Apparently Ben Nelson wants to join Bart Stupak and make sure there are acrimonious debates about cultural issues in a bill designed to improve health care:
Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) will attempt to strengthen language in the healthcare reform bill prohibiting federal funding of abortion, he said.
Nelson, a key swing vote on the overall bill and an opponent of abortion rights, specifically said he would base his amendment on language authored by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) that passed in the House’s healthcare bill — and ignited a firestorm among Democrats and supporters of abortion rights that quickly spread to the Senate debate.
Nelson said he and other senators, “perhaps” including Democrats, plan to introduce an amendment “something like Stupak” on the Senate floor. The prospects of such an amendment passing, however, are slim. Republican abortion-rights opponents include Nelson’s home-state colleague, Sen. Mike Johanns, have conceded they cannot muster the 60 votes they would need to attach the Stupak language to the Senate bill.
They know they don’t have the votes, so in other words, they are doing it just to stir shit up.
Can anyone point me in one legislative direction in which Ben Nelson leans to the left? He must have a redeeming quality here or there. What is it?
And can anyone explain why they don’t just tell these four “moderates” to go pound salt and just go through reconciliation? At some point, will these guys ever be such grandstanding nuisances that the rest of the Senate will say to hell with them? For chrissakes, why does everything have to be catered to the whim of wannabe wingnuts from Nebraska, North Dakota, and Arkansas? What do they account for- one percent of the nation’s population. Did any of those states go for Obama?
Nelson to the Rescue of the Culture WarriorsPost + Comments (98)