SANDERS GRABS KANSAS & NEBRASKA; HILLARY TAKES LOUISIANA

SANDERS GRABS KANSAS & NEBRASKA; HILLARY TAKES LOUISIANA:

A VOTE FOR SANDERS IS A VOTE FOR HILLARY.

SANDERS IS HILLARY'S 2016 DEBATE COACH.

Sources:  AP, ABC News, BBC, CNN, YouTube

**** Sanders Wins Kansas, Nebraska; Clinton Takes Louisiana

Democratic voters in three states went to the polls on Saturday in the Democratic nominating contest, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders won Kansas and Nebraska while frontrunner Hillary Clinton took Louisiana.

Here are the results:

Kansas (caucuses)

Bernie Sanders has won the Kansas Democratic caucuses.

With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Sanders won 68 percent of the vote compared to 32 percent for Clinton. Delegates are allocated proportionally and there is a 15% threshold so both candidates will get delegates.

"The biggest states are yet to come. New York State, California, Oregon, Washington State. States that we think we can do very well in. Every state is important," Sanders said at a campaign event in Michigan on Saturday night. "Michigan is important. We’re going to win some, we’re going to lose some. But, I think basically that we have a path towards victory. I’m very proud, not only that we seem to be winning these states, but winning them with pretty big numbers.”

Nebraska (caucuses)

ABC News projects Bernie Sanders will win the Nebraska Democratic caucuses, based on analysis of the vote.

Louisiana (primary)

With 100 percent of the precincts reporting in, Hillary Clinton has won Louisiana Democratic primary.

Speaking Saturday night in Detroit, Michigan, Clinton congratulated Sanders for “running a strong campaign.”

“I am thrilled we are adding to our pledged delegate count. I am grateful to everyone who turned out to support us,” she said. “But now all eyes turn to Michigan. And I can tell you this we’re going to work for every vote.”

Clinton also criticized Republicans and said our politics has been “hijacked” by “extreme ideologues all across the country.”

Hillary Clinton: 71%

Bernie Sanders: 23%

BLACK OMAHA CURSING TODDLER UPDATE: He's In Protective Custody (Civil Rights Were Violated)

#ToddlerTHUG


UPDATE: CURSING BLACK OMAHA TODDLER MOCKED BY POLICE UNION IS NOW IN PROTECTIVE CUSTODY.

I repeat.

Posting a video of this Child's antics on a Police Union website was NOT about "Educating the Public"!

Instead it's about RACISM & perpetuating STEREOTYPES.

This Child's CIVIL RIGHTS were clearly VIOLATED.

#ToddlerTHUG

CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES DOESN'T CARE ABOUT BLACK CHILDREN

The OMAHA, Nebraska CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES claims to have been Monitoring a BLACK Family ("Toddler Thug's") since August of 2013.

So even though the Toddler's 16-year-old Mother was Shot in front of him & he too was Injured.....

CPS still chose to leave this Toddler in the Family home with 3 other Minor Children.

Why??

When it was apparent all Minor Children in this Family were in possible Danger, why didn't Omaha's CPS officials step him to remove these Children before now??

Yet when DON LEMON & the OMAHA Police Union expose what's going on in this Toddler's world and begins to question why CPS hasn't intervened, suddenly CPS steps in and removes all Minor Children from the home.

I've just described CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICE Agencies in EVERY State & County!

CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES DOESN'T CARE ABOUT BLACK CHILDREN





ARTICLE: "Swearing Toddler In 'Thug' Video Taken Into Protective Custody"

A Nebraska toddler who repeated a slew of profanities in an online video has been taken into child protective custody, Omaha police said Wednesday.

While authorities found nothing criminal in the video, officials from the Omaha police's Child Victim Unit and the Nebraska Child Protective Services took the infant and three other children into custody on Wednesday, the police department said on its Facebook page.

The joint investigation found safety concerns, the statement said.

CNN learned of development through Twitter.

In the video, the diapered child is bombarded with obscenities and racial slurs by the adults around him.

The African-American toddler knocks down a chair and gives nearly as good as he gets, responding to some of the comments with an upraised middle finger and telling one of the adults at one point, "Shut up, bitch." The adults laugh and prompt him to repeat other crudities.

Just another day on the Internet -- until the police union in Omaha, Nebraska, posted the clip on its website to highlight what it called the "cycle of violence and thuggery" the community faces.

The Omaha Police Officers Association came under fire from the city's police chief, the ACLU and at least one community leader. They say the move needlessly antagonizes the city's minority communities, who make up about a quarter of Omaha's 409,000 residents.

Sgt. John Wells, the union's president, said the video was "disturbing" and "offensive."

"The focus here isn't on any particular ethnic group. The focus here is on the troubling behavior towards this child," Wells said. "This behavior is going to potentially lead this child down a path that is completely unhealthy."

On the website where the video is hosted, the union said the clip came from "a local thug's public Facebook page."

"We here at OmahaPOA.com viewed the video and we knew that despite the fact that it is sickening, heartbreaking footage, we have an obligation to share it to continue to educate the law abiding public about the terrible cycle of violence and thuggery that some young innocent children find themselves helplessly trapped in," the police union wrote in a post accompanying the video.

"Now while we didn't see anything in this video that is blatantly 'illegal,' we sure did see a lot that is flat out immoral and completely unhealthy for this little child from a healthy upbringing standpoint," it added.

Wells said one of the adults mentions a local street gang in the video.

"That is why when we talk about the culture, the criminal culture, that this is to try to break the cycle and deal with the culture of violence and the culture of gang activity," he said.

But in a city where police officers' treatment of minorities led to lawsuits, criminal charges against two officers and the firings and reassignments of several others in the past year, critics say the video is poking at raw wounds. Willie Hamilton, president of the community activist group Black Men United, said the union "crossed a line by doing this."

"For them to take a video out of context -- a 2-year-old who doesn't have the brain capacity to know what's going on -- and to say that this child, because two adults acted inappropriately, is going to end up in a life of crime is totally inappropriate," Hamilton said.

And the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska, which filed an excessive-force suit against the Omaha Police Department on behalf of an African-American family on Monday, said the union's use of "racially charged language" was "very disconcerting."

Police Chief Todd Schmaderer tried to distance his agency from the controversy in a statement issued Tuesday, saying that the union's website and Facebook page are separate from those of the Omaha Police Department and that he has little authority over the public statements of union members.

