thumbs waving around trying to stick the other guy's eye.
**Update**
Here's MJ on the floor (a minute and a half long vid):
***
And we thought about asking Senator Nelson ourselves what he will do about the cloture vote.
But well, it doesn't look like Nelson is talking...to OUR type anyway...
Let's get it out of the way: 2nd District Congressman Lee Terry got busted for inserting some verbatim copy from a lobbyist into the Congressional Record.
Yup. No way around it.
So from there, it becomes a purely political issue. How does he react? What is stated. Who "wins"?
Well, let's look at Terry's response:
“I have been a longtime supporter of the biotechnology industry, which is important to Nebraska's future economic growth. I felt the biotechnology provisions in the health care bill that were not being discussed were important to note.
In the future, our office will make sure our words are clearly our own and not the result of cutting and pasting someone else's comments.”
(Oh, and that yelping you heard is the staffer who's butt got kicked down the Rayburn HOB hallway.)
So: "Yes, I believe what was written. Shouldn't have done it that way. Won't do it again."
Decent response to a not-good situation.
OK, so let's look at the hay his opponents made. What say you Tom White?
A fundraising letter? Well...all right:
“As the fate of health care reform hung in the balance, Lee Terry wasn't speaking for Nebraska families or small businesses. He was literally speaking for a special interest puppeteer.”
Except, that who cares what Terry put into the Congressional Record (not even a floor speech). The fact is that Terry VOTED against Madame Pelosi's ObamaCare bill. White said he'd vote FOR the bill!
So White's political gain outta the whole thing? Well, putting it in the terms that White did, just about nada.
(And the kicker on the whole deal is that it was bi-partisan cutting and pasting! 22 Republicans and 20 Dems.)
Jim Esch's campaign got busted by Channel 7 for cutting and pasting from the Brookings Institute and putting it on his website. Here's what Esch said at the time:
Esch said his article was actually written by his policy director, Tiffany Siebert.
Esch said, “OK, I actually now know exactly what happened. This is probably my fault. She sent it over to me on e-mail and it has underneath the little asterisk, whatever, I thought it all cut and pasted on there. Clearly it did not.”
“So that was my mistake that the citation didn't make it, “ said Esch.
Throwing the staffer under the bus. Getting into goofy details. Making it personal.
Compare that response to Terry's up above.
And then there was Terry's campaign manager's line:
"If Mr. Esch was still in law school, he would have been kicked out (for plagiarism)."
(chuckle)
Now THAT's a good line.
And that would have been a great line for Tom White to use back at Terry in this situation.
Except that he didn't use it. So...
(And note that back then Leavenworth Street also criticized Richard Carter for not getting a better political hit on Esch in that situation. Ah well.)
***
And just so we cover all of our bases here, kids, you do know that this happens all-the-time, right?
Here's the reality about Congress: Members of Congress and their staffs are not experts on everything. Lobbyists generally are experts in their field. So sometimes a lobbyist will ask a staffer if they'll voice support for Issue X, and insert it in the record. Staffer says, yes, this is something my boss is for (or no).
Or maybe a member will want to put something in, so staffer will call up the lobbyist and ask for the details on Issue X so that can put something in.
Now the goofy thing is that in this situation some stupid lobbyist asked over 40 different Members to insert the same thing. And then the staffers, probably working on a Saturday and figuring this wasn't a floor speech, got lazy.
But kudos to Terry for not trying to make this point. Just because it happens, doesn't help him out of the situation.
And in any case, verbatim copying like this shouldn't happen. The staffers should know better and at least re-write. One would imagine that the staffer's job would be on the line next time.
(Oh, and the next shocking revelation: Members of Congress don't sign their own letters. Yes, clean that spit-out coffee off of your screen.)
***
Now we can't imagine you have any opinions on all of this... And try to focus on the political, gang. (Remember, it's in the blog title...)
He would have voted AYE (that's Yes, kids) on the recent House of Representatives Health Care re-form bill.
Note that:
Lee Terry (R), voted Nay.
Ben Nelson (D), said he would have voted Nay
The bill is D.O.A. in the Senate.
Mike Johanns, Jeff Fortenberry and Adrian Smith are all against that House bill.
But Tom White?
He thinks that this bill, that had Bi-Partisan OPPOSITION, and only passed the House by 5 votes, should be the one that takes over your Health Care.
(Think White would have gotten full support from the DCCC if he had gone the other way? And way to announce on Saturday morning. Couldn't find a lower news day?)
He obviously thinks you should go to prison if you don't purchase ObamaCare, by the way.
So there you go 2nd District. Unless the national climate changes significantly in the next twelve months (as it always can), expect this to be the major wedge issue between those two candidates.
MoveOn.org has a new ad up -- no word if it's TV or just web (we're now hearing web-only) -- against Lee Terry on the House Health Care re-form bill vote.
Well, MoveOn.org needs to do the same thing in Nebraska if they want anyone to listen to them. They might as well call themselves the ACLU or just ULTRA LEFTIES! rather than MoveOn.org. No one thinks they're anything other than a left wing crank group. (Because, well, they are.)
But here's the funny thing: the Sierra Club attacked Terry on Cap & Trade -- except that Terry's opponent, Tom White, said he would have voted against it too.
So now, White hasn't said how HE would have voted on the House Health Care re-form bill! If he comes out against it, will MoveOn call him names as well? Will they just give up on Nebraska?
