STFU Ben! Key Democrat warns against 'activist' Obama court nominee

Key Democrat warns against 'activist' Obama court nominee
by Michael Mathes Michael Mathes

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A leading Democratic senator warned Sunday his party could support a potentially polarizing obstruction of President Barack Obama's nominee to the Supreme Court if he names an "activist" to the bench.

Parties in opposition to a sitting president traditionally call for moderation in a pick to the country's highest court, but moderate Democrat Ben Nelson issued a blunt warning from Obama's own party that the president should not choose someone seen as out of the mainstream.

"I don't care whether they're liberal or conservative," Nelson told Fox News Sunday in an interview. "I just want to make sure they're not activist. I don't want an activist on the bench."

"I think that's the test -- will they be an activist or not?" Nelson said.

"And I would hope that there wouldn't be any circumstances that would be so extreme with any of the president's nominees that the other side would feel the need to filibuster or that I might feel the need to filibuster in a case of extraordinary circumstances."

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090525/pl_afp/uspoliticsjusticecourt

Obama To Nelson: We're Going Around You

It might not be the most glamorous hill, but it's the one that Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) has vowed to die on. President Obama, however, isn't going to give him that chance.

Nelson is perhaps the Senate's fiercest protector of subsidies for student lending institutions, which, not coincidentally, are an engine of job growth in Nebraska. He has vowed to block any effort to reduce those subsidies. And given that Democrats have 58 members and generally need 60 to break a GOP filibuster, he can enforce his will on his colleagues.

An agreement struck between the president and House and Senate negotiators won't give Nelson that chance. A process known as "reconciliation" allows budgetary measures to be moved through the Senate with a simple majority, rather than 60. Multiple congressional sources say that congressional Democrats have decided to use reconciliation to go after student-lending subsidies, specifically to get around Nelson.

The Nebraska Democrat has become the bane of liberal bloggers and other progressive activists for his insistence on pushing legislation in a more conservative direction. Nelson's critics will no doubt relish the decision to make his threat of a 'no' vote meaningless.

Nelson spokesman Jake Thompson said that Nelson was not the only target of the reconciliation move and that other members of Congress represented constituents who would also be on the losing end of the reform. He noted that NelNet, the Nebraska student lending institution, employs 1,000 people and those jobs would all be at risk of being shipped to Washington, DC.

"He remains opposed. Whatever strategy he might pursue to exercise that opposition, we're not at that point yet," he said. "Maybe we can work something out."

UPDATE: An important comment from a reader e-mail:



And a second reader writes in with a clarification, as well:



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/24/obama-to-nelson-were-goin_n_191201.html