"With that background and understanding, I want to make it explicit and clear that the views expressed on the OPOA Facebook page do not necessarily reflect the official stance of the Omaha Police Department," Schmaderer said. "I strongly disagree with any postings that may cause a divide in our community or an obstacle to police community relations."

Wells said union members have turned the video over to the department's child victim unit, which will work with child-welfare agencies to investigate the circumstances. He said the organization "didn't think we'd get this big of a reaction."

"Hopefully, the impact is, it gives law-abiding citizens what law enforcement deals with on a daily basis, and it sort of throws back the blinders that these type of problems are going on," he said. "And we can have a very frank and open discussion on how to tackle these issues and come up with solutions."





Source: CNN, Daily Mail, Fox News, NY Daily News, Youtube

OMAHA Police Union Post Video Of BLACK Toddler Cursing & Flipping The Bird (It's Plain RACISM!)

#ToddlerTHUG


OMAHA "TODDLER THUG"?? Let's be real!

The ONLY reason why this BLACK Omaha Toddler's Profanity-laced antics were posted online by a POLICE UNION is due to RACISM plain & simple!!

IT'S NOT ABOUT EDUCATING THE PUBLIC......IT'S RACISM.

Posting such a video online is actually a Violation of this Toddler's CIVIL RIGHTS!

FYI: By the way No CHILD ABUSE Charges were filed against the Toddler's Family members.




ARTICLE: "Police Union Draws Fire Over Swearing Toddler 'Thug' Video"

The diapered child is bombarded with obscenities and racial slurs by the adults around him.

The African-American toddler knocks down a chair and gives nearly as good as he gets, responding to some of the comments with an upraised middle finger and telling one of the adults at one point, "Shut up, bitch." The adults laugh and prompt him to repeat other crudities.

Just another day on the Internet -- until the police union in Omaha, Nebraska, posted the clip on its website to highlight what it called the "cycle of violence and thuggery" the community faces.

Now, the Omaha Police Officers' Association is under fire from the city's police chief, the ACLU and at least one community leader. They say the move needlessly antagonizes the city's minority communities, who make up about a quarter of Omaha's 409,000 residents.

Sgt. John Wells, the union's president, said the video was "disturbing" and "offensive."

"The focus here isn't on any particular ethnic group. The focus here is on the troubling behavior towards this child," Wells said. "This behavior is going to potentially lead this child down a path that is completely unhealthy."

On the website where the video is hosted, the union said the clip came from "a local thug's public Facebook page."

"We here at OmahaPOA.com viewed the video and we knew that despite the fact that it is sickening, heartbreaking footage, we have an obligation to share it to continue to educate the law abiding public about the terrible cycle of violence and thuggery that some young innocent children find themselves helplessly trapped in," the police union wrote in a post accompanying the video.

"Now while we didn't see anything in this video that is blatantly 'illegal,' we sure did see a lot that is flat out immoral and completely unhealthy for this little child from a healthy upbringing standpoint," it added.

Wells said one of the adults mentions a local street gang in the video.

"That is why when we talk about the culture, the criminal culture, that this is to try to break the cycle and deal with the culture of violence and the culture of gang activity," he said.

But in a city where police officers' treatment of minorities led to lawsuits, criminal charges against two officers and the firings and reassignments of several others in the past year, critics say the video is poking at raw wounds. Willie Hamilton, president of the community activist group Black Men United, said the union "crossed a line by doing this."

"For them to take a video out of context -- a 2-year-old who doesn't have the brain capacity to know what's going on -- and to say that this child, because two adults acted inappropriately, is going to end up in a life of crime is totally inappropriate," Hamilton said.

And the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska, which filed an excessive-force suit against the Omaha Police Department on behalf of an African-American family on Monday, said the union's use of "racially charged language" was "very disconcerting."

"Officers should be working to build a culture where anyone feels comfortable calling law enforcement," ACLU of Nebraska Executive Director Becki Brenner said in a written statement. "The manner in which the Officers Association has discussed this incident has done nothing but further erode community trust and reinforce the need for independent oversight, trainings, and other reforms."

Police Chief Todd Schmaderer tried to distance his agency from the controversy in a statement issued Tuesday, saying that the union's website and Facebook page are separate from those of the Omaha Police Department and that he has little authority over the public statements of union members.

"With that background and understanding, I want to make it explicit and clear that the views expressed on the OPOA Facebook page do not necessarily reflect the official stance of the Omaha Police Department," Schmaderer said. "I strongly disagree with any postings that may cause a divide in our community or an obstacle to police community relations."

Hamilton said the statement was too little, too late. Schmaderer was speaking out only "because this thing is on the Internet and went viral," he said.

"What do you think it's going to do about the trust level? You think we're going to call you and tell you anything? No. All this is doing is highlighting that."

Wells said union members have turned the video over to the department's child victim unit, which will work with child-welfare agencies to investigate the circumstances. He said the organization "didn't think we'd get this big of a reaction."

"Hopefully, the impact is, it gives law-abiding citizens what law enforcement deals with on a daily basis, and it sort of throws back the blinders that these type of problems are going on," he said. "And we can have a very frank and open discussion on how to tackle these issues and come up with solutions."


Sources: AP, CNN, OmahaPOA.com, Youtube

Bob Kerrey vs His Nebraska Residency: GOP Wants To Block His Eligibility

Nebraska GOP pushes forward with Kerrey residency challenge


The Nebraska Republican Party will push forward in court with a challenge to the residency of Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Bob Kerrey, the group confirmed Tuesday.

Kerrey, who served as a Nebraska senator from 1989-2001, later moved out of the state to serve as president of The New School in New York City.

Last week Nebraska Secretary of State John Gale determined Kerrey moved back to Nebraska "with some urgency" to file the requisite residency forms, but that he remained eligible to appear of the May 15 primary ballot and the November general election ballot.

Gale said Nebraska state law requires Senate candidates meet requirements laid out by the U.S. Constitution, which only mandates a person be a resident of their state at the time they are elected.

On Tuesday, Nebraska Republican Party Executive Director Jordan McGrain said his group was challenging the ruling in court.

"Part of our contention is that while the federal Constitution provides the requirements to serve in the Senate, individual states certainly have the purview to decide whether or not he can remain on the ballot," McGrain said.

