That would be over-cornfed Neb. Sen. Ben “Half” Nelson, the latest power-broker wannabe. As NYTimes columnist Gail Collins noted in her insightful, lighthearted column today following Arlen Specter’s party switch:
“The fabled 60th vote! Finally, the Democrats can override filibuster threats and pass the Obama agenda! Except that even as Specter was arriving, his new fellow party members were reminding their leaders that they reserved the right to gum up the works at a moment’s notice. “They might have a 60-member majority. That doesn’t mean they have 60 votes,” warned Senator Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, who is busy trying to block the Obama student loan reform bill.”
Nelson has pulled this weasel act before. But if either of Maine’s politically moderate Republican female Senators decides to vote against fillibusters, it would cancel out Nelson’s grandiose power-broker plans, wouldn’t it?
The Dems really have to mount serious primary challenges against weasels like Nelson.