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Recall the moments in 2008 when Democrats like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Barack Obama campaigned on the platform of — must … control … gag … reflex — “Honest Leadership, Open Government”?  This picture should jog your memories, and your own gag reflexes, especially that sanctimonious pose by Reid.  The trio have managed to make themselves either satirists of the highest order or influence peddlers of the lowest while struggling to pass the second item on their legislative agenda.  /1209/30877.html">Politico’s Josh Gerstein reviews the ObamaCare compromise bill that Reid struggled to get past a wee-hours cloture vote in the...

Formally, it is known as H.R. 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. But this week, it has acquired an unhelpful nickname: "Cash for Cloture." As Senate Democrats finally complete their health-care legislation, those combing through the bill have uncovered many backroom deals that were made to buy, er, secure the 60 votes needed to "invoke cloture" -- the legislative term for cutting off debate and holding a final vote. It will take years to see how well the measure reduces costs and expands insurance coverage. But already, the bill has been a bonanza for wordsmiths. First there was...

Politics: Sen. Mary Landrieu was the new "Louisiana Purchase." Sen. Ben Nelson got the federal government to pick up his state's future Medicaid tab. Maybe we should just put Senate votes up on eBay. Nelson, the 60th vote in the middle-of-the-night Senate party line vote on health care reform, will go down in American political history as the inventor of the permanent earmark. His seemingly principled stand against including federal funding for abortion evaporated like the morning dew as he decided to take what was behind door No. 1. The deal for Nelson includes special Medicaid funding for Nebraska, along...

Video: Sen. Nelson said: “If you think it's fun having both sides on an issue mad at you when you're trying to do something in good faith, just think, it's like going home and getting bit by the family dog. So - who enjoys that?” Well Senator, it'll be even less enjoyable when you get voted out of office, ever think about that!

In the style of Sen. Ben "Traitor" Nelson .... can other senators start offering, one after another, amendments to ObamaCare saying, "We want free Medicaid too -- just like in Nebraska!" No, of course I'm not in favor of that. I'm trying to think of ways to stop or slow down this abomination.

A group called Americans for Prosperity in Nebraska gathered a crowd for a rally in Omaha to press Sen. Nelson on the reform bill. Anger over senator Ben Nelson's support of health care reform. Nearly 2,000 people rally in Omaha, hoping he's listening. The group's message is two fold -- reconsider your vote Senator Nelson and remember your decision when elections roll around. With their signs in hand, Nebraskans filled Omaha's Music Hall, rallying against the senate health care bill and Sen. Nelson's support for it. "I think that's why we're all here. To get him to listen to us,"...

Back on November 21st, Senator Mary Landrieu provided the 60th vote for the Senate Democrats to cut off a GOP filibuster and start the debate on a healthcare reform bill. In exchange for that vote, the Democratic leadership offered her a $300 million ‘bribe’ in the form of additional Medicaid benefits for her home state of Louisiana and for other states ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. Now a month later Senator Ben Nelson has announced that he will provide the 60th vote to cut off debate on the healthcare reform bill. In exchange for his vote, the Democratic leadership offered him...

Dr. Becky Hollibaugh of Friend, Nebraska e-mailed me her message for sellout Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) this morning:Hello Michelle:I’m a family practice doctor in Nebraska. I sent the following (angry,I admit) letter to Senator Nelson. I urge your readers (from Nebraska and elsewhere) to do likewise, in their own words!Dear Senator Nelson:I send this message under “Tort Reform” because the current monstrosity you have pledged your support to says nothing whatsoever about Tort Reform. You have sold the physicians of Nebraska for zilch (zilch for us, but beaucoup federal bucks for you and the liberal partisans in this state). As...

Senator Nelson of Nebraska cut a special deal. In exchange for agreeing to allow government funds be used for abortions, he got a special deal for Nebraska. The special deal was that Nebraska would not have to pay matching funds for Medicade. All the other 49 states must pay matching funds. Many of those state like my own state of California can not afford to pay those matching funds. Who pays for Nebraska's Medicare casts? All of us who live in the other 49 states. BS, I say. We should not stand by while Nebraska sucks money from all the...