In the original challenge to Kerrey's residency submitted to the Secretary of State, the Nebraska GOP contended Kerrey hastily moved back to Nebraska after deciding to make a bid for Senate seat vacated by retiring Sen. Ben Nelson.

In his determination opinion, Secretary of State Gale concluded Kerrey initially listed his sister's Omaha residence on his voter registration application when he first moved back to Nebraska in February. He soon switched his residence to another Omaha address, telling the Secretary of State he was leasing the guest house on a friend's property.

In his determination, Gale wrote, "It is quite clear that Mr. Kerrey considered himself a resident of New York State until February 28, 2012, when he filed his first voter registration application with the Douglas County Election Commissioner."

Despite concluding the accusations from the Nebraska GOP had merit, Gale said he would be unable to bar Kerrey from appearing on the primary and general election ballots since the federal rules only require a person to reside in the state at the time of election.

McGrain said his group was pushing forward with a court challenge, saying, "We've heard a number of Nebraskans who are concerned in the manner in which Bob Kerrey was able to fly in at eleventh hour for purposes of running for Senate."

No matter the outcome, the effort will underscore a major element of the Republican campaign against Kerrey, which seeks to paint the former senator a New York liberal. Radio spots from the conservative group American Crossroads, which began airing last week, asserted: "A decade in Greenwich Village changed Bob Kerrey."

"We feel there's a compelling argument to get him removed, and I suppose the political byproduct is people remain informed that he still doesn't live in Nebraska," McGrain said. "It seems he's flying back to New York every weekend, and even if he won, would move with his family to Washington."


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Sources: CNN, N in the Know, Youtube, Google Maps

Democrats Are Losing Labor Union Support & Millions Of Voters

Labor Unions Steam Over Democrats' Inaction



Labor groups are furious with the Democrats they helped put in office — and are threatening to stay home this fall when Democratic incumbents will need their help fending off Republican challengers.

The Senate’s failure to confirm labor lawyer Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board was just the latest blow, but the frustrations have been building for months.

"Here's labor getting thrown under the bus again," said John Gage, the national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 600,000 workers. "It's really frustrating for labor, and a lot of union people are thinking: We put out big time in money and volunteers and support. And it seems like the little things that could have been aren't being done."

The 52-33 vote on Becker — who needed 60 to be confirmed — really set labor unions on edge, but the list of setbacks is growing.

The so-called “card check” bill that would make it easier to unionize employees has gone nowhere. A pro-union Transportation Security Administration nominee quit before he even got a confirmation vote. And even though unions got a sweetheart deal to keep their health plans tax-free under the Senate health care bill, that bill has collapsed, leaving unions exposed again.

Union leaders warn that the Democrats' lackluster performance in power is sapping the morale of activists going into the midterm elections.

"Right now if we don’t get positive changes to the agenda, we’re going to have a hard time getting members out to work," said United Steelworkers International President Leo W. Gerard, in an interview.

“There’s no use pretending any longer.”

The biggest threat, of course, is apathy from a Democratic constituency that has a history of mobilizing for elections.

"You're just not going to be able to go to our membership in the November elections and say, 'Come on, let's do it again. Look at what the Democratic administration has done for us!'" Gage said. "People are going to say, 'Huh? What have the Democrats done for us?'"

Kim Freeman Brown, the executive director of a D.C.-based nonprofit called American Rights at Work, acknowledged "frustration" with the lack of movement.

"I implore Congress to listen to the voice of their constituents who want change, and so far we haven't delivered good enough on that promise," she said. "To the degree that we don't address these real bread-and-butter issues, we will have failed America's workers."

Gage warned that Democrats will struggle to energize blue-collar voters if they don't score a few victories soon. Union leaders say they will closely watch as a new "jobs bill" emerges to see if it includes more labor-friendly provisions or tax cuts for small businesses.

When you talk to labor officials these days, much of their animus is directed at Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), who helped filibuster Becker's confirmation.

"Ben Nelson has got principles until you buy him off," Gerard said.

A group affiliated with the Service Employees International Union, called Change That Works, had defended Nelson's support for an unpopular health care reform bill in his home state.

But the Nebraska director of that group, Jane Kleeb, now criticizes Nelson for not allowing the Becker nomination to come to the floor for an up-or-down vote. And Bill Samuel, legislative director for the AFL-CIO, accused Nelson of following a "double standard" since he had argued that the nominees of then-President George W. Bush should get up-or-down votes.

Another AFL-CIO spokesman, Eddie Vale, pinpointed Nelson, saying he had "let down" working families.

Nelson said Becker’s stance on labor issues made him worry whether he would be "impartial" in making NLRB decisions.

But labor unions can’t pin all their blame on Nelson. The failure of a wide range of union priorities has been deflating for the labor movement, which seemed destined to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of Barack Obama’s presidency.

And with unemployment hovering around 10 percent, special treatment for unions has only served to harm the movement.

On health care, unions found themselves in a defensive posture. They worked in early January to carve out an exception from an excise tax on so-called Cadillac insurance policies, only to see the package fall apart, with recriminations about just the kind of back-room deal making they had engaged in.

Obama said he would push for greater unionization at the Transportation Security Administration, but it hasn't happened. Obama has pushed for education programs that have long been unpopular with teachers' unions. And then, in his State of the Union address, the president called for Congress to strengthen trade relationships with South Korea, Panama and Columbia.

The support for those trade agreements irked Gerard, the leader of the steelworkers union, who praises Speaker Nancy Pelosi but blames the upper chamber.

"Our problem is the Senate," Gerard said. "The only thing they can pass is the washroom. I don't want to tar Democrats. Not all Democrats in the Senate are problems."

The situation in the Senate became more frustrating when Democrats lost their 60-seat supermajority with the election of Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown.

Brown’s first significant vote was a “no” on Becker.

"I think you see how working people feel by how they voted in Massachusetts," Gerard said. "In Massachusetts, it wasn't an anger that the government had done too much. It was an anger that there hadn't been enough change."

Democrats are now scrambling to shore up support for labor unions, but they don’t seem to have a game plan for more union-friendly legislation in advance of the midterm elections.

But Katie Packer, executive director of the anti-card-check Workforce Fairness Institute, said labor groups would have achieved a lot more if they hadn't overreached.

"I'm from Detroit, so the concept of labor overreach is not lost on me," she said. "What we've seen more than anything is an attempt by big labor is to be especially greedy and grab for things that weren't achievable."


