Ben Nelson tries to repair damage at home

Politico ^ | 1/14/2010 | Manu Raju

[JRochelle]

Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson and his wife were leaving dinner at a new pizza joint near their home in Omaha one night last week when a patron began complaining about Nelson’s decisive vote in favor of the Senate’s health care bill.

Other customers started booing. A woman yelled, “Get him the hell out of here!” And the Nelsons and their dining companions beat a hasty retreat.

“It was definitely a scene in there,” said Tom Lewis, a 41-year-old dentist and registered Republican who witnessed the incident. A second witness confirmed the incident to POLITICO.

It’s a new experience for Nelson.

He used to be a popular figure back home, a Democrat who served eight years in the governor’s office and was elected twice to the Senate by a state that’s as red as the “N” on the University of Nebraska's football helmets.

But Nelson has seen his approval ratings tumble in the wake of his wavering over the historic health care bill, his deal-cutting with other Senate Democrats and, ultimately, his support to break a GOP filibuster and send the bill to a House-Senate conference committee.

Nelson, who has a track record of brokering bipartisan deals, said for months that he was unsure whether to back a Democrats-only bill, and he criticized language in the measure that would impose taxes and cut Medicare costs in order to pay for extending coverage to most Americans. But after weeks of negotiations, Nelson made his peace with the bill by striking deals on his state’s Medicaid costs and on abortion language — and, in the process, incited a furious backlash in Nebraska.

[ought-six]

You must mean Chuck Hagel.

[patriot preacher]

They’ll reelect him by 2012 — one constant in our political universe is the extremely short memories and abundantly forgiving attitudes of Democrat voters for one of their own office-holders.

[Joan912]

I also emailed Nelson a few weeks ago telling him that “Judas Iscariot would be proud.”

[Baladas]

Cliche time in regards to this walking dead Democrat - can’t unring a bell.

[hsalaw]

David Di Martino, a former Nelson aide and now a Washington-based consultant, said that the millions of dollars’ worth of TV ads that doused the state at the end of the year helped shape public opinion — and that, ultimately, anger will subside once people start seeing the benefits of the bill.

Oh, nice spin, Washington-based consultant, but people won't start "seeing the benefits," if any such thing exists, until 2014. By then, Nelson will be history.

[donhunt]

He almost seems to be another nice guy corrupted by the scum in Washington. Kinda’ sad but he did it to himself.