For Your Viewing Pleasure: The Famous "Assface" E-mails

Remember those Republican staffers working for Sen. Tom Coburn who were out to get Sen. Ben Nelson. Well, we at NNN thought you might all like to see their artful displays of childish contempt for yourselves.

Note: A black Sharpie has been used to protect the innocent.

TAC is, of course, Sen. Thomas A. Coburn, whose staff seems to be prodding him to take this issue farther and farther for their own personal and political reasons. The hit piece being celebrated by these jokers is an August 2nd article in The Hill reporting Coburn's grandstanding against a single earmark for a Nebraska company in the Defense appropriations bill for not filing one particular disclosure form.

 

Whether hoping to embarrass Ben Nelson, make a name for himself, or just "shut that fucker up", Coburn completely fails to point out that, according to government watchdogs at the Sunlight Foundation, no defense contractors are filing the obscure forms he seeks. That's a damn shame because the lobbying practices they pertain to should be disclosed, but it also reveals the hypocrisy at the heart of this whole stupid situation.

Just another great moment in democratic discourse brought to you by our friends in the Republican Party.

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Childish Republican Staffers Target Ben Nelson in Earmark Battle

A story from last month that ended with Sen. Ben Nelson retracting a controversial earmark request for an Omaha-based company that employs his son found renewed life thanks to a series of e-mails coming to light that suggest the controversy and criticism directed at Nelson may have been quite personal and probably even partisan in nature. As reported by The Hill: A battle between the offices of Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) over a controversial earmark intensified earlier this month, displaying how debates on Capitol Hill sometimes can turn personal. The senators had been at odds over the matter for much of the summer, but it would reach a new level when John Hart, communications director for Coburn, forwarded a news article detailing his boss's request for an investigation of a defense contractor. The target of the would-be investigation, 21st Century Systems Inc. (21CSI), employs Patrick Nelson, the son of the centrist senator. Sen. Nelson had requested an earmark for 21CSI, triggering a heated battle between the senators that has raged for weeks.  "This will shut that fucker up," Hart stated in an Aug. 1 e-mail sent from his Senate account to several of his colleagues. "I can't wait to send an In Case You Missed It to Nebraska press that will be forwarded to assface".... Hart has since said that his missives were directed at Nelson spokesman David DiMartino, not Sen. Nelson. I wish I could hold this e-mail up as an example of Republicans' super-partisan mentality, but this seems to be more a case of simple stupidity. Why might Coburn's staff bear such animosity towards Nelson - or, even towards his spokesman Mr. DiMartino? I suspect it has something to do with the following article from July's Omaha World-Herald that proved Nelson's staff quite adept at putting their Republican assailants back on the defensive:

Sen. Ben Nelson had a message Tuesday for Sen. Tom Coburn: Take care of your own backyard before you attack other lawmakers' earmarks. The Oklahoma Republican filed an amendment last week to eliminate $7.5 million that Nelson, D-Neb., wanted to steer to Omaha defense contractor 21st Century Systems Inc., which calls itself 21CSI. A Coburn spokesman compared 21CSI military computer software to video games and criticized the project as classic pork barrel spending. Nelson's office staff responded by defending the earmark as important to national defense, but also decided to take a look at earmarks in the defense bill that would benefit Oklahoma. They came across a $5 million earmark for military simulation training in Oklahoma. The earmark was inserted into the bill by the other Oklahoma senator, Republican James Inhofe, who could not be reached. That simulation training program has involved the Institute of Creative Technologies, which has received millions through federal earmarks over the years, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense. One product of the funding was a video game called Full Spectrum Warrior that proved commercially successful but of limited military use, according to the group. "Senator Coburn's derided the research and development work done in Nebraska by mischaracterizing it as 'video games' and deemed it unworthy of funding, while ignoring and tacitly approving a $5 million earmark for his home state that actually does fund video game development," said Nelson spokesman David DiMartino. That's a pretty damn fine retort if you ask me. Regardless of the ultimate merit of the 21CSI funding, there's nothing quite like the revelation of this blatant hypocrisy to make Coburn and his staff look like a bunch of fools. Of course - as previously stated - Nelson has withdrawn his earmark request, but the actual spending remains in the Senate's appropriations bill. It faces a long road in the House, though, because Nebraska's Republican Congressmen are so uniformly lacking in stature and influence. And, I fear the same will hold true of every dollar Nebraska seeks back from the federal government until we elect some Representatives who are honestly worthy of their colleague's respect. Until then - to paraphrase Second District Congressman Lee Terry - if you want something done in this state, you should "just go talk to Ben."

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Lincoln Tribute to Lives Lost at Hiroshima Draws Silly Complaints

Today's Lincoln Journal-Star contained an entirely harmless report on a memorial service held Sunday in Lincoln remembering the lives lost and the scars of suffering that remain from the United States' dropping the atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, setting into motion Japan's surrender in World War II. There's no suggestion that this event in any way denounced America for its decision to unleash this devastating technology upon the Japanese...and upon the world. But, the horrors and destruction of nuclear warfare - which once inspired so much fear that they changed the global landscape forever - remain just as real as they ever were, although now far removed from the public's consciousness.  That's why the responses this solemn event received in the LJS article's comments are so disheartening and asinine. Let's take a look at some of the most insulting and reactionary, reflecting most poorly on their writers and our state: "Maybe they could light a candle for the 100,000 US lives lost fighting the brytal [sic] Japanese. Or perhaps they could light a candle for the one million plus Chinese that the Japanese killed during WWII. Nice thought and all, but why is it that activists like this only remember things like this...." "Why are we doing this in Lincoln,Ne, much less the USA. Pretty soon, the Iraqies will be putting lights out on other lakes to mourn their dead." "What a shame there was no memorial to the thousands of Americans killed in the war against Japan, which, most LJS readers remember, was started by a japanese sneak attack. But thankfully we don't need a memorial to the millions more Americans and Japanese who would have been killed in an American invasion of the Japanese home islands, because the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs spared their lives. There is a resurgence in WWII revisionism in Japan. It's curious to see Nebraskans helping the effort."  "I guess I missed the lantern lighting ceremony this bunch held on Pearl Harbor day or to commemoration of the rape of Nanking….atrocities perpetrated by "you know who"...How about blaming the Japanese government for not surrendering sooner and saving their own people from the brutalities of a war they started!"  "As an American do I feel any remorse for the bomb drop on Hiroshima and I say no. Pearl Harbor was an act of aggression by Japanese and because of that American's lost thousand of lives. Do I now resent the Japanese, of course not it's a different time and a different generation, but I'm not going to morn [sic] or feel responsible for their past loss. The bomb was a tool to end horrific act of the Japanese people against Americans and other world people."  "Have these people forgotten that Japan attacked Pearl Harbor? Have they forgotten the atrocities the Japanese military committed during WWII? Have they forgotten the estimates as to how many Americans would have been killed if Japan would have been invaded because the Japanese would not surrender and would have fought to the last person? Kyoko Matsunaga's grandmother is alive, which is a lot more than many American servicemen who lost their lives fighting Japanese aggression can say." Kind of depressing, aren't they folks? Of course, these are not all of the comments that were posted. Several others were more reasonable and even challenged some of the over-defensive lunacy contained above. It's just so sad that there are those who can't recognize the cry of "never again" is not a finger pointed at the United States. It is a prayer for our future and the futures of our children around the world.  Let's hope it is a prayer that never goes silent and that never falls on deaf ears.

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