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Past chairman of the Nebraska Community Foundation, Mark Graff, said that Sen. Nelson's legacy would be different for everyone, but he would most remember the Senator's vision in creating the Nebraska Community Foundation during his first term in office.
Walt Sehnert offered a more light-hearted view of Sen. Nelson, recalling when he hired a 16-year-old Nelson to work in his Norris Avenue bakery. Nelson was given Sehnert's blessing to eat as many donuts as he wished while at work, and just as Sehnert expected, promptly "over-donuted."
"Ben never forgot us little people way out here in the sticks," said Berry, who served as master of ceremonies for the tribute.
Other speakers during the reception included former Nelson classmate from the McCook High School class of 1959, Honey Lou Bonar; McCook Economic Development Director, Rex Nelson; and retired Nebraska Sen. Tom Vickers.
Vickers may have made the most intriguing comment of the evening, when he recalled another McCook politician that faced heavy criticism during his final years in office. Vickers referenced the national spotlight given to Sen. Nelson's cloture vote for the Affordable Care Act and the criticism that followed.
"Sen. George Norris left office with many people upset with him. Norris fared well in history, given time. I predict the same for you Ben Nelson," said Vickers.
Sen. Nelson thanked attendees and speakers alike, saying he didn't know if it took a village to raise a child, but he did know that if you had a community that cared and invested in its youth, "young people will respond."
Many have speculated that the retirement of Sen. Nelson had been attributed to the criticism related to his position on the Affordable Care Act, but during a conversation with the Gazette, earlier Saturday, Nelson maintained that nothing could be further from the truth.
Sen. Nelson said that pollsters had approached him and asked if he was ready to spend another seven years in office, after determining the odds were in his favor for reelection. Nelson said he was faced with deciding whether he was ready to make that commitment or begin working on an already sizable bucket list. Ultimately deciding, after consulting with his family and friends, that he was young enough to enjoy chasing his bucket list, he wasn't confident that would be the case in seven years.
"The fact is that some didn't like my vote, but many still supported me afterwards because they knew I was doing what I believed was right," said Nelson, a stance right on target with comments made later that evening by supporters who praised him for standing his ground on issues.
Sen. Nelson described the next chapter of his life as one focusing on family, friends, hunting, fishing and a few other things. He said he had recently spent 10 days on a Safari in Africa and upon his return a reporter asked him if he was concerned with how the vacation would be perceived. Sen. Nelson said he replied with a smile, "The people of Nebraska have been asking for less government and I decided to give it to them."
Sen. Nelson said he was looking forward to fewer 6 a.m. flights, referencing his trips back and forth between Nebraska and Washington D.C., but plans to keep busy. He said he would not be lobbying but hoped to end up consulting for a corporate board or two.
Sen. Nelson and his staff have had a stellar reputation with the Gazette as being readily available for comments and questions, or at a minimum having a prompt and reliable response time. In similar fashion, even though the conversation with Sen. Nelson focused primarily on his future plans and reflecting on his many accomplishments during a 22-year-career in Nebraska politics, he was more than willing to discuss current issues.
Several who spoke during the reception for Sen. Nelson, Saturday evening, mentioned his straightforwardness and always knowing where he stood on a topic.
Sen. Nelson's role in the passing of the Affordable Care Act received much criticism, but right in step with his reputation, he offered no apologies and said that if you only support the popular issues you're not always doing the right thing.
"Sometimes you have to anger the majority to take care of the rights of the minority," said Nelson.
Sen. Nelson further defended the Affordable Care Act by saying it wasn't a federal government takeover of health care as many were describing it, but more akin to a private market system, and described such references as nothing more than scare tactics.
"My hope is that part of what I'm doing in the future is getting the right information out there," said Nelson.
The insurance industry may have been the source for much of the criticism Nelson faced in his final years in office, but it also served as a springboard for his political career. Before running for Governor in 1990 he enjoyed a successful career in insurance law, serving as CEO of the Central National Insurance Group and executive vice president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
Sen. Nelson defeated an incumbent Nebraska Governor in 1990 and was re-elected in 1994 with 74 percent of the vote, the largest margin of victory for a Nebraska Governor in half a century.