Sources: Politico

Ben Nelson (Dem.) To Block Obama's Labor Union Rel. Nominee

Ben Nelson Will Back GOP Filibuster For Obama's Nominee


Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) announced Monday evening that he will support a Republican-led filibuster over President Barack Obama's nominee to serve on the National Labor Relations Board.

The move is likely to infuriate labor groups who have fought hard for Craig Becker's nomination to serve on the five-member NLRB - and will likely give Republicans enough support to sustain a filibuster Tuesday.

“Mr. Becker’s previous statements strongly indicate that he would take an aggressive personal agenda to the NLRB, and that he would pursue a personal agenda there, rather than that of the administration,” Nelson said in a statement. “This is of great concern, considering that the board’s main responsibility is to resolve labor disputes with an even and impartial hand."

Nelson, a conservative Democrat up for re-election in 2012, has seen his approval ratings drop sharply since he lent his support for Obama's health care bill in December and secured deals for Nebraska's Medicaid payments.

His latest decision could help him tout his independent credentials back home, but will likely generate anger from the left, which says Becker is a well-qualified nominee who has been denigrated by his opponents.

Republicans have tried to make Becker's nomination a referendum on the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier to unionize. In his statement, Nelson said Becker has made several statements that "fly in the face of Nebraska’s Right to Work laws."


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Sources: Politico, Google Maps

Midwest Holiday Blizzard Claims 21 Lives

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Christmas Storm Strands Travelers In Midwest


Residents across the Midwest and the Plains who made it home for Christmas were digging out on Friday after a fierce snowstorm while those who spent the night in airports and shelters tried to resume their journeys. Meteorologists warned that roads across the region remained dangerous.

The National Weather Service said blizzards would hit parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin through Saturday. The storm had already dumped significant snow across the region, including a record 14 inches in Oklahoma City and 11 inches in Duluth, Minn., on Thursday.

Slippery roads have been blamed for at least 21 deaths this week as the storm lumbered across the country from the Southwest. Ice storm warnings and winter weather advisories were issued for parts of the East Coast on Friday, but the region was largely spared.

Paul Mews, who drove from Faribault, Minn., to a relative's home in Plum City, Wis., on Friday morning, said the first 15 minutes of the 80-mile trip were clear, but a surge of heavy snowfall produced a stretch of near-whiteout conditions.

"It was snow-pocalypse. It was wicked," said Mews, 25. "We thought about turning around and going back."

They decided to continue when the surge passed minutes later.

Christmas in the truck stop

Others weren't as lucky.

Army Sgt. Mark Matthey was spending Friday night at the Flying J Travel Plaza in Sioux Falls, S.D., after Interstate 90 closed. Matthey, 26, left Fort Bragg, N.C., on Wednesday for his hometown of Spokane, Wash., in hopes of making it by late Friday or early Saturday.

Instead, he spent Friday afternoon drinking coffee, watching TV and making friends at the truck stop. He planned to find a spot to sleep on the floor or in the cab of his truck.

Matthey said he and the other travelers were in decent spirits.

"Everybody has the attitude that you have to play the cards you were dealt," he said. "No use in getting upset about something you can't control."

Interstates also were closed in North Dakota, Nebraska and Wyoming. Meteorologists warned that massive snow drifts and blustery winds could cause whiteouts across the northern Plains. Officials urged travelers to stay home and pack emergency kits if they had to set out.

Rescues along Texas highways

In Texas, volunteer firefighters and sheriff's deputies rescued hundreds of people stranded along Interstate 44 and Texas State Highway 287 near Wichita Falls. The area recorded up to 13 inches of snow, said Doug Speheger, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

"It's really been horrible," Wichita County Sheriff David Duke said. "Although we live in North Texas and get a lot of cold weather, we weren't prepared for the significant amount of snow that we've received."

Only two of the sheriff department's vehicles have four-wheel drive, so rescuers used their own pickups and the heavy 5-ton brush trucks normally used to fight fires to get to motorists, many of whom ran out of gas while they were stuck in traffic stalled by the storm.

"It was exciting at first to wake up and go, 'Oh, this will be great. We'll have a white Christmas,'" Wichita Falls Mayor Lanham Lyne said. "Then it kept snowing. As the roads became impassable, then we started to worry."

Even residents in the Dallas-Fort Worth area briefly experienced a white Christmas, their first in more than 80 years. Not since Dec. 25, 1926 — when 6 inches fell on Dallas and Collin counties — had the area had a true postcard-looking Christmas.

But by late afternoon, the 3 inches of snow measured at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport on Christmas Eve was all but melted.

Winds were gusting from 45 mph to 60 mph across the Dakotas and Nebraska on Friday. Crews were working to restore power to thousands of customers in Nebraska, Oklahoma, Kansas, Illinois and Iowa.

The storm also grounded flights at South Dakota's biggest airports. Sioux Falls Regional Airport was closed until Saturday morning at the earliest, manager Dan Letellier told the Sioux Falls Argus Leader. Flights also were canceled at Rapid City Regional Airport and Pierre Regional Airport. The total number of flights affected wasn't immediately available.

About 200 people were stuck overnight at Oklahoma's largest airport, which closed Thursday afternoon after several inches of snow clogged runways, said Mark Kranenburg, director of the Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City. The airport reopened Friday morning, but only one runway was operational.

Most of the stranded passengers were gone by Friday afternoon. While some were able to catch flights, many simply went home. Kranenburg predicted it would be two or three days before all three runways were open and flights resumed as scheduled.

The 14 inches of snow in Oklahoma City broke a record for the day of 2.5 inches set back in 1914.

The previous record for Christmas Eve in Duluth, which has gotten more than 22 inches in two days, was 3 inches in 1893, said Kevin Kraujalis, a National Weather Service meteorologist. By the time the storm is over, it could be one of the 10 worst in Duluth's recorded history.

With heavy winds producing snow drifts as deep as 5 feet, "it's awful, it's just awful," Kraujalis said. "It's a big workout just walking outside to check my weather equipment."

Since Tuesday, icy roads have been blamed for accidents that killed at least seven people in Nebraska, five people in Oklahoma, four in Kansas, two in Minnesota and one each in North Dakota, Missouri and New Mexico.



