OMAHA –The key contrast in this Senate election was made clear at Tuesday’s Republican Candidate Debate.

When the candidates were asked, and pressed, by NET Radio’s Fred Knapp to identify a Democrat they would be willing to work with on any particular subject, they spent more than five minutes flinching. Ultimately, they couldn’t even name one Democrat they would work with.

“If my opponents are sent to Washington, they will be swept up in the same partisan gamesmanship that is preventing the nation from solving serious problems,” Kerrey said. “Nothing is going to get done if Democrats don’t vote for good Republican ideas and if Republicans don’t vote for good Democratic ideas.

“I can tell you how I would have handled that question,” Kerrey said. “I worked with President George H.W. Bush and Newt Gingrich to balance the budget and cut spending. I worked with Senator Jack Danforth on calling attention to the still growing crisis of entitlement spending. And I worked with Congressman, and now Senator, Rob Portman on a nationwide investigation into IRS abuses that helped lead to groundbreaking reforms. If sent back to serve, you won’t see me flinch. I will work across party lines once again. We don’t have the luxury of playing games anymore because we have too many serious issues to address.”

Read the transcript of the exchange at Tuesday’s debate:

Fred Knapp: Many readers and, presumably, viewers want to hear how you would work to address the excessive partisanship in Washington. Could you name one issue and one Democratic senator you could work with on a particular subject? Mrs. Fischer?

Deb Fischer: Well, I can tell you my experience in the Nebraska Legislature. We are officially nonpartisan in the Legislature, as you well know. In order to get a big policy issue passed you have to work with your colleagues. I’ve done that. I’ve taken on tough issues. I’ve built coalitions. I’ve gathered information and worked hard. And we’ve gotten a lot passed. I think my record shows that I am able to work with a variety of people, under a variety of issues, and I’ve been able to get things done.

Fred Knapp: But as you mentioned, the Unicameral is structured that way. When you get into the hyper-partisanship in Washington, do you envision being able to continue that?

Deb Fischer: I believe I’m known for establishing relationships and establishing good relationships in the Legislative arena. As I’ve said, I’ve done that. It’s hard to say which United States Senator – on either side of the aisle – that I would anticipate being friends with because I don’t know these people. But if I’m elected and go to Washington I will obviously take time, get to know them, establish relationships. It would be nice to see the Senate go back to that body it was established to be; where you could have debate, where you could have consensus building. We can’t make those changes unless we change who we send there.

Fred Knapp: Mr. Stenberg?

Don Stenberg: Well, I’d be happy to work with any Senator that wants to cut federal spending, that wants to reduce federal regulation, that wants to defend the 2nd Amendment, that wants to develop our domestic energy resources. And I think that sometimes we lose focus that the important thing is to get the right policies. And sometimes we focus on the process. Now we had a time for two years when the Democrats controlled the House, the Senate, and the Presidency, and that gave us ObamaCare, it gave us Dodd-Frank, it gave us a failed 787 billion dollar stimulus. They all got along great but the policies were all wrong. So I’m going to go to Washington to fight for the right policies and I’ll work with anyone who’ll support those policies.

Fred Knapp: Mr. Bruning?

Jon Bruning: Well, I think that’s a fair point. I’m somebody who was elected president of the National Association of Attorneys General by a bipartisan group. Well, what did I do with that presidency when I was running that organization? Well, the main thing I did was help file the lawsuit – lead the lawsuit to overturn ObamaCare. We were mocked when we filed that lawsuit. If you recall, it was a group of 13 Attorneys General. Professors from around the country said, “These folks can’t be successful. They’re not likely to win.” We won at the District Court. We won at the Court of Appeals. I was in the Supreme Court for every minute of the argument. We’re now a bipartisan coalition of 26 states and I think it’s important that we stick to our principles. I am somebody that will fight to repeal ObamaCare and I think it’s critical that we reduce the size and scope of our national budget. We right now have 15.6 trillion dollar national debt. It has to be reduced. We’re in a very bad place as a county economically and we must reduce that debt.

Mike Reilly (Moderator): With respect, I’m not sure any of you named a Democratic senator who you could work with on a particular subject. Democratic U.S. Senator – work with on a particular subject. Mrs. Fischer?

Deb Fischer: No, I did not name one.