Nelson successfully ran for U.S. Senate in 2000 and was re-elected in 2006 with 64 percent of the vote.
During his political career, Nelson maintained a reputation for always having his home and staff open to his friends from Southwest Nebraska.
Comments
Let the record show that Ben Nelson's voting record under Obama, Reid & Pelosi has not been bipartisan and veered sharply to the far Left agenda of his party. Nelson sold his soul and joined the far Left Bob Kerrey cabal in 2008 when he endorsed Obama. The few that attended Nelson's "bipartisan" ceremony are all Liberals, whether Democrat or RINO. It is beyond shameful how these leftist cronies use the media to prop each other up.
Ben Nelson also gave the 3-finger salute that "angered the majority" 70% of Nebraskans in order to funnel cash to the "minority" of his rich campaign donors, and himself. It is well known that Ben Nelson and his wife had millions invested with Warren Buffett's insurance interests, while Nelson also cut a sweet ObamaCare deal with Buffett that enriched both of them. Buffett isn't known as the Oligarch of Omaha for no reason.
Ben Nelson not only cast the deciding vote for the government takeover of healthcare, a.k.a. ObamaCare, but he also came up with the now infamous "Cornhusker Kickback" bribe that was derided by all sides and that shamed Nebraska. Even the liberal-leaning PBS Frontline documentary exposed Nelson's corruption on national TV.
Besides trying to exempt Nebraska from Medicare hikes to the exclusion of the other 49 states, Nelson also went on to raid Medicare for over $700 BILLION to try and pay for his deficit Socialist experiment. Nelson also went on to support taxpayer funding of abortion/genocide under ObamaCare along with continued funding to the abortion giant Planned Parenthood. Now, Ben Nelson's ObamaCare HHS contraception/abortion mandates threaten to shutdown faith-based hospitals like St. Mary's in Nebraska City, St. Elizabeth's in Lincoln, St. Francis in Grand Island, and Good Samaritan in Kearney. Nelson's attacks on 1st Amendment freedom of religion and conscious exemptions via his ObamaCare mandates also threatens to close religious schools, charities, and clinics as well.
On the fiscal side, Nelson refused to pass a budget in over 3 years, and refused all attempts to implement a balance budget amendment. Along with that, Nelson ran up the federal deficit by over $5 TRILLION, which is more than all deficits from George Washington through Bill Clinton COMBINED! Nelson also joined his party in bringing on the first credit downgrade in our nation's history.
Despite his spin, numerous non-partisan polls show Ben Nelson was forced to retire or go down in an embarrassing defeat. During Senate breaks Nelson chose to slink around the state in a private aircraft, with bodyguards, only spoke to Democrats, and did not announce his arrival to the press until he landed. For the first time in memory, Nelson and his party didn't even show up at the Nebraska state fair.
Nelson's legacy will go down in infamy as the most anti-American, anti-Nebraskan, and corrupt in our state's history. There is no doubt Nelson's so-called "bucket list" will include a Leftist lobbying job in D.C. pushing more deficit pork projects.
As McCook overwhelmingly shares in Nebraska's traditional values, there is no doubt that those who attended Nelson's propaganda fest are among a very small minority. After the November elections Ben Nelson and Bob Kerrey can take their neo-Marxist mindset back to the east coast -- good riddance...
Say what you want but republicans had 2 Bush terms in White House and did nothing about heathcare spiraling cost and much needed reform for heathcare and i my opinion high pressure to do nothing from insurance industry ??
I did not like obamacare/or vote for Obama and vote consevative most of the time but your defense of republicans for doing nothing to solve health care issues in a republican controled congress/senate and whitehouse when it was action that was needed should be a warning in future years doing nothing is not the answer and find out that the middle voters are tired of it.....and now look what we end up with today..