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Sources: MSNBC, Google Maps

Richard Burr & State Prosecutors Probe Constitutionality Of Ben Nelson's Deal

Several State Prosecutors Probing Nelson Health Care Deal



The top Prosecutors in seven states are probing the constitutionality of a political deal that cut a funding break for Nebraska in order to pass a federal health care reform bill, South Carolina's Attorney General said Tuesday.

Attorney General Henry McMaster said he and his counterparts in Alabama, Colorado, Michigan, North Dakota, Texas and Washington state — all Republicans — are jointly taking a look at the deal they've dubbed the "Nebraska compromise."

"The Nebraska Compromise", which permanently exempts Nebraska from paying Medicaid costs that Texas and all other 49 states must pay, may violate the United States Constitution — as well as other provisions of Federal law," Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said.

McMaster's move comes at the request of Republican U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint of South Carolina.

We have serious concerns

In a letter to McMaster, Graham singled out the deal to win Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson's vote on the massive health care bill the Senate is expected to adopt Thursday. Nelson held out as fellow Democrats worked to get 60 votes to foreclose a GOP filibuster and the bill was amended to shield Nebraska from the expected $45 million annual cost tied to expanding Medicaid programs.

"We have serious concerns about the constitutionality of this Nebraska compromise as it results in special treatment for only one state in the nation at the expense of the other 49," Graham and DeMint wrote.

Nebraska wasn't alone in getting Medicaid breaks. Vermont, Louisiana and Massachusetts also got help with their programs.

Along with Texas, officials in Washington, Alabama, Colorado and Michigan confirmed they were working with McMaster.

North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said he wasn't sure what could be done while the federal legislation remained under debate. Officials in the other states did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, Tennessee's Republican Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey called for his state's attorney general to investigate the deal.

Ramsey, McMaster and Michigan's Mike Cox are running for governor in their states.

"Whether in the court of law or in the court of public opinion, we must bring an end to this culture of Corruption," McMaster said. The negotiations "on their face appear to be a form of vote buying paid for by taxpayers," he said.

We'll assist anyone

McMaster is encouraging a South Carolina citizen to step forward to sue to challenge the measure if it is signed into law. "We'll assist anyone to the extent that we're able," McMaster said.

Also Tuesday, U.S. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., said Republicans need to stop complaining about deals their colleagues made.

"Rather than sitting here and carping about what Nelson got for Nebraska, I would say to my friends on the other side of the aisle: Let's get together and see what we can get for South Carolina," Clyburn said.

For instance, Clyburn expects states will get more help covering Medicaid expansion costs. Critics say the federal government's coverage of 91 percent of those future costs will disappear, leaving states with huge holes in their budgets. Clyburn says the legislation the federal share should be 95 percent, with states picking up no more than 5 percent.

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford said the federal legislation is "well intended," but called it "fundamentally flawed in the same way the stimulus efforts were in that the states and the taxpayers are left footing the bill."

Sanford this spring was the nation's only governor to take a state legislature to Federal and State court to block federal stimulus money.




Schumer Goes Hunting, Bags Nelson



The perils of "Political hunting" trips range from mockery — as with Sen. John Kerry’s (D-Mass.) expensive gear — to mortal danger — as in ending up on the wrong end of Dick Cheney’s 28-gauge.

But Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) had another story in mind when he traveled recently to Nebraska, a cautionary tale told to him early in his career by an older, urban-oriented New Jersey congressman who had made the mistake of accepting a hunting invitation from a Midwestern colleague.

“He shot the dog,” Schumer recalled, referring to the outcome of the Jersey pol’s inept marksmanship.

Schumer did not shoot the dog. He bagged three pheasants. And six weeks later, he bagged Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), serving as key negotiator as Nelson held the fate of landmark health care legislation in the balance.

While the two Senate Democrats didn’t spend their morning in a field outside Omaha talking business, the hunting trip will go down as a key, if unconventional, detour on the road to the Democrats’ most important modern legislative accomplishment.

The senator from Brooklyn woke up early the morning of Nov. 8, a day after he’d watched Nebraska thump Oklahoma on the gridiron. He put on a blaze orange hunting vest and hat, refusing only the boots (“too big”). He received a crash course on shotgun safety and marveled at the dogs.

“They were just amazing,” he said of the pointers and retrievers. “I always thought hunting dogs were just for companionship.”

Then the senator from New York saw a pheasant, took aim and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened.

“He didn’t get the safety off, so he couldn't shoot,” his host, Nelson, recalled with a chuckle Tuesday morning. “You have to push the safety off to shoot. He figured that out.”

The next pheasant wasn’t so lucky.

“He thought I shot it,” said Nelson. “I said, ‘No, I know I didn’t shoot ‘cause I didn’t shoot.’ And I said, ‘So you either scared it to death or you hit it.’ He was ready to jump up and down.”

Schumer bagged, his companions told him, three pheasants that early November day in Nebraska, though he was “never 100 percent sure they weren’t helping me.”

Schumer and Nelson's friendship began in 2005, when Schumer was named chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Nelson was considering retiring instead of seeking reelection in a conservative-oriented state in 2006, and Schumer told POLITICO that when he assumed the DSCC chairmanship, Nelson was his first call.

The logic was clear, Schumer said: “He runs, we win; if he doesn’t run, we lose.” So he gave in, he says, to extensive demands from the Nebraskan, and Nelson cruised to what turned out to be an easy reelection.

Schumer’s bond with the Senate moderates he helped elect and reelect in 2006 and 2008 has powered his remarkable ascent within the chamber. Two years ago, Schumer seemed in danger of being overshadowed by his state’s junior senator, Hillary Clinton, or elbowed aside in the Senate leadership by Obama mentor Dick Durbin.

Beyond Majority Leader Harry Reid, the architect of the Democrats' successful health care strategy, Schumer has emerged as the dominant political force and go-to negotiator on Reid's leadership team. And the Senate is on the verge of passing landmark legislation that's deeply controversial in states such as Nelson's, a lesson Schumer said was drummed into him by the people he met that weekend in Omaha.

The apparent political victory has further enhanced Schumer’s stature. The jokes about the most dangerous place in Washington being between him and a camera have gone stale, replaced by a widespread recognition that he has evolved into one of the essential players on the American political landscape and, quite likely, a future majority leader.

The hunting story became legend in the Senate last month after Nelson passed photographs of the orange-clad, gun-toting Harvard grad, dead bird in hand, around an amused caucus lunch. But it also belongs in the broader legend of Schumer, the political animal par excellence.