Mike Reilly: Can you now?

Deb Fischer: As I said, I would wait to see and meet the people and know who they are and see if we can develop working relationships.

Mike Reilly: There’s no issues you find common ground with any Democrats on now?

Deb Fischer: I haven’t researched where they stand on issues.

Mike Reilly: Mr. Stenberg?

Don Stenberg: Well, I’m pretty much in the same boat. I’m focused on running a campaign for the U.S. Senate in Nebraska; talking about issues that are important to the people of Nebraska. I haven’t, in the process of doing that, met any Democratic United States Senators and haven’t really given a lot of thought to where each of them is on any particular issue. But as I said in my earlier comments, I’ll be happy to work with any U.S. Senator of either party that wants to cut the budget and reduce federal regulations, repeal ObamaCare, and develop our domestic energy resources.

Mike Reilly: Mr. Bruning?

Jon Bruning: Well, I’d tell you one person I could work with. It’s Joe Lieberman if we’re talking about Israel. I don’t know that Joe and I agree on much else – whether it’s national debt or deficit. He voted for ObamaCare, I disagree. But when it comes to Israel I agree with Joe. I’m an unabashed supporter of Israel. I’ll do whatever we have to do to defend our friend in Israel. We have shared values. In a very rough neighborhood, Israel is a white beacon of hope and so I’ll do what it takes to defend Israel. And I agree with Joe Lieberman on that issue.

OMAHA –The Veteran Student Organization at the University of Nebraska at Omaha is hosting a “Conversation with Senator Jim Webb and Former Senator Bob Kerrey” on Saturday.The Senators will discuss the G.I. Bill and other issues relevant to students and veterans.

Senator Webb led the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill to passage, benefiting about 555,000 veterans on 6,000 different campuses last year. Students at the University of Nebraska at Omaha have benefited greatly from the G.I. Bill. UNO is one of the top military friendly schools, according to G.I. Jobs magazine.

Senators Webb and Kerrey will also discuss post-traumatic stress disorder and other health-related issues effecting returning veterans. According to the Nebraska Department of Veterans Affairs website, an estimated 7.8% of Americans will experience post-traumatic stress disorder at some point in their lives.

The UNO student event is open to the public. Event details are as follows:

Time: Event starts at 3:30; The Senators are slated to speak at 3:45
Date: May 5, 2012
Location: Milo Bail Student Center at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (Chancellor’s Room on the Second Floor)

Special Note: Since UNO graduation activities are scheduled on campus Saturday, please plan on arriving early for parking. OR, take advantage of the UNO Shuttle at Crossroads Mall. Shuttles run from the southwest corner of the Crossroads garage and pick up Milo Bail Student Center approximately every 15 minutes. If you enter the north doors at Milo Bail, someone will be available to assist you in getting to the Chancellor’s Room.

Senators Webb and Kerrey will have a few minutes to speak to the media following the event.

Senator Kerrey’s public schedule will also include an appearance at the Cinco de Mayo Parade Saturday morning in Omaha.

OMAHA – In the first month of his bid for the U.S. Senate, Bob Kerrey’s campaign raised $900,000 from nearly 1,600 individuals, including 1,030 Nebraskans, along with 52 Party Committees and PAC’s.

“We are grateful for the generosity of our supporters,” said Kerrey’s campaign manager, Paul Johnson. “It’s a clear sign that Nebraskans are tired of ‘politics as usual’ and want to elect a leader who will tell the truth and cross party lines to address the serious problems we face as a nation.”

Johnson noted that the Kerrey campaign had only one month to raise more funds than any of his opponents raised in three months.

“While our opponents spar over ‘Twitter-Gate’ and defend tax breaks for the well-to-do at the expense of the working Nebraskans,” Johnson said, “Bob Kerrey is outlining his vision for restoring fiscal sanity, improving our national security, and reforming a dysfunctional Congress. There is a ‘night and day’ difference between Kerrey and our opponents that will become crystal-clear in the general election.”

OMAHA– University Regent Chuck Hassebrook dropped out of the Nebraska Senate race this morning and made a strong endorsement for Senator Bob Kerrey.

