No doubt meant in a light-hearted way, but seriously regarded by many Nebraska’s more conservative citizens as a good plan, Ben Sasse, 2014 candidate for US Senate from Nebraska, suggested the way to rid government of special interests is to move the center of the US Government, capitol building and all, out to sober, sane, conservative, family oriented Nebraska.
Comments on other sites suggest this might work because of the lack of call girls out here and the general dullness of the state. I can’t speak to the former, but the latter is a matter of lack of imagination on the part of the speaker.
Regardless, here is Senator-wannabe Ben’s five-minute political advertisement in support of his candidacy:
What of this Ben Sasse, son of Nebraska, true blue conservative and candidate for the Senatorial seat soon to be vacated by Senator Mike Johanns? Other than the “move Washington to Nebraska” plan, the rest of the advertisement is campaign blather without solutions, nothing much different from what all politicians put out, up to the really cute children and the lovely, supportive wife.
According to his Wikipedia entry:
Sasse was born in Fremont, Nebraska. He graduated from Fremont High School in 1990 and then attended Harvard University, where he was recruited for wrestling. He earned his Ph.D. in history from Yale University, where his dissertation on domestic politics during the Cold War won the Theron Rockwell Field (best dissertation) and the George Washington Egleston (history) Prizes.[2]
Sasse’s career began in consulting with the Boston Consulting Group, a global management consulting firm.[3]
From 2003 to 2005, Sasse was chief of staff for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Policy; from 2005 to 2006, he was chief of staff for Representative Jeff Fortenberry;[4] and from 2007 to 2009, he was U.S. assistant secretary of Health and Human Services under President George W. Bush.[3]
It seems he’s been back East and away from his roots in Nebraska for a few years, getting an Ivy League education (code words for “Liberal” out here in ‘brasky!) and on his career. If I reckon correctly, since he graduated Fremont High in 1990, he’d been a de facto Easterner till 2009, when he came back to run Midland University. That’s almost 20 years, nearly half his life.
That’s plenty of time to acquire the stench of Liberalism, the opprobrium of all the good Conservative Republicans who run the whole shebang in this state.
Here’s what that did for the candidacy of Bob Kerrey when he ran against and lost to now-Senator Deb Fischer the last time a Senatorial seat for Nebraska came up in 2012:
Keep in mind, Bob Kerrey, citizen of Lincoln most of his early life, Congressional Medal of Honor winner, former Governor of Nebraska, and former Senator for Nebraska was a known quantity here, and was generally regarded as a decent enough Governor and Senator, whether Democrat or not. I’m sure a fair share of Nebraskans hated him simply because he was a Democrat, but they love Jesus, which is all that matters.
Is there a point? Probably not. Nebraskans are predictably Republican at the polls. Any Republican candidate for office who gets fewer votes than 60% of the total is a loser because any Republican candidate for office typically gets much more than that.
Come to think of it, if Ben’s serious, and he does mean to bring the US Capitol to Nebraska, then he couldn’t “go Washington” on us, eh!? He might even become a Nebraskan. Again.