“Chuck always wants to know where the other guy is coming from,” said Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), a former Schumer staffer, who added that he wasn’t surprised that Schumer acquitted himself well.

“He has handled more guns at crime bill press conferences than most hunters,” he said.

Indeed, word of Schumer’s hunting exploits was greeted with astonishment on both sides of the simmering gun control wars, in which Schumer came of age as a central player. His work on the Brady Bill’s handgun restriction turned him into, literally, a National Rifle Association poster child. The NRA’s favorite image pictures Schumer grinning under bright blue earmuffs as he demonstrates the deadliness of a stubby assault weapon.

“He just must have needed Nelson's vote very badly to do that,” said Tom King, the president of the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, who called Schumer “patently anti-gun.”

Schumer says, however, that he favors only common sense and regionally varied restrictions on guns, and he has long bragged of winning, at summer camp, an NRA sharpshooting prize with a .22 rifle.

“It surprised me he went out with Ben Nelson shooting, but it doesn’t surprise me that he shot a couple of birds,” said Jim Kessler, a former Schumer aide who later founded Americans for Gun Safety, a gun control group that was later folded into the group Third Way. “In 1994, if Chuck thought the way to win the assault weapons ban vote was to go out and hunt with [former Democratic Rep.] Bill Brewster of Oklahoma and shoot three birds, he would have done it.”

Schumer and Nelson differ slightly about the origins of the hunting trip. Schumer recalls Nelson telling him, in the spring, “You have to come out.”

“I’ve always wanted to go hunting,” he said.

“I thought he was kidding at first; I said 'sure,’” Nelson said. “And I finally said, 'If you are serious, I can arrange this.' And he was, and so I did.”

Schumer and Nelson also shot skeet. They also tooled around on ATVs, with Schumer’s wife, former New York City Transportation Commissioner Iris Weinshall, hanging onto the back of Nelson’s vehicle. (Her city job hadn’t involved much off-roading.) Schumer posed with his dead quarry, though he left it for Nelson to dress, before they retired to the lodge for a lunch of pheasant.

(“He would definitely want to eat it,” Kessler said of his former boss. “He’s got to eat it. He’d eat anything.”)

They did not, both senators said, talk health care.

“There wasn’t any lobbying effort, just two guys having fun and going hunting and watching football,” said Nelson.

But the Nebraska senator’s warm regard for the New Yorker, and their relationship of trust, would prove central to getting the final health care deal done. Last Wednesday night, Nelson gave a list of must-haves to Schumer and Reid. At times on Thursday, Schumer was calling Nelson every 15 minutes, as part of what the Nebraskan called “pre-negotiations.” By nightfall, with progress being made, Reid asked Nelson to join a round of intensive talks Friday morning. Nelson was set up in one wing of Reid's suite of offices. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), one of the Senate’s most liberal members, was in another part. For 12 hours, Schumer and Reid shuttled between them.

Schumer “was extremely important,” Nelson told POLITICO just after the deal was done. “The thing about Chuck Schumer is he is very innovative, he doesn’t get ideological about something. …We may be an odd couple in a lot of respects, but we share some of the same qualities in trying to solve things.”

Schumer said the negotiations left him with deep respect for Nelson and that the hunting trip also taught a lesson.

“You can see where going hunting is a real bonding experience, kind of like golf,” he mused. “I’d like to do it again.”

“I’ve got a lot of invitations,” Schumer said.



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Harry Reid's Deals To Get His 60 Votes, Defense Bill Clears

Mass., Vermont Bigger Medicaid Winners Than Nebraska


Perhaps the Republican criticism of Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) is misplaced: Nebraska is set to reap only a fraction of the $1.2 billion in special Medicaid deals for three states.

Vermont, which is represented by the once-wavering Sen. Bernie Sanders, would recieve $600 million over 10 years for its Medicaid costs, according to Congressional Budget Office figures requested by Senate Republicans.

Massachusetts would see $500 million, according to the CBO.

Nelson, who has been lambasted throughout the day, steered only (!) $100 million to his state to cost the full cost of the Medicaid expansion.





Payoffs For States Get Harry Reid To 60 Votes



Ben Nelson’s “Cornhusker Kickback,” as the GOP is calling it, got all the attention Saturday, but other senators lined up for deals as Majority Leader Harry Reid corralled the last few votes for a health reform package.

Nelson’s might be the most blatant – a deal carved out for a single state, a permanent exemption from the state share of Medicaid expansion for Nebraska, meaning federal taxpayers have to kick in an additional $45 million in the first decade.

But another Democratic holdout, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), took credit for $10 billion in new funding for community health centers, while denying it was a “sweetheart deal.” He was clearly more enthusiastic about a bill he said he couldn’t support just three days ago.

Nelson and Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) carved out an exemption for non-profit insurers in their states from a hefty excise tax. Similar insurers in the other 48 states will pay the tax.

Vermont and Massachusetts were given additional Medicaid funding, another plus for Sanders and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Three states – Pennsylvania, New York and Florida – all won protections for their Medicare Advantage beneficiaries at a time when the program is facing cuts nationwide.

All of this came on top of a $300 million increase for Medicaid in Louisiana, designed to win the vote of Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu.

Under pressure from the White House to get a deal done by Christmas, Reid was unapologetic. He argued that, by definition, legislating means deal making and defended the special treatment for Nelson’s home state of Nebraska.

“You’ll find a number of states that are treated differently than other states. That’s what legislating is all about. It's compromise," he said.

It was Nelson who proved that he who plays hardest to get, gets the most.

He forced Reid to redraft the bill’s restrictions on federal funding of abortion. And while most insiders were focused on that deal, Nelson was quietly ensuring that his state would never have to pay for the Medicaid expansion being written into the bill – an agreement that had been in the works for weeks.

Medicaid is usually paid for with a mix of federal and state funding, but Nelson's carve out means that any Medicaid beneficiaries who join the program under the bill will be fully paid for by the federal government.

It's an important deal considering that many governors are worried that the Medicaid expansion will further strain already stressed state budgets – and one that came after Nebraska Gov.Dave Heineman called on Nelson to vote against the bill.

"The State of Nebraska cannot afford an unfunded mandate and uncontrolled spending of this magnitude,” the governor wrote to Nelson.

