Kerrey offers truce on name-calling

By   /   August 15, 2012  /   18 Comments

Senate candidate Bob Kerrey has offered to stop calling his opponent Deb Fischer a “welfare rancher” if she’ll agree not to call him a carpetbagger. 

The Nebraska Radio Network says it asked Kerrey if he believed Fischer was a welfare rancher, and he said, “I think that’s a little bit of a stretch, I would say, but I’m not a carpetbagger either.”

“I’m certainly willing to say to her, ‘If you’re willing to say I’m not a carpetbagger, I’m willing to say you’re not a welfare rancher,’” Kerrey told the interviewer. “Because there is no question she’s getting subsidies.”

The Fischer camp says that’s evidence that Kerrey’s “welfare rancher” attack has backfired. Fischer spokesman Daniel Keylin said it was Kerrey who first called Fischer a welfare rancher while speaking at the state Democratic convention because her family grazes cattle on federal land at cut rates.

Fischer’s family leases about 12,000 acres of federal land near Valentine at a rate that is about $100,000 less than what it would cost on private land.

“Bob Kerrey knows that Nebraskans are overwhelmingly rejecting his blatantly false and offensive attacks on Deb Fischer and her family,” Keylin said in a press release. “Now that Bob Kerrey’s smear campaign has backfired, he can’t backtrack fast enough.”

Kerrey has been called a carpetbagger by Republicans because although he’s a Nebraska native, he lived and worked in New York City for the past decade before returning to Nebraska to run for the U.S. Senate. Kerrey still owns businesses in the state.

Kerrey spokesman Chris Triebsch said Kerrey was “trying to lower the volume of the outside groups.”

“Deb Fischer has enjoyed the benefits of millions of dollars of taxpayer benefits from the federal government.  That is not a smear; that is a fact. She is the one embarrassed by the truth.”

However, Keylin noted that while Kerrey and his staffers have repeatedly called Fischer a welfare rancher, Fischer has not called Kerrey a carpetbagger. Other Republicans and super PACs have, however.

 

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Deena Winter

  • Ivy Marie Harper

    Nebraska claims Johnny Carson and Willa Cather who were both born in other states.

    Nebraska claims Ted Sorensen and Dick Cavett who both spent almost all of their adult lives far, far away from Cornhusker Country.
    See, I’ve said this many times before: there is an actual definition of “carpetbagger” and the only person in the Nebraska delegation who officially fits it is:
    Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, who was born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and who grew up in Washington, D.C. where he was living right before he moved to Nebraska in his late 30′s – a state in which Fortenberry did not have a single bona fide connection to- to set the stage for a political career which the one-time Hill aide to disgraced Senator David Durenberger had been calculating for years.
    In 1996, “The Fort” picked up a Master’s in Theology in Steubenville, Ohio, left D.C., moved to Lincoln, and began a run for the Lincoln City Council all in one jam-packed year. Now, that’s a Carpetbagger.
    Let’s see: Leave D.C., Destination: Lincoln. Religion? Master’s in Theology, check. Job: “Trucking Exec” for Sandhills Publishing. Check. City Council focus: stop $$ going to Planned Parenthood. Check. Then-Rep. Doug Bereuter: Will you step down already so I don’t have too many years in-between the Lincoln City Council & Congress. Check.

    Get it. That will always be Fortenberry’s history even though he’s now considered a Nebraskan.

    Still, it’s unfair – and wrong – for the GOP to continue to call Kerrey a Carpetbagger especially given the Fact that Nebraska Republicans wrapped their arms so readily around a Ragin’ Cajun who “tooked” one of the state’s three Congressional seats away from a genuine Cornhusker.

    The LJS’s Jody P. is the worst. Her/His name-calling truly is the height of hypocrisy.

  • D. Mark

    Call them what you want, just make sure everyone votes in November and then Kerrey can go back to New York City! Obama can go wherever he wants to go since the taxpayers will support him for the rest of his life!

  • ip

    really……..

  • ricky

    Why did Mr Kerrey dis the President of the United States by not attending the rally in Council Bluffs on Monday? Hey Cosmic Bob Mr Obama is more popular than you are! Maybe it’s time to move back to NYC?

  • http://twitter.com/GerardHarbison Gerard Harbison

    Kerrey is 69 years old. He really needs to graduate from kindergarten.

    “Stop calling me poopyhead, and I’ll stop calling you fartypants”. Grow up.

