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...)

T.Y.

A quick moment, before the parades begin and the eventual tryptophan coma, to say...

Thank You!

...to all Leavenworth Street readers.

We appreciate all you clicks and comments (well, for the most part).

Thanks for coming back time and again, and we'll keep doing our best here.

Gobble! Gobble!

New ad to pressure Johanns?

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...

New ad to pressure Nelson

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."

Note to Nellie: Cranky seniors vote.

Nellie's next move

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.

Looks like it's another night at Ruby Tuesdays...

EBN vs MJ?

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?

Remember when Nelson said:

"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???

***

But... Nebraska's Junior Senator, Mike Johanns is trying to bend Nelson his way, pretty much calling him out:

"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."

In case there was any confusion:

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...



That's OK. We know that The Benator reads L. St., even if he wouldn't talk to us...

***

Here is a link to the bill itself in .pdf form.

For this issue, search the word "abortion" in your .pdf viewer.

If you're old school, start on page 116 of the 2074 page bill.

LT: Busted! But then what...

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.)

***

So compare this to the Jim Esch "scandal" back in May of 2008.

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...)

Tom White: "AYE!" on ObamaCare

Tom White has officially staked out his position:

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.

Think there are any ads being prepped now?

Separated at Birth...

Sometimes you have to suffer the slings and arrows -- from both sides -- for the sake of art.

So we give you a Friday afternoon Separated at Birth:

Sarah Palin, Going Rogue and Steve Carell, The 40 Year Old Virgin...

MoveOn.org calls Terry names

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.

See it here:



So here's the thing: You know how the Sierra Club, or whatever they are, re-named themselves "Bold Nebraska" to attack Terry?

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?

What's poor MoveOn.org to do???

(Well, nail down Tom White, for one...)

GOP taking Nelson to task

We talked yesterday about Ben Nelson's plans for voting on health care, and what the repurcussions are on the procedural votes.

Well the RNC plans on taking this issue directly to the people of Nebraska with a new ad.

See it here:



In case you can't see the vid, here's the text:

Remember this?

Senator John Kerry: “I actually did vote for the 87 billion dollars, before I voted against it.”

The flip flop.

Democrat leaders want Senator Ben Nelson to use the same tactic.

To pass President Obama’s government-run health care experiment with a vote to move a bill forward with:

• Tax increases.
• Cuts to Medicare.
• And rising premiums.

Then, once it comes up for a final vote, they will allow him to vote against it.

Senator John Kerry: “I actually did vote for the 87 billion dollars, before I voted against it.”

But any vote to move the bill forward is a vote for Obama’s government-run health care experiment.

They want Senator Nelson to tell voters in Nebraska "I voted for government-run health care for my party boss, before I voted against it to save my job."

Americans don’t respect politicians who try to have it both ways.

Senator John Kerry: “I actually did vote for the 87 billion dollars, before I voted against it.”

They want to know exactly where their leaders stand.

Senator Nelson, tell Harry Reid Nebraskans know a flip-flopper when they see one.

TELL SENATOR NELSON NOT TO FLIP FLOP CALL: 202-224-6551

At 1:22, you're unlikely to see this version on broadcast. (And in fairness to the Eco-ad against Lee Terry, there is another one out just like this against Sen. Blanche Lincoln.)

But this is what we were talking about the other day when we noted that people may finally be watching Nelson on his "cloture" votes. If Nelson votes to stop a GOP filibuster, it's the same as voting "AYE" on ObamaCare.

Of course the only problem with Nelson on these types of issues, is that he wants to feel independent.

So if he can still find a way to take a dig at the GOP efforts to influence him, he will.

Make no mistake kids: He's still a Democrat.

Anti-Terry forces out early

A pan-Eco group has launched an attack on various Republicans across Congress, and have included Representative Lee Terry in their sights.

"Bold Nebraska", a branch or a wing or comrade of a group called "Clean Energy Works", has placed an ad-buy in the Omaha market.

(And of course this is on the heels of the anti-Ben Nelson polling by "BoldProgressives.org". You can tell these groups are bold, because it's in their name.)

See the spot here:


This was apparently about a $200K ad buy, $180K on broadcast.

