Sen. Nelson Doesn't Fool Paul Krugman, Or Anyone Else

Paul Krugman bashed 'Centrists' like Ben Nelson in his weekend column for making substantial cuts to the stimulus bill. In response, Nelson had this lame non-excuse/denial:



Really though, does Nelson believe that Krugman, or any human being with two brain cells to rub together buys this crap?

Do They Think That This Stimulus Is Just A Game?

I've given up hope for Republicans to come to the table and honestly help broker a package that can put America back to work. I've also been wary of conservative Democrats around this whole thing too, but now it seems a few of them really don't care much either. Take for instance Senator Bayh, who was too busy to go to a meeting he said included important discussions on the bill. And then you have people like Senator Ben Nelson, who defines the term "DINO."

From Greg Sargent:

Total Reductions: $80 billion

Eliminations:

Head Start, Education for the Disadvantaged, School improvement, Child Nutrition, Firefighters, Transportation Security Administration, Coast Guard, Prisons, COPS Hiring, Violence Against Women, NASA, NSF, Western Area Power Administration, CDC, Food Stamps

*****************************

Reductions:

Public Transit $3.4 billion, School Construction $60 billion

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Increases:

Defense operations and procurement, STAG Grants, Brownfields, Additional transportation funding

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Nelson spokesperson Clay Westrope confirms the authenticity of the memo, adding that the figures obviously could change. But this is currently the general direction.

Instead of working with his party, he opts to go the "bipartisan" route, meaning that women, children, firefighters, mass transit and the poor will suffer at the behest of the Defense industry. Sounds like more of the same from the last eight years to me. The last thing we need is to make the Defense industry any more bloated than it already is. In fact, if our government really wanted to solve problems here at home, they would start cutting that $527 billion dollar budget (not including war expenses) and give it to programs that help the people.

Shame on Nelson for supporting tripe like this.

Colbert Pegs Senator Nelson

On Colbert's first night back, his guest was conservative Democrat Ben Nelson (D?-NE). The main topic was the war and how Bush and the Congress figure into it. Colbert is at his best, and you can see that brilliance at the end of the clip.

Ben Nelson The Coward

A Senate panel recently moved to block the funding of Dick Cheney's office because the Vice President feels he is above the law and remarked that he is not subject to rules governing the executive branch by the Congress. Democrats had a smart reply for him, if he wasn't going to submit to the law, then Congress would strip his funding.

Although the White House and Cheney tried to backtrack when the press asked questions, they are still holding firm to avoid oversight of their criminal activities. Due to that stubborness, Democrats took the initial step of cutting the VP's budget in Committee. Needless to say, it was a party-line vote. But then Senator Nelson (D?-NE) decided to reverse his vote and succumb to his conservative overlords. What a shame.

From The Times-Argus:

Nelson, who cited Fielding's letter when he changed his position, often votes with the White House, and it didn't hurt Cheney's cause that he is from Nebraska and bypassed opportunities to attack Nelson in his re-election campaign last year.

"The president has the power and authority to issue executive orders to do exactly what he wants," said Nelson, a former governor.

Cheney spokeswoman Megan McGinn said, "We are pleased to see the Senate Appropriations Committee reject this political stunt."

Ben Nelson must think we are all stupid. The President has the power to issue executive orders, but he does not have the authority to keep Dick Cheney and himself above the law. It does not work that way Senator. The Vice-President must be accountable to the people, no exceptions.

As for Megan McGinn.....the only political stunt here is Ben Nelson's submitting to his friend Dick Cheney. They may interpret cutting Cheney's funding as a stunt, but when Congress has the power of the purse and one of it's recipients refuses to follow the law, then they should be stripped of that funding.

Can someone please, please, please run against Nelson in Nebraska and replace this Bush apologist?

Sen. Nelson On Iraq: Whatever

This guy has to be one of the least Democratic Democrats besides Joe Lieberman. Although technically Joe is an independent now, so Ben Nelson takes the cake. Although he claims he must vote with Republicans because he comes from a conservative state, the guy is bucking the national trend when it comes to important issues that swept the Democratic Party into power. Issues like Iraq, the Iraq war and the mess in Mesopotamia.

When he was asked the other day his thoughts on the war, he gave this abyssmal response:

The glass-half-full conservative Democratic Senator Ben Nelson, who has opposed all but the most non-binding, non-adhesive measures in the debate over how to redeploy, laid out his position in a way that could really be boiled down to one word: Whatever...

Of the push to set a deadline for bringing the troops home, Nelson noted that "Not everyone agrees you can set a date in advance. If you don't, you'll be criticized. But, this is a town where if you say up, somebody else says down. And they're probably both right."

He gently mocked those trying to push for action based on the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group: "The challenge, when you get a report like that, is that there are certain people who think you have to adopt every recommendation."

"We'll take up the Iraq war again and again and again," he said amiably. And get it right eventually?

Eventually....while Nelson hems and haws we have too many troops and way too many civilians dying every day in Iraq. Perhaps if the Senator reached deep down inside himself he might find some principles that would justify getting his ass off the fence and vote to bring our troops home as quickly as possible. Of course he is stuck in the old mentality of being a poor Democrat in a red state. He should really look into getting lessons from Scott Kleeb on how to be a Nebraskan Democrat.