    The bizarre antics Kerrey went through to establish state residency at the very last minute are ample evidence he has no real intention of returning to Nebraska.

    But it’s interesting to see that Ivy Harper, who wrote a joke of a biography that whitewashed Kerrey’s corruption as governor and senator, is once again standing by her man.

  • Watching_From_Lincoln

    As a Republican, Ivy, I must, if other Republicans must feel the need to throw the moniker of “carpetbagger” at native son Senator Bob Kerry for having the audacity to work for ten years in another state before returning to Nebraska, in all fairness add the name of native former Senator Chuck Hagel who lived and worked in D.C. and lived in Virginia for 20 years prior to returning to Nebraska to run for the Senate to that list for the same reason they try to call senator Kerry a “carpetbagger”. Also that of non-native Mike Johanns, who was born and spent his entire youth until college living in Iowa and who has spent the majority of his adult life as a professional politician – and not a very good one at that – unless you consider sucking up to power a professional attribute, which he evidently does quite well and is quite proud of.

  • Fartsy Motrin

    Who cares about names? Who will better serve the state and the nation? The rest of this stuff is just to keep bored news writers happy.

  • i*harper*se

    Geesh, Gerard, get your
    Facts, straight, Sir. It’s unbecoming of a representative of the venerable
    University of Nebraska – not to mention the Irish Isle – to publish falsehoods.

    Bob Kerrey did graduate –
    with honors – from Bethany Elementary School.

    And it was there that he
    Learned Everything He Needed to Know about…

    Bullies. Which is that one
    must stand up to bullies or they keep on bullying. With bullies, you can’t back down.

    Let’s face it folks, the
    Nebraska GOP is flat-out acting like an obnoxious bully by continuing to call
    the quintessential Cornhusker – Bob Kerrey – a “Carpetbagger.”

    @ State Senator Deb Fischer:
    You could – and should – ask your supporters to stop doing that for one reason
    only: it isn’t true.

    And as far as my best-selling
    biography of Kerrey, why don’t you call Attorney General Jon Bruning and ask
    him what he thought of “Waltzing Matilda?”

    Or Judge Sam Van Pelt. Or the
    Nebraska Professor who was given the assignment to write the third official
    History of Nebraska?

    Or former President George
    Herbert Walker Bush? Or Washingtonian Joe Palka? Or Bryce Harper? Or Deena Winter herself?

    All of them disagree with
    your “bullying” characterization of a book that is as much a richly-detailed
    History of the Great State of Nebraska as it is a recap of Rockin’ Bob’s
    remarkable life.

    Oh and please visit: i*harper*se for more from Ivy Harper

  • racefish

    “her family grazes cattle on federal land at cut rates.”

    Absolute BS. The federal government SETS the rates. What a noob.

  • resistwemuch

    Which of the two candidates, if elected, can travel to Vietnam without fear of being arrested by that countrys government?

  • Les

    Is Kerrey agreeing he is a carpetbagger when he tells the interviewer, “I’m certainly willing to say to her, ‘If you’re willing to say I’m not a carpetbagger, I’m willing to say you’re not a welfare rancher,’” Kerrey told the interviewer. “Because there is no question she’s getting subsidies.” Emphasis on the last line. Essentially telling the interviewer that Fischer is a welfare rancher and he’s a carpetbagger, but he won’t call her out if she won’t call him out.

  • Dan

    I actually would call him a slimy snaky opportunist hack than a carpetbagger, but he does fit websters definition pretty well, carpetbagger, n, a person from the north who traveled to the south after the civil war to seek political or financial gain. What exactly do you call when your address is greenwich village new york the day before the filing deadline, then your sisters basement in omaha the day after? This means that cosmic bob is admitting this is a HUGE problem for nebraskans about him.

  • Dan

    Ivy, you’re a moroon. Bereuter endorsed Curt Fromm in 2005 and campaigned against Fortenberry, he hated Fort. Bereuter was a liberal RINO, and fwiw Hagel is a full blown liberal democrat now, he campaigned for joe sestak against pat toomey in pa and he has endorsed barack obama.

