Sen. Ben Nelson's Swan Song

Nebraska Senator, and chief architect of the 'Cornhusker kickback', Ben Nelson announced his support for the Democrats' efforts to steamroll their health care bill over the objections of the American people.

[Link]

The problem for Nelson, of course, is that Americans overwhelmingly oppose the Dems' legislation, and perhaps nowhere do they oppose it more than in the Great State of Nebraska.

As a result of his support for the Democrats' first bill, Nelson found himself battling a thirty point deficit in his bid for reelection.

The advantage for Nelson is that his day of reckoning with voters isn't until 2012.

My own sense is that Nelson sees the writing on the wall. Two years isn't that far away and rarely do politicians recover from a thirty point dip in their approval ratings. Certainly, Nelson's support of the Dems reconciliation efforts bespeaks a man who has nothing to lose.

Whatever the case, Nelson's moderate-Democrat schtick is veritably dead after this. And thus follow his political fortunes in 'Big Red' Nebraska.


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