As some here might be aware, my fellow Nebraskan Omaha Steve, a non-primitive on Skins's island, is not exactly enamoured of his Democrat U.S. Senator, E. Benjamin Nelson, arguably the most conservative Democrat in that body.
Senator Nelson after all voted against the latest budget proposed by Pa Kettle in the White House; has a 100% pro-life voting record, supports the Second Amendment, supports the wars for the liberation of Afghanistan and Iraq, and prefers cutting governmental spending to raising taxes.
And he's causing problems for both the Democrat leadership in the Senate, and the primitives on Skins's island, because he's been holding up appointment of an abortion enthusiast to a top-level position in the U.S. Department of Justice, and has lately been making noise questioning the credentials and character of the Latina woman nominated for the U.S. Supreme Court.
But as Senator Nelson is the only congressional Democrat Omaha Steve has here in Nebraska, all the others being Republican, Omaha Steve has to shut up, sit down, and take it.
franksolich's feelings about Senator Nelson are well-known; he's a nice guy, of indisputable integrity and principle, and for the most part reflects the values and attitudes of most Nebraskans.
However, franksolich would just as soon have an (R) in that seat, and no, it's always been unrealistic to expect Senator Nelson to cross the aisle; he's a true-blue, rock-solid born-and-bred Democrat. He's senator for life, and all one can do, as a Republican, is sit back and watch in merriment.
Today, while perusing some ancient newspapers, I came across the reason for Senator Nelson's success, a blue senator in a red state, a Democrat who could not possibly get elected without substantial Republican support.
It's in an editorial from the Fremont (Nebraska)
Daily Tribune, printed November 7, 1930, describing the then-newly-re-elected U.S. Senator George Norris of Nebraska, a Republican Bull Mooser, later a Rooseveltian independent. This editorial in this small-town newspaper won the Pulitzer Prize of 1931, for editorial excellence.
That Norris was, and Nelson is, from McCook, a small town in the southwestern corner of Nebraska, is purely coincidental, and may be disregarded.
The editorial, "The Gentleman from Nebraska," expresses puzzlement as to why Nebraskans would elect, and re-elect, such a person, especially since he had never done anything in particular for Nebraska and Nebraskans.
And Norris surely had no popular appeal; as the editorial noticed, he had no coat-tails, and couldn't even get a dog-catcher elected in Nebraska.
So why?
The writer alleged that Norris was the "revenge" of Nebraska on the eastern establishment elites; while Nebraskans weren't too happy with Norris as a person, they really liked how he gave Hell to the powers that be.
History of course has proven that true; the eastern establishment elites really really really loathed and detested Norris, but couldn't do a damned thing about it, because the voters of Nebraska had sent him to Washington specifically to be a burr under their (the eastern establishment elites) saddle.
This could very well explain the popularity of the current senior U.S. Senator from Nebraska; he doesn't bring home any pork or gravy, but damn, it's a good show, watching him bother and trouble and frustrate the eastern establishment elites.
It's a great show.
That would be more than enough to make lots of Republicans in Nebraska vote for him.
The editorial about the preceding senator is rather long, but essentially, it describes the resentment of Nebraskans, about how the eastern establishment elites scorn, mock, ridicule, disparage, dismiss, laugh at, Nebraska and Nebraskans, then as now.
One quote:
But Senator Norris has found another way to serve Nebraska. By making himself objectionable to the [eastern establishment elites], he has afforded Nebraskans a chance to vent their wrath. He is, perhaps unwittingly, an instrument of revenge.....His real strength in Nebraska is measured by the antagonisms he stirs up beyond the borders of the state. His people take delight in setting him on the heels of the ruling powers.....The more he makes himself objectionable to the [eastern establishment elites], the better they like him.....Norris lets them know there is a Nebraska, and Nebraska does not care how he does it.
And then another quote:
The national conception of a Nebraskan is that of a big hayshaker, with a pitchfork in his hands, a straw in his mouth, a musical comedy goatee on his chin, a patch on the seat of his overalls, and the muck of the barnyard on his boots.....Nebraska has resented these indignities, but has given up hope of avoiding them.....But now it sends George Norris to the U.S. Senate.....Norris does not represent Nebraska politics. He is the personification of a Nebraska protest against the intellectual aloofness of the east. A vote for Norris is cast into the ballot box with all the venom of a snowball thrown at a silk hat.....his people consider him worth the price.
Sic Senator Nelson.
Omaha Steve can take that and shove it up his rectal aperture and smoke it.