  • Ivy Harper or i*harper*se

    @ Dan, You wrote, “…Bereuter was a liberal RINO,”

    Precisely. And that’s exactly who a coterie of D.C.-based uber-right Republicans were targeting in the mid & late 1990′s. See Tom Delay, aka “The Hammer,” Dick Armey and others. They wanted all GOP moderates – like Bereuter – OUT of Congress and right-leaners – like the Louisiana born & bred Fortenberry – IN. Nothing was gonna stop them including pesky little problems like the Fact that voters don’t like “Carpetbagger.” Enter Steuben ville.

    I never said that Rep. Bereuter was part of – or even privy to – this plan to ensure that moderate Republicans like Bereuter who had served for a long time – were replaced by far-right Republicans like D.C.-based Geoffrey aka “Jeff” Fortenberry. Trust me, heading up this devilish effort was a gang of Politicos that the great Doug Bereuter would have had nothing to do with; interestingly, a number are now in federal prison.

    Question: why unlike other Master’s seekers, did “The Fort” never have to write a Thesis at Franciscan University in Steubenville? That’s not normal.
    Why – directly upon “earning” it – did he move to Lincoln, Nebraska which is a Congressional District that just so happens to include the most conservative Bishop in the entire country. Coincidence? Hardly.

    Do you actually believe that “The Fort’s” leaving the political life D.C. and switching to “Religion” suddenly; and then just as quickly switching back to politics – in LIncoln, Nebraska of all places in the entire U.S. – is just a coincidence?

    And then getting a job as a “Trucking Exec” with Sandhills Publishing? If one is going to have an epiphany in D.C. and decide to enter “Religion,” why become a “Trucking Executive” just months later. How does all of that make any sense in one given year. Oh, and the Founder of Sandhills Publishing is someone who Nebraska Right to Life turns to when they need anything and of course, Curt Bromm had angered them when he served as Unicameral Speaker of the Legislature. Ergo, a couple of birds were killed with the Louisiana stone named Jeff Fortenberry.

  • Dan

    Ivy, you are an incoherent rambling boob, do you have some sort of fetish for congressman fort?. And for all of your pissing and moaning how far right the repubs have gone i notice you are completely oblivious to the fact that the democrat party has keeled to the left of chairman mao to the point where you’ve excommunicated guys like john breaux, zell miller, and arthur davis. And i ask where is all your research on ben nelsons insider trading scandal in 2008 or bob kerreys slush fund he got from tarp bailout, which kerrey buttkisser liberal joe jordan has COMPLETELY ignored himself?

  • Ivy Harper or i*harper*se

    Goodness Dan, you need to chill out, my Friend.

    The Record reveals that I’ve been critical of both parties for some time although I believe strongly that the Democrats are responsible for less of the United States of a Mess than the GOP.

    It would be awesome if a viable Independent third party could seriously challenge both parties; however, since Occupy was co-opted by Dems and the Tea Party by the GOP, it appears that the Status Quo will stay all Status-y & Quo-y.

    In the meantime, you should know that I’ve been highly critical of U.S. Senator Ben Nelson for his BFF relationship with NELNET and other predatory student loan lenders since 2007.

    However, I will always appreciate Nelson’s ‘yes’ vote on the Affordable Care Act; it’s just sad that the Good Senator couldn’t have just simply supported it at the outset and not played all the last-minute vote hold-outs that Nebraska’s U.S. Senators seem known for from Zorinsky to Kerrey to Nelson.

    If Nelson had been one of the first Senators to sign on to ObamaCare, he’d never have been pulled into the Heineman-Nelson “political antler-bashing” competition that resulted in the Cornhusker Kickback moniker.

    As far as Rep. Fortenberry goes, I’m simply listing indisputable Facts that are part of “The Fort’s” past but since the Truth hurts and I know you’re hurting, I’ll forgive you your rude slurs and ad hominem attacks.

  • Dan

    Really ivy, i would say the number one reason for the slide of the u.s. is the socialist etitlement society with the side effect of those policies the destruction of the family and community structure, which has been foisted upon us 90% by the liberal democrat party with some stupid instances by republicans. And fwiw, I’m sure you’re gonna love obamacare when the death panels decide you’re not worth saving. And i was against the WARS in iraq and afghanistan, i thought we should’ve buried afghanistan in rubble and killed hussein in a public hanging to warn the iraqis not to f with us, so on that i depart from my conservative bretheren, however i notice no liberal screaming that it was the warmonger lbj that lusted for vietnam and screwed it up royally himself.

  • r2d2

    talking to a politician is like speaking to a used car salesman – you never know what you are going to get