‘Nothing sleazy about it’

Nelson’s colleagues are reeling, and Democrats want a Medicaid carve-out too, while Republicans are crying corruption. Nelson is now blaming the leadership, saying he never asked for so much. “This is the way Senate leadership chose to handle it. I never asked for 100 percent funding,” he said.

Nelson, who said he sought a carve-out for his state on Medicaid because of concerns his state leadership had over rising costs, was also surprised his own Republican governor blasted the deal. Gov. Dave Heineman attempted to exonerate himself with the following statement: “Under no circumstances did I have anything to do with Sen. Nelson’s compromise. The responsibility for this special deal lies solely on the shoulders of Sen. Ben Nelson.”

Nelson, a former two-term governor, then wrote to Heineman offering to kill it. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has taken some heat from Republicans back home recently for working with Democrats, has taken up the cause. Graham announced Tuesday he is having the attorney general back home investigate the deal, though no one knows exactly what anyone in South Carolina could do about this legislative arrangement.

Calling it sleazy Chicago corruption, Graham is sure to co-star in the Nelson-Medicaid story for days to come. Not that Graham is wrong. “Is it appropriate for the federal government to do a special deal for one state to get that senator’s vote and every other state will incur financial liability?” he asked. No, senator, it isn’t appropriate.

For now it appears the deal passes out on Christmas Eve anyway, and then Nelson can ask to have it removed from the conference report when the House and Senate meet in January to merge the two bills. Until then, Nelson insists, as his Democratic colleagues begin a stampede for their own Medicaid exemptions, that “it isn’t a special deal.” And Nelson appears happy to have started the stampede. “I was just getting rid of an underfunded federal mandate. There’s nothing sleazy about it. I cracked the door open for other states.”

Boy, I bet Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who brokered the deal to secure Nelson’s 60th vote to beat back a filibuster against healthcare reform, sure is happy to hear Nelson asked for the carve-out to help his other colleagues do the same.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF REP. PARKER GRIFFITH’S (ALA.) PARTY SWITCH? Ask A.B. returns in January after the holidays. Please join my weekly video Q&A by sending your questions and comments to askab@digital-release.digital-release.thehill.com. Thank you and have a wonderful holiday.