Note that "Clean Energy Works" PR contact, Josh Dorner, is also the PR contact at the Sierra Club. They support John Kerrey and the whole Cap & Trade scheme.

This same, exact, ad is also up on behalf of League of Conservation Voters, against Reps Luetkemeyer, Rehberg, and Blunt.

And by the the Sierra Club, against Reps Boehner and (a female version for) Bachmann.

Don't you just love these generic spots? One size fits all!

But it's funny that this invisible group called "Bold Nebraska" that local Dems haven't even heard of, is supposed to convince you that Terry is at the mercy of "Big Oil!". (By the way, cute how everything "Big!" is the epitome of evil: Big Oil! Big Tobacco! Big Pharma! Big Boy! Give us break already, lefties.)

Just so all you politicos out there are aware: the whole "your Congressman has been bought and sold by special interests" campaign plan NEVER works. Voters know that pols get money from special interests. Lefties give money to Dems and conservatives give money to GOPers. If voters don't like how their rep votes, they'll get rid of him or her. Who gives the pol cash doesn't concern them much.

Anyway, there's volley one from the Tom White camp. Good luck with all that.

[The OWH's Robynn Tysver notes that while this ad pushed the fact that Terry voted against Cap & Trade, Terry's opponent Tom White is against Cap & Trade as well. So...um...]

***

And on the 2nd District note, we'll toss out that former 2nd District Dem candidate Richard Carter is a co-Chair of Lee Terry's re-eelction campaign.

You'll remember that after losing to Jim Esch in 2008, Carter joined the Terry campaign and became the leader of Terry's "Truth Squad".

Local Dems are still beside themselves on this one.

***

And we were hoping to see the latest Nebraska Watchdog story on how Tom White would have voted on the House Health Care bill.

You'll remember that Lee Terry voted "Nay".

One would think that it would be helpful to 2nd District voters to know how White would have voted on the biggest issue of the day. You know, before the dust settles and he can see where the safest place to hide is.

Maybe Joe Jordan asked him and he's waiting to spring it on us.

But we won't, you know, hold our breath waiting for state Senator White.

**Update**

In her OWH story this morning, Robynn Tysver tells us how Tom White would have voted on Cap & Trade. So we know that vote, but not how he'd vote on Health Care?

What gives, Tom?

Nelson: "I wouldn't have voted for House bill"

ABC's Jonathan Karl interviewed Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson aboard the Capitol subway system -- the totally unnecessary train that goes back and forth between the Senate office buildings and the Capitol.

Click here or below to watch (new ABC window opens):

In the interview (where they must have just gone back and forth about 12 times), Nelson says:

• He wouldn't have voted for the House of Reps Health Care bill that just passed
• He won't vote for a bill with a "robust public option"
• He won't vote for a bill without a similar Stupak amendment that restricts taxpayer abortion funding
• Oh, and he wouldn't have voted for Bill Clinton's 1993 Health Care bill

That's about as complete a list as we've heard from Nelson these days.

Of course the kicker with Nelson on all of this will be the procedural votes.

In other words, if he votes to end a GOP filibuster to let a vote go through, but then votes against the final bill that will pass with a Dem majority -- well who cares? That is all about the procedural vote on the filibuster.

Nelson has pretty clearly drawn a line in the sand on procedural votes on the abortion issue. On public option? Not crystal clear.

Feel free to refer back here as the voting continues.

Oh, and "Dean-iacs"? Chuckle...

Veterans Day

We thank all of our Veterans today for keeping us free.

Wall? What wall?

From the comments section of the Politico:

President's Obama's critics are being unfair and silly for complaining he didn't attend the ceremony to commemorate the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Just look at the man's schedule, he had:

• a 10 a.m daily briefing from the intelligence community,
• a 10:30 a.m. economic daily briefing,
• an 11 a.m. meeting with senior advisers...
• and then, right after that, at 6:45 in the evening, he had to sign an executive order about hiring veterans
• and then at 7 p.m. he had a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu (with preconditions).

In the interim, it's not like he was just sitting around the Rose Garden and enjoying the weather. Take a look at the White House web site, where you'll see he was... oh. He was sitting in the Rose Garden enjoying the weather.

