Daub makes stop on 'listening tour'

Hal Daub is a busy man.

The former U.S. congressman and Omaha mayor stopped in McCook on Monday as part of his "Listening Tour" that will take him to all 93 Nebraska counties in 93 days.

Although he won't officially announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat, currently held by Sen. Chuck Hagel, until after Labor Day, that's not because of uncertainty he said.

"I'm not afraid of losing," he said, noting his track record of 21 election wins to four losses.

"This is preparation and homework to see what Nebraskans expect of their next senator and if I''m the person to do that," he said.

Daub served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1981 to 1989 and won the Republican party nomination for Senate in 1990 but lost to incumbent Democrat James Exon.

He also served as mayor of Omaha from 1995-2002 but stressed that being elected to the senate again was not his main concern at this point.

"You don't necessarily have to hold office to to make a difference," he said, adding that the notes he's been taking could go toward other issues.

But what he's been hearing so far from voters in the western part of Nebraska has been eye-opening in some respects, he said.

"The degree of support people have for the Iraq War has been surprising," said Daub, who started his tour in the Panhandle and has visited 23 counties so far.

Representing 25 percent of the population, people in rural Nebraska are frustrated by the duration of the war but remain convinced that leaving is not an option, he said.

"They're telling me they want to get the job done and that they don't hear enough of the good things American troops are doing over there," Daub said.

Daub wouldn't say exactly what his stance was -- "Now is not the time for my opinions," -- but commented that this conflict was different than the Vietnam war on several levels.

"Diplomacy doesn't make a difference to terrorists," he said.

But it's not only the Iraq War people are talking about, he continued. The fluctuating economy, Social Security and the immigration problem are also major concerns.

"They want to know why Congress can't get the job done," he said. "The level of frustration is very real."

And the Democrat majority in the Senate is not the problem, he said. In his four terms as congressman he was consistently in the minority, he said, but still managed to work with his Democrat colleagues and write 250 pieces of legislature with 43 made into law.

The lack of cooperation among the senate today is appalling he said.

"You need to seek to do good instead of being on TV every day," he said. "It doesn't need to be this contentious."

If he decides to run and is elected, Daub plans to hold town hall meetings in every county as he did in his previous senate term. Some of the best ideas for bills came from these meetings, he maintained.

One woman complained that it wasn't fair that members of congress didn't have to pay social security.

Daub agreed and took the idea back to Washington and wrote a bill that makes congress members pay Social Security, passed in 1983.

A practicing attorney in Omaha, Daub is a fourth generation Nebraskan.

Other stops included several appearances in North Platte, plus Curtis, Benkelman and Grant.

He was also to take part in an Eagle Scout ceremony at 4 p.m. in McCook today.