Sen. Nelson: No Partisan Vote Despite 60 Senators

Copyright © 2009 National Public Radio®. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

MELISSA BLOCK, host:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.

ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

And I'm Robert Siegel.

There's an editorial cartoon by Tom Toles in The Washington Post today that expresses a common thought about the news that Al Franken finally won the Minnesota Senate race. Barack Obama appears as a jug-eared cowboy in the saddle with a 10 gallon hat on his head and a lasso in his hand. Al Franken appears among a field of frolicking felines and says, congratulations on your 60th cat.

Getting senators to vote with party discipline is a challenge that's often compared to herding cats. Now that Majority Leader Harry Reid will have 58 Democrats, including Senator-elect Franken and two Independents who vote with the Democrats, will that task get any harder or any easier? We're going to ask one of the cats - one of the cats that's been harder to herd, one of the more conservative Democrats, Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska joins us from Omaha. Welcome to the program, Senator Nelson.

Senator BEN NELSON (Democrat, Nebraska): Well, thank you, it's good to be with you.

SIEGEL: Are people saying now the Democrats have the White House? They have the House of Representatives and they have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. They have no excuses if they can't pass a legislative program. Does that put any more pressure on you?

Sen. NELSON: No, it doesn't put anymore pressure on me because that's not accurate. Democrats might have a 60-member majority, but that doesn't mean that we have 60 votes. It'll be determined issue by issue, and the number of votes that are passed on any particular issue won't always be 60. So I think that's just a misunderstanding of the entire way that the Senate works.

SIEGEL: There are some new ads running in Nebraska, calling on people to tell you, to call you and tell you to vote against closing debate on a bill that organized labor wants - it's the Employee Free Choice Act. And some online commentators at least see in those ads a fear of Al Franken's additional vote at work there. Do you expect more pressure like that, because you could be vote number 59, 60 or 61?

Sen. NELSON: Well, they misunderstand. They think that putting ads on television, or radio or in the newspaper is going to influence the outcome of my vote. They just don't understand it. I pay attention to the people in Nebraska, not what ads are on the media trying to influence my vote.

SIEGEL: The reason that we focus on 60 votes is that it takes that many to block a filibuster, to end debate and proceed to a vote on a bill. And typically, it only requires a simple majority to pass the bill. Do you respond to the call of your party leaders any differently to those two requests? That is, could you imagine saying, I can't vote for, say, a public insurance plan and health reform, but I'm not going to prevent a vote, so I'll vote yes to cloture, no to be bill. Or is it always yes and yes or no and no?

Sen. NELSON: No, I usually distinguish between cloture votes and a vote of up or down on a particular bill. But I always reserve the right not to vote for cloture if I think that they're extraordinary circumstances. The one or two times when I haven't voted for cloture, really relate to judicial nomination, where requested information from the administration and the nominee was not provided. It just seemed inappropriate to vote for a cloture. I voted against cloture when it was being misused in connection with a vote that we've taken three times on whether not to end the war or not to fund the war.

And the third time I wouldn't vote for cloture on it because it said it's an abusive process. So, I distinguish between the two and reserve the right to vote as I choose, depending on what I think might be extraordinary circumstances.

SIEGEL: As you've said, you cast your vote on what you see as best for the people of Nebraska.

Sen. NELSON: And the country.

SIEGEL: And the country. On major legislation, whether it's health care or energy or another big bill coming through the Senate this year, would it be especially uncomfortable to be seen as the Democrat who didn't vote for cloture, to the one who deprived the party of the majority required to proceed to an up or down vote?

Sen. NELSON: No, I don't vote on the partisan basis. I never have and I never will. If my vote's in question, the best way to deal with that is to work with me, to see if there's a way to find a compromise, a consensus. I don't seek to obstruct, but I certainly am not going to go along to get along. The people of Nebraska know I'm an independent-minded person and I'm going to vote in an independent-minded way.

SIEGEL: Sounds like you're sitting in what Rhett Barber used to call the catbird seat, that you're a very popular man in the Senate.

Sen. NELSON: Well, I don't know about that. I do know that it's important to try to get as much consensus as possible. And one of the best ways for that to happen is to try to work together rather than jam, based on the number of votes you have.

SIEGEL: Well, Senator Nelson, thanks a lot for talking with us today.

Sen. NELSON: It's very good to talk to you. Thank you.

SIEGEL: You bet. That's Senator Ben Nelson, a Democrat of Nebraska.

Copyright ©2009 National Public Radio®. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to National Public Radio. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.