OWH's ad-sense

We're not sure how the OWH picks its online ads.

When you look at the Adsense ads on the Leavenworth Street blog, they're automatically chosen by Google's supercomputers, associated with the content in the story (usually).

So we cracked up a little in this OWH story about a criminal defendant in Douglas County District Court.

He had a number of outbursts in the court room, and apparently threatened the judge, so...

"Lewis was rolled into the courtroom this morning in an office chair. Five Douglas County sheriff's deputies flanked Lewis. He was wearing at least two stun belts and was in handcuffs and leg restraints."

(How's that for a Hannibal Lecter-esque visual.)

And then, apparently completely unrelated to the story, we get the Office Depot ad for...

Ven Highback Vinyl chair
$69.99
(save $30)

You gotta love some prime product placement. (Man, when they say they have ALL your office needs, they really mean it. Wonder if they carry these.)

The defendant's final quote of the article:

"I'm fixin' to beat these charges. Let's roll."

No word if Lewis was speaking to the deputies pushing his chair...

[Btw, apparently the ads change. But from the pic up above, you get the gist...]

Keep your hands off MY council!

Reenacting a scene from Planet of the Apes, Omaha Mayor Jim Suttle growled at Dave Heineman,

"Keep your (stinkin') hands off MY Council (you damned dirty governor)!"

Well, maybe he was only thinking the parentheticals.

Or maybe he actually said it. Who knows, judging from the ridiculous words by the Mayor of Omaha to a reporter after hearing that Dave Heineman talked to Councilwoman Jean Stothert about increasing the sales tax.

You know, the sales tax that would have to be approved by...THE GOVERNOR.

How bizarre for the Governor to talk to another legislator on an issue he would be directly involved in, right Mr. Mayor?
(Especially since Governor Dave was simply returning Stothert's phone call.)

But Suttle went all Heston at his own Dr. Zaius screaming:

"You're a citizen of Lincoln, NOT OMAHA!"

You do know that Dave Heineman's the Governor, right Mr. Mayor?

Oh, and nice to know that the Mayor has declared ownership of the City Council.

You know, we had sort of retired the "Councilman Kookypants" moniker for the new Mayor, but apparently we need a new, appropriate sobriquet.

Just remember, the real issue behind the recall of Omaha Mayor Mike Boyle, back in the day, was the irrational behavior...

Polling Nelson

The "Progressive Change Campaign Committee" (at BoldProgressives.org!!!!) released a poll they did regarding opinions from Nebraskans on health care and Ben Nelson.

The group -- who will no doubt change their name once the word "progressive" ceases being vogue -- is associated with the ultra-liberal Daily Kos blog. Basically their goal is to bully Nelson into rubber-stamping ObamaCare. It may work.

First, the sample size of the poll they list:

MEN	241	(48%)
WOMEN	262	(52%)
DEMCOCRATS	161	(32%)
REPUBLICANS	246	(49%)
OTHER	96	(19%)
18-29	80	(16%)
30-44	151	(30%)
45-59	166	(33%)
60+	106	(21%)
DISTRICT 1	171	(34%)
DISTRICT 2	176	(35%)
DISTRICT 3	156	(31%)

They asked a series of questions, no info on the order, regarding "health care".

Here is the first listed:

Would you favor or oppose the government offering everyone a government administered health insurance plan -- something like the Medicare coverage that people 65 and older get -- that would compete with private health insurance plans?

	FAVOR	OPPOSE	NOT SURE
ALL	46	44	10
MEN	44	48	8
WOMEN	48	40	12
DEMOCRATS	84	10	6
REPUBLICANS	22	66	12
INDEPENDENTS	44	43	13
18-29	49	40	11
30-44	45	46	9
45-59	47	43	10
60+	44	47	9
DISTRICT 1	47	41	12
DISTRICT 2	52	40	8
DISTRICT 3	39	51	10

So the real question is, do you support Medicare or not? Right? There's no other way to read the Q.

Then we get into the loaded questions:

QUESTION: What do you believe private health insurance companies care about more: the health of the patients they cover, or making a profit?