The liberals have delivered a lump of coal to all Americans this Christmas by buying the vote of Senator Ben Nelson, in order to have the 60 votes necessary to force through the Health Care reform bill. The Nebraska Democrat was given a huge payoff for his state by the leadership in the Senate, which will prevent a filibuster, barring any last minute defections from this package. Some are questioning Nelson's motives, as his earlier objections to the bill had to do with restrictions on abortion coverage. But those restrictions failed to satisfy major anti-abortion groups and lawmakers. Even though...

Democrat Ben “Dover” Nelson, who had previously threatened to join a GOP filibuster of the Senate Health Care Bill, proved today that everything has a price – including a man’s values. The Nebraska Senator just accepted what I’ll generously describe as an enormous “monetary incentive” to do a complete 180 on his long-time position on abortion funding and thereby gave this awful legislation life with his 60th all-Democrat vote. Earlier this month, Nelson insisted that he would not support a bill without stronger anti-abortion language:

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Pro-life groups have spent most of Saturday morning furiously analyzing the Nelson-Reid compromise language on abortion funding in the Senate health care bill. Their conclusion is that the language undermines the amendments they wanted to ban abortion funding. The compromise language appears in the manager's amendment Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is offering to shore up the 60 votes he needs to overcome the filibuster against the pro-abortion health care bill. The language is not similar to the Stupak and Nelson amendments approved by the House and defeated in the Senate. Instead, Section 38 adds a...

What started as Sen. Ben Nelson's personal stand against covering abortion with taxpayer money translated, somehow, into millions of dollars in federal aid for his home state. The Nebraska Democrat, following weeks of negotiations with his caucus, finally agreed to back the Senate's health care reform bill this weekend after Democratic leaders made a series of concessions. Nelson's support gives Democrats the 60 votes they need to overcome a filibuster, barring any last-minute defections. But critics by Sunday were heavily questioning Nelson's motivations, given that the abortion restrictions he sought and won did not satisfy several major anti-abortion lawmakers and...

People keep asking "Isn't bribery illegal??", well, actually, it is. Sounds to me like half of Congress could end up in the slammer!! USC Title 18, Ch 11, Sec 201... (b) Whoever— (1) directly or indirectly, corruptly gives, offers or promises anything of value to any public official or person who has been selected to be a public official, or offers or promises any public official or any person who has been selected to be a public official to give anything of value to any other person or entity, with intent— (A) to influence any official act; or (B) to...

Former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee says those unhappy with the health care overhaul set to be pushed through the Senate this week should express their displeasure at the polls next November. Huckabee spoke Sunday to a raucous crowd of about 1,800 people at an Omaha rally sponsored by Americans for Prosperity of Nebraska. Huckabee says the vote on health care reform is a pivotal moment in American history, and he took Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson to task for deciding to support the measure. Huckabee went so far as to compare Nelson to Judas in the biblical story of Jesus'...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The little town of Libby, Mont., isn't mentioned by name in the Senate's mammoth health care bill, but it's one of the big winners in the legislation, thanks to the influence of Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont. After pushing for years for help for residents of the area, thousands of whom suffer from asbestos-related illnesses from a now-closed mineral mining operation, Baucus inserted language in a package of last-minute amendments that grants them access to Medicare benefits. He didn't advertise the change, and it takes a close read of the bill to find it. It's just...

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - It was the concern of Nebraska's Republican governor over expanded Medicaid costs in the proposed Senate health care overhaul bill that led to a compromise to cover his state's estimated $45 million share over a decade, U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson said Sunday. Gov. Dave Heineman "contacted me and he said this is another unfunded federal mandate and it's going to stress the state budget, and I agreed with him," the Nebraska Democrat said. "I said to the leader and others that this is something that has to be fixed. I didn't participate in the way it...

How Abortion Will Be Paid For Under The Nelson Compromise...

Senior White House Adviser David Axelrod said today that supporters of health care reform are "right on the one-yard line" to push through passage of the legislation now that the Senate Democratic leadership says it has the 60 votes necessary to pass their version this week. Axelrod offered that optimistic prediction, when asked on CNN's State of the Union to describe progress with a football analogy, even though the Senate bill still would have to be reconciled with House legislation that has provisions that didn't pass muster in the upper chamber, and in the face of numerous public opinion polls...

Obama the hypocritical eco-loon ... Obama the Neo-"Com" ... Obama beech-slapped by Sarkozy during a U.S. diplomacy lesson ... and other awesome PhotoChop work by Jamie.