Funny how once Ben Nelson realized he was becoming a Pivotal Senate Vote, he started to find insurmountable objections to abortion language that he had earlier indicated he was willing to live with.

Here’s Nelson, back on November 17:

Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., who last week insisted that the Senate health care bill include tight restrictions passed by the House on the use of federal money for abortion coverage, now says he would be satisfied with the less restrictive language approved by the Senate Finance Committee.

Then, two days later he decided that maybe he shouldn’t just roll over without asking for anything in return. So he said he was going to keep the abortion language issue alive, but only in order to press for the public option to be dropped:

The language in the Senate healthcare reform bill designed to bar federal funds from paying for abortions is not good enough, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) said Thursday.
[...]
“We have looked at the language,” Nelson told The Hill. “That language is not language that I would prefer.”

“I think you need to have it eminently clear that no dollars that are federal tax dollars, directly or indirectly, are used to pay for abortions and it needs to be totally clear. [It’s] not clear enough, I don’t think,” Nelson said.

Nelson, who also opposes the creation of a government-run public option insurance plan, pointedly remarked that program is a significant reason for his rejection of Reid’s abortion provisions. “If there’s no public option, perhaps some of the problem goes away,” Nelson said.

That’s pretty straightforward. He can live with the abortion language; it’s the public option he’s really fighting against.

And now suddenly Nelson has looked into his heart and discovered that not only can he not live with the existing abortion language, he’s not even willing to accept a new and improved version put together just for him. That he has no choice but to join the Republican filibuster.

So what prompted the shift? The limelight suddenly made him dizzy? Or did it have something to do with a word from his sponsors?

According to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Sen. Nelson has raised more than $2 million from insurance and health care interests in his three campaigns for federal office. … Sen. Nelson has received $1,195,299 from insurance interests, $399,345 from health professionals, $258,483 from the pharmaceutical industry, and $195,138 from hospital and nursing home interests.

Politics, after all, is performance art. Did those to whom Nelson is beholden send a message to him? A short and succinct one: Perform!