Nelson deferred all questions on the provision to Reid, saying only that he was “comfortable” the deal took care of Nebraska.

But Nelson’s deal could be a pittance compared to where the Nebraska compromise might ultimately lead – to 49 other states demanding that the feds pick up their share of health reform’s new Medicaid burden when it kicks in during 2017.

"When you look at it, I thought well, God, good, it is going to be the impetus for all the states to stay at 100 percent [federal funding]. So he might have done all of us a favor," Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said of Nelson’s dealings.

Nelson and Levin also pushed a provision that exempts non-profit insurers in Nebraska and Michigan from an annual multi-billion dollar excise tax on insurance companies.

Not surprisingly, both states are home to non-profit insurers who control a high-percentage of the industry’s profits. In Michigan, non-profit insurers control 76 percent of the industry’s profits – one of the highest percentages in the nation – while Nebraska non-profits control 46 percent of their state’s profits.

And in an example of how closely senators guarded details, Levin’s office did not answer any questions about the proposal when asked about it on Friday.

Republicans, meanwhile, expressed outrage at the wheeling and dealing, as if their party had never cut a legislative deal in its 150-year history.

“This bill is a monstrosity, a 2,100-page monstrosity full of special deals for people who are willing to vote for it,” said Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. “And they’re playing these kind of games with the nation’s health care. This is an outrage.”

But Sanders didn’t sound outraged when he talked about the extra Medicaid funding Vermont will get for six years. Massachusetts, meanwhile, received three years worth of additional Medicaid funding. Under the original bill, neither state had qualified for the money.

Republican Sen. Mike Enzi accused Democratic leaders of favoring Medicare Advantage beneficiaries in Pennsylvania, New York and Florida at the expense of seniors in other parts of the country.

“The Democrats are playing ‘Let’s make a deal’ with trillions of your hard-earned tax dollars. You and all the American people should know that the majority leader is buying his votes with your money,” said Enzi (R-Wyo.) “The Reid bill gives sweetheart deals to a few states and the rest of the country will foot the bill. Making unfair deals like this is the wrong way to legislate and the American people know it.”

And while there were plenty of state-specific deals, some of the changes were clearly aimed at pleasing specific Democratic factions. For instance, tightened insurance regulations went a long way toward putting a smile on the faces of liberal senators who have lost their much-loved public option.

The amendment mandates that insurers spend no less than 80 percent of their premium revenues providing medical care. Currently, insurers spend about 70 percent of their premiums paying for health care. The bill also eliminates insurers’ ability to cap annual coverage amounts.

In brief remarks at the White House, President Barack Obama also highlighted some new provisions, including penalties for insurers who “arbitrarily jack up rates” and an immediate prohibition on insures’ ability to deny children coverage.

Obama, too, talked of the deals as just the cost of doing business in Washington.

“As with any legislation, compromise is part of the process,” Obama said. “But I'm pleased that recently added amendments have made this landmark bill even stronger.”





War bill Survives Poisonous Vote



A $626 billion Pentagon budget narrowly advanced in the Senate Friday morning, but not before Washington’s political battles seemed to eclipse the real wars of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Senate scene, played out in a post-midnight session on a freezing night, dramatized how poisonous the atmosphere has become in the health care fight.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates had to weigh in for fear the military would be left with only stop-gap funding while fighting two wars overseas. And ailing 92-year-old Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.V.) was wheeled in for the 1 a.m. vote while his old friend Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) deserted the bill under pressure from his own leadership to slow action.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) made no secret of the fact that he was looking for leverage over Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to delay action on health care reform until after Christmas. The pressure on rank-and-file members was severe, and it was only after Democrats had secured the needed 60 votes that three Republicans broke ranks in support of cutting off debate.

“Not even the darkness outside can conceal the games being played inside this Senate chamber,” Reid said in closing remarks before the vote. “We are here in the middle of the night, but the reason is as clear as day.”

By contrast, the same defense measure — including $128 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan — sailed through the Houseon Wednesday on a 395-34 vote. Cochran, the ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, had worked closely with Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) to ensure passage. And toward this end, Democrats pared back extraneous provisions and devoted the bulk of the additional domestic spending to jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed.

“It is a good bill. It ought to be passed, and it ought to be passed as soon as possible,” Cochran said on the floor Wednesday. But after a health care blowup on the floor that day infuriated McConnell, Cochran was pressed by his leadership to slow progress at least until Reid comes forward with the text of proposed changes being made in the Democrats' health care package.

In a statement after the vote, the Mississippian said his party felt it was important to act in “unison,” but that he was confident the measure would soon pass. “I regret that its consideration is being affected by the divisive end-of-session debate on health care reform.”

Neither party is blameless in the sorry state of the defense budget, which should finally clear Congress on Saturday, almost three months into the fiscal year that began Oct. 1.

Democrats stalled action themselves for months, hoping to use it as the locomotive for an end-of-the-year train of legislative items. “The Republicans didn’t control the timing on this bill,” said Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.). “Why haven’t the Democrats been able to bring this most important bill to the Senate for a vote until a week before Christmas?”

Nonetheless the bare-knuckle Republican tactics are most striking because GOP members are typically very supportive of defense spending and reluctant to do anything to obstruct the annual Pentagon budget.

That tradition is wearing thin in today’s Washington. The 1 a.m. vote in the Senate echoed a fight last summer in the House during which Republicans opposed new war funding because they were upset that money for the International Monetary Fund had been added to the package.

“I think they picked the wrong bill for it,” said Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D-Ill.). “Why are we putting the men and women in uniform in the middle of this debate? They didn’t ask for that.”

The three Republicans who supported cloture were Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas and Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins — all representing states with a major economic stake in the defense budget.



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Can Abortion Opponents Live With Nelson/Obama Compromise?

Health Care Deal Hinged On Abortion


It had all come down to abortion.

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), the last Democratic holdout on health care, excused himself for a tense phone call with a Nebraska anti-abortion activist. But what was supposed to be a short break in the negotiations Friday night turned into a 90-minute nail-biter.

With less than 12 hours until Majority Leader Harry Reid needed to introduce the revised bill, the chief domestic policy priority of the White House and Congress was still wobbling on the brink of collapse.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) milled around Reid’s office, popping Christmas cookies and fudge. Reid slumped in his chair. Two top administration aides raced back to the White House screening room to catch part of the Montana-Villanova football game, but had returned to the Capitol, where they were now waiting with a pair of nervous Democratic leaders.

