Good Riddance Nelson

In all of the hullabaloo about the Iowa caucuses, one might have missed some important news regarding the future of the Senate as Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson announced his retirement from Congress last week. His retirement comes at a time when Democrats are politically vulnerable in the Senate going into this year’s election cycle. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee along with Top Senate Democrats such as Harry Reid and Charles Schumer have been spending large amounts of cash and privately pressuring Nelson to stay in the Senate and try to fight it out even in a tough year. But even if Nelson has a D next to his name, is it really necessary to keep him around?

If there’s one other factor besides the Republicans that has caused powerful progressive legislation to be gutted and re-worked to a watered down shell of its former self, it’s been the so-called “Blue Dog Democrats” who self-identify as “moderates”. I can think of few Senators currently in Congress more Blue Dog-y than Ben Nelson. While he has come down on the right side of certain bills, it was only after important portions of the bill were altered to fit his quite conservative worldview. He’s one of the few Democrats to vote for the Bush Tax Cuts which is the largest contributor to our deficit. He’s the only Democratic Senator to sign Grover Norquist’s absolutely noxious pledge to never vote for a tax increase, thus limiting our ability for economic recovery as the government can’t generate the necessary revenue it needs for various programs and projects. He’s voted against stem cell research, was for a Federal Marriage Amendment that would have effectively written discrimination into the Constitution, opposed Elena Kagan getting onto the Supreme Court, and voted against Campaign Finance Reform. Remind me again why we need him around? This isn’t moderation. This is further to the right than some Republican Senators. In an era where progressive reform is needed more than ever, the last thing we need is more corporatist Democrats like Ben Nelson undermining it at every turn.