Politico reported yesterday that Florida Senator Bill Nelson is part of a select group of Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee (now in the thick of the health care debate) who are being targeted by the National Republican Senatorial Committee — even though he's not up for re-election for three more years.
The website reports that:
The NRSC already has its eyes on Democrats up in 2012 — and plans to bombard Democrats who sit on the Finance Committee with attacks on their votes on controversial amendments during the Committee deliberations beginning Tuesday. Its top 2012 targets on the Committee: Nelson and (Kent) Conrad, as well as Democratic Sens. Maria Cantwell of Washington and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan.
This is the same Bill Nelson who has become the target of criticism from Florida progressives because of his declaration that he's against a government-run public option? Yep.
The White House deal with the drug companies has been blasted by liberals, but it's been part of the calculus of President Obama and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel to try to bring all the warring parties together to get a health care bill passed.
This article appears in Sep 2-8, 2009.