“I am endorsing Senator Kerrey because I believe his election is what is best for America and best for Nebraska,” Hassebrook said. “ It is critical that we send a person to the Senate who will make the tough choices for both hardworking families, and the poor and struggling who are trying to claw their way into the middle class. I want Bob Kerrey in the Senate because he understands that we have a responsibility to invest in the future for our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.”

Kerrey said he was grateful for the endorsement.

“Chuck has as high integrity as as anyone I have met in public life,” Kerrey said. “It isn’t often in life or politics that you see someone do the things Chuck has done. I am grateful for his friendship and support.”

Kerrey said he appreciated the work Hassebrook has done at the Center for Rural Affairs and looks forward to having his help on the campaign trail.

“It will help to have Chuck’s advice and counsel, especially because the work he has done at the Center for Rural Affairs has had an enormous impact from a policy standpoint.”

Even though Hassebrook’s name will still appear on the ballot, Hassebrook said he will be voting for Kerrey.

Mark Shields, NOOZHAWK | Link to Article

The officeholder in the Opposition Party who dares to break from his side’s rigid orthodoxy is admired — by those of us in Our Party — as a courageous maverick who has the guts to take a lonely stand against party bosses. But when the rebel is in Our Party, too often we react quite differently. Then, the dissenter in our ranks is an unreliable and, probably, self-absorbed turncoat. Hypocrisy, anyone?

Let me tell you about one of my favorite mavericks, a Democrat, who served two terms in the U.S. Senate before leaving voluntarily. Facing a tough re-election race in the very Republican year of 1994, he was assailed for having voted to outlaw assault weapons. In a TV spot, he picked up an AK-47 at a target range and said: “Twenty-five years ago in the war in Vietnam, people hunted me. They needed a good weapon like this AK-47. But you don’t need one of these to hunt birds.” Heard anybody make that case recently?

Of course, many politicians of that generation had used money or connections to evade the Vietnam draft. This maverick got “a letter in the mail offering a free physical examination,” which he passed. Combat wounds forced the amputation of his right leg just below the knee. Eight months at the Philadelphia Naval Hospital followed.

He admitted bitterness at his fate, “but I had my life saved by that hospital, which wasn’t there because the Navy decided to put it there. It was there because of a law the Congress passed to build the hospital, to appropriate the money necessary to hire the doctors and the nurses and all the other people who gave me the opportunity to get my life back.

“When I was discharged from the Navy, my fellow citizens paid for free health care and a monthly check while I put my life back together. Now I know there are a lot of people who think that getting a check in the mail makes you lazy — it didn’t do that to me. It made me grateful to live in a country as great as this one.”

Back home in Nebraska and manifestly unlazy, he built a successful chain of restaurants and health clubs. Elected governor in 1982, he dated the sultry Debra Winger, who was in Lincoln to film Terms of Endearment, and after one successful term with a 70 percent favorable job-rating chose not to run for re-election.

Elected to the Senate in 1988, he angered many Democrats by championing entitlement reform, which included raising the Social Security retirement age to 70. He infuriated Republicans and more than a few Democrats by opposing the bill to outlaw same-sex marriage. Armchair commandos were furious at his leadership in normalizing U.S. relations with Vietnam and his forceful opposition to a constitutional amendment to criminalize flag-burning: “Patriotism calls upon us to be brave enough to endure and withstand such an act, to tolerate the intolerant.”

Now Bob Kerrey, the only U.S. senator in the past 147 years to earn the nation’s highest military citation, the Medal of Honor — and after spending his post-Senate years as president of the New School University in New York — seeks again the Nebraska Senate seat he left in 2000. Attacked by the organized left as insufficiently liberal and unreliably independent, Kerrey is defended by two of Washington’s most respected arms-control advocates, John Isaacs and David Cohen, who cite Kerrey’s record of seeking to reduce nuclear arsenals, supporting Senate ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention and urging a worldwide ban of landmines.

As this maverick once told me: “Let us cast aside the conspiracy theories and the notion that we are victims of our own government. What nonsense! … We’ve got more freedom than any country on the face of the Earth.”

If you think that the Senate in 2012 could use a large dose of candor and independence, then we have just the maverick for you.

— Mark Shields is one of the most widely recognized political commentators in the United States. The former Washington Post editorial columnist appears regularly on CNN, on public television and on radio.

To continue reading: http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/article/031012_mark_shields_bob_kerrey_an_authentic_maverick