Ben Nelson owns 6 million dollars in Berkshire Hathaway stock, just reported on Bloomberg

[still_one]

no wonder he voted against the financial reform

Democrats definitely need to clean their house of these type of people

[mod mom]

1. Rachel covered this last night as well. Shameful!

[ixion]

2. Gee, imagine that. A rich man senator voting his own best interests

who'd have thunk it? :sarcasm:

Most of the Congress is made up of wealthy folks who vote in the interests of themselves and their cronies. Such is the state of politics.

[still_one]

9. It isn't the wealth that bothers me, it is the blatant conflict of interest /nt

[ixion]

11. I agree...

I have no problem with wealth. I have a problem with people voting for what's best for their particular portfolio.

[SpiralHawk]

3. The Husker Huckster

Nelson is truely a republicon homelander corporate lapdog, lamely disguising himself under a cheap D toupee

[Moochy]

15. Awww

Way cuter than Ben Nelson!

[xchrom]

4. Recommend

[KharmaTrain]

5. Nelson Is Totally Bought...

He's playing the same game he did during HIR...looking for a perk, a special deal for his vote. He has no principals, he's only in it for those who grease his wheels and knows that in these kind of votes he can play turd in the punchbowl and get some kind of deal. The focus should be on the "moderate" rushpublicans who also have their deals that prevent them from doing what a majority of their constituents want. What are Collins, Brown and Snowe getting in exchange for their votes?

[BeyondGeography]

6. He should buy a better wig then

[City Lights]

7. Ben Nelson is a kept man.

:thumbsdown:

[newfie11]

8. yep but people here will still vote for him. n/t

[kentuck]

10. But he votes with the Democrats...

except when he votes with the Repubs.

[progressoid]

12. Oh shucks. That dont matter.

Nope, he's just lookin out fer all of us regaler folk.

:eyes:

[TwilightGardener]

13. Please, does this surprise anyone? During the HCR debate, Mr. Insurance Executive

did all he could to protect insurance co.s' interests. He's pretty open (and shameless) about his, uh, "conflicts of interest".

[Moochy]

14. Typical DLC Politician

Yes, Let's trust this greedy mug...

[Lance_Boyle]

16. What's wrong with owning Berkshire Hathaway stock?

Buffett's company was not the cause of the recent collapse. Hell, I'd own it too if I could afford a single share...

[mod mom]

18. supported an exemption to proposed derivatives rules sought by the Omaha, Nebraska, company.

Berkshire sought a provision that would exempt previously written derivatives contracts from proposed rules on collateral, according to a Democratic aide speaking on condition of anonymity. Berkshire owns derivatives tied to about $63 billion in assets.

-snip

The provision sought by Berkshire isn’t in the legislation that Senate Democrats have tried for two days to bring up for debate. Nelson was the only member of his party to support the Republicans in blocking consideration of the measure in votes over the past two days.

-snip
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-28/senator-nelson-wife-own-up-to-6-million-of-berkshire-stock.html

conflict of interest.

[Lance_Boyle]

19. Ah - so Nelson was representing the constituents in his portfolio rather than

the ones in his state. Gotcha.

[MilesColtrane]

21. A very large percentage of its holdings are insurance companies.

Some of those companies sell health insurance policies.

Nelson attempted to single handedly kill the HCR bill in the Senate.

He only voted for it after he got the "Cornhusker Kickback" inserted into the bill.

[Lance_Boyle]

17. edited to de-dupe

[cbdo2007]

20. All of congress owns stock - I'm not sure why his owning this one is worse

than any others.

Yeah, I read the part about Berkshire specifically wanting a loophole for them on some derivitives (sp?) or something, but the way all these companies and the investment banks are inter-mingled, this is really no worse than one of them owning Walmart stock, if the Walmart executives also own Berkshire stock (which they would if they were smart).