Soon enough, Nelson walked through the doors.

“We can live with this,” he announced to the group.

And with that, Reid secured the 60th vote for the most sweeping social legislation in decades, all but assuring passage in the Senate this week.

It came at a high cost, and exposed the enduring truth of the Senate, where one senator can hold up legislation and bargain his way to “yes.”

Nelson certainly availed himself of the privilege.

His objections already had helped kill the government-run insurance option in the bill. He won an agreement that the federal government will forever pick up Nebraska’s share of a proposed Medicaid expansion, a deal worth about $100 million in the first decade, according to a Senate aide. He carved Nebraska’s non-profit insurers out of a proposed industry tax.

And he built new restrictions on federal financing of abortions into the bill, infuriating groups on both sides of the emotional issue and almost certainly touching off a withering fight over the limits when House and Senate Democrats hash out a final compromise.

Already, a leading abortion opponent in the House, Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), is saying he doesn’t think the language Nelson won in the Senate bill goes far enough. The co-chairs of the House abortion-rights caucus, Democratic Reps. Diana DeGette (Colo.) and Louise M. Slaughter (N.Y.), left open the possibility of opposing Nelson's change as well, saying they believe it might be unconstituional — all signs of how abortion might still emerge as an obstacle to a final deal on reforming the U.S. health system.

Nelson – like Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), who picked up a $300 million Medicaid fix to ease her into supporting the bill last month– made no excuses Saturday for what Republicans blasted as a sweetheart deal.

“I always put Nebraska first,” he told POLITICO in an interview after his announcement. “But I looked at this through the standpoint of Nebraskans and the country.”

Asked how much he got, Nelson said, "Most. Enough. I didn't get exactly every penny I was after."

"There is a difference between holding out for something and holding up," he added. "I was holding out for something to make it better."

But some Republicans suggested that Nelson held out on abortion to advance the deal for his home state on Medicaid. "You gotta compliment Ben Nelson for playing, 'The Price is Right.' He negotiated a Medicaid agreement for Nebraska that puts the federal government on the hook forever," said Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.)

Nelson started with a list of must-have changes that he provided to Schumer.

Nelson said some were specific to Nebraska, like the Medicaid fix. Others, he said, would benefit people across the country, like an inflation adjustment to the $2,500 cap on tax-exempt contributions to Flexible Savings Accounts.

Nelson and Reid quietly opened their negotiations Wednesday night. At times on Thursday, Schumer was calling Nelson every 15 minutes, as part of what the Nebraskan called pre-negotiations. By nightfall, with progress being made, Reid asked Nelson to join a round of intensive talks Friday morning at 9:30.

Unlike during the talks in the House, where White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel took the lead, the administration would be represented by two Senate veterans with deep ties to Nelson’s part of the country.

Senior adviser Pete Rouse once worked for former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), and deputy chief of staff Jim Messina remains close to his former boss, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) Nelson had personal relationships with both of them.

Schumer also had developed a bond with Nelson in recent years. The senator from Brooklyn traveled to Nebraska last month to hunt with Nelson. It was the first time Schumer shot a gun, and he bagged three pheasants.

“We hunt together,” Nelson said, visibly delighted by the irony. “We may be an odd couple in a lot of respects but we share some of the same qualities in trying to solve things.”

By around noon Friday, Reid and Nelson came to agreement in four areas: the Medicaid carve out for Nebraska, the exemption for Nebraska non-profit insurers, an exemption for Medicare supplemental insurance providers, and indexing the Flexible Savings Accounts.

After a break for lunch, Reid turned to abortion.

Nelson and Chief of Staff Tim Becker, who had flown in from Nebraska, set up shop in one room of Reid’s suite. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and her aides settled into another wing with Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the two senators there to represent Democrats who favor abortion rights.

The opposing senators never spoke with each other or sat at the same table. They negotiated through Reid and Schumer.

Through the afternoon and early evening, they appeared deadlocked. Both sides, in consultation with advocacy groups, rejected various offers.

They couldn’t get beyond differences between the so-called Stupak amendment in the House bill, which would require women who receive federal subsidies for insurance to seek out a separate abortion rider, and a proposal by Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) requiring policyholders to opt-out of abortion coverage.

“I don’t know if we can do this,” Nelson said he told Reid at one point. “I’m running out of ideas.”

As he spent the day munching on almonds, peanuts and potato chips, Nelson said he eventually had what he described as a breakthrough. He turned over a piece of paper, and drew a line down the center.

“Why don’t we have two policies?” Nelson asked. “One with and one without.”

Nelson proposed that every state insurance exchange offer at least one plan that does not cover abortion, and policyholders could choose a plan with or without abortion coverage, unless states choose to ban it. Also, people who receive federal subsidies would need to write two separate checks as a way to ensure that none of the federal dollars went toward the abortion premium.

Nelson asked for a break. He left Reid’s office and called Julie Schmit-Albin, executive director of Nebraska Right to Life.

He spent 40 minutes walking her through the proposal, but didn't convince her. In fact, she was beside herself. Nebraska Right to Life endorsed Nelson in 2006, and rallied around him as he emerged as the lone Senate Democrat prepared to filibuster unless the bill included Stupak-style language.

Nelson described the compromise to Schmit-Albin as “Stupak-plus,” since it also includes tax credits to encourage adoption and benefits to help unwed mothers cope with their pregnancy. She didn’t buy it.

“If this is so good for pro-life, why would Sen. Boxer and Sen. Schumer agree to this?” Schmit-Albin said she asked Nelson. “I am personally devastated.”

It was a glimpse of the fury that groups on both sides of the abortion battle would soon unleash. But by that point, Nelson appeared to have his mind made up.

Back in Reid's office, however, Schumer thought they had lost him.

"We had been working on this so long," Schumer said in an interview Saturday. "I had been talking to Ben 10 or 12 times a day, and of course the week before we had the meetings of the Group of 10. Nine months, all of this work, all these compromises, down the drain, for one thing -- that would just be awful."

With snow beginning to fall, Nelson returned to Reid's office, and accepted the deal. They shook hands – and hugged, first with Reid, then Schumer. Boxer and Murray signed off on it, too.

Minutes later, President Barack Obama was on the line from Air Force One, flying from Copenhagen to Washington. With his signature issue rescued, the president wanted to offer his congratulations.



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