	PROFIT	PATIENTS	NOT SURE
ALL	69	19	12
MEN	68	21	11
WOMEN	70	17	13
DEMOCRATS	85	8	7
REPUBLICANS	57	27	16
INDEPENDENTS	73	17	10
18-29	72	15	13
30-44	69	20	11
45-59	69	19	12
60+	68	21	11
DISTRICT 1	69	19	12
DISTRICT 2	71	17	12
DISTRICT 3	66	21	13

(Why those EVIL companies, and their profits!)

So this is supposed to convince Nelson, and to a lesser extent Senator Mike Johanns, that all Nebraskans are for ObamaCare.

Of course, poll these same people with a question like...

QUESTION: Would you favor or oppose the government giving you a big free bag of gold, iPods and hamburgers?

...these same people (especially the 18-29 year olds) would all be like, "Hell yeah!"

And then the next poll question would be...

QUESTION: Would you favor or oppose Ben Nelson if he filibustered the Gold-iPod-Hamburger Fairness Act?

And the next headline you would see on Kos would be, "Nebraskans Oppose Nelson!"

So, in that vein, let's read a few more of the Q's:

QUESTION: Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Ben Nelson?

	FAVOR	UNFAVORABLE	NO OPINION
ALL	56	30	14
MEN	53	34	13
WOMEN	59	26	15
DEMOCRATS	64	25	11
REPUBLICANS	51	35	14
INDEPENDENTS	56	26	18
18-29	58	27	15
30-44	56	31	13
45-59	57	29	14
60+	55	31	14
DISTRICT 1	55	30	15
DISTRICT 2	62	27	11
DISTRICT 3	51	33	16

Looking good for the Benator there, no?

But wait!

QUESTION: If Ben Nelson joined Republican senators in filibustering and killing a health care reform bill because it had a public health insurance option, would that make you more likely or less likely to vote for him in the 2012 general election or would it have no real effect on your vote?

	MORE	LESS	NO EFFECT
ALL	17	26	57
MEN	19	21	60
WOMEN	15	31	54
DEMOCRATS	7	49	44
REPUBLICANS	25	6	69
INDEPENDENTS	13	39	48
18-29	12	32	56
30-44	19	24	57
45-59	16	27	57
60+	21	23	56
DISTRICT 1	19	25	56
DISTRICT 2	14	28	58
DISTRICT 3	19	24	57

QUESTION: According to OpenSecrets.org, Ben Nelson has taken over $2 million dollars from health and insurance interests. Do you think that money hurts his judgment when voting on health care issues, or not?

	YES	NO	NOT SURE
ALL	53	31	16
MEN	51	34	15
WOMEN	55	28	17
DEMOCRATS	50	34	16
REPUBLICANS	56	28	16
INDEPENDENTS	53	30	17
18-29	51	32	17
30-44	54	31	15
45-59	52	31	17
60+	55	30	15
DISTRICT 1	53	30	17
DISTRICT 2	52	32	16
DISTRICT 3	54	31	15

If we were really motivated, we'd see who Obama, and Harry Reid and the rest of them get their money from, but is there really a point? Nelson is the former Nebraska Insurance Commissioner. Crazy that the insurance companies give him money, huh?

Anywho, here is the last question that made us laugh out loud:

ASKED TO DEMOCRATS ONLY:
QUESTION: If Ben Nelson joined Republican senators in filibustering and killing a health care bill because it had a public option, would that make you more likely or less likely to vote for him in the 2012 Democratic primary election or would it have no real affect on your vote?

	MORE	LESS	NO EFFECT
ALL	7	46	47
MEN	7	44	49
WOMEN	7	48	45
18-29	6	49	45
30-44	6	47	47
45-59	8	46	46
60+	8	44	48

You got that Nebraskans? Here is a party that can't find a candidate for freaking Nebraska State treasurer, but they're convinced they can find a candidate that can take on Nelson in a Primary? And then what? Beat the Republicans with said imaginary candidate?

In case you're wondering, these are the groups that are leading the Democrats these days. They support Obama and Reid and Pelosi and the super-libs who have dreams of a utopian socialist society where everything is free and the rich are in prison and we're all vegans discussing the art of Michael Moore.

In the mean time, have fun reading the poll. Like we say, more info is good.