LJS: Tom White makes his case for the 2nd District

By Don Walton, Lincoln Journal-Star
June 13, 2010

Omaha - Tom White is on a roll.

"We can't afford passivity and inaction anymore," he says, revving up his campaign message.

"There are historic opportunities for Nebraska that we're missing."

In wind energy.

Nuclear energy.

Omaha's congressman needs to aggressively and effectively support U.S. Air Force operations at Offutt Air Force Base, White says.

Offutt missed out on new cybercommand operations and location of the Global Strike Command, he says.

Now, Nebraska's House members need to help Sen. Ben Nelson secure funding for a new Strategic Command headquarters building at Offutt, he says.

White says he'll be ready to request appropriations earmarks for Nebraska, when appropriate.

And that includes an earmark, or access to substantial federal infrastructure funding, to help defray the enormous cost - estimated at $2.8 billion over 20 years - of a mandated sewer separation and rebuilding project in Omaha, he says.

"There's no leadership," White says. "We can't afford it. The state can't afford it."

White is challenging six-term Republican Rep. Lee Terry in Nebraska's premier contest of the 2010 election.

Invited to make his case, White sits down over a cup of coffee in downtown Omaha on a rainy morning.

(Terry also will be invited to make his case in a matching interview.)

White is articulate, persuasive and passionate; he is a state senator and a trial lawyer, accustomed to making his case in the courtroom and on the floor of the Legislature.

Leadership dominates his message.

"We need somebody who can work both sides of the aisle and get something done," the 2nd District Democratic congressional nominee says.

"I would be somebody who responds to a call from Hastings or Grand Island or Lincoln or Norfolk as well as from my district. I would try to help."

Let's talk earmarks.

Nelson is the only member of the Nebraska congressional delegation who has requested appropriations earmarks this year.

"Is nobody willing to work with Ben?" White asks. "You guys just there for the travel?"

White says he'd request or support fully transparent earmarks for vital, high-priority projects in Nebraska. Not including for-profit ventures.

The enormous sewer improvement project in Omaha represents an opportunity to address huge pockets of unemployment - an estimated 17 percent in northeast Omaha - by providing occupational training and thousands of laboring jobs, White says.

A system of portable tax credits could jumpstart wind energy development in Nebraska and construction of the required electric transmission grid, he says.

"How come there's no stimulus funding for that?"

Omaha Public Power District's nuclear power plant at Fort Calhoun is an ideal place to launch the nation's new emphasis on nuclear energy development, White says.

"Look what has happened in the Gulf," he says.

"We need bridge energy, and we've got to do it quickly.

"We need a 20-year plan for Nebraska to move forward with projects like that," White says.

"That creates jobs, a cleaner environment, improves the balance of trade, helps national security, grows the tax base.

"Where's the leadership?" he asks.

White says it's time to cut congressional salaries, including staff, by 10 percent until Congress balances the federal budget and unemployment markedly recedes.

"Put some skin in the game," he suggests.

And Congress needs to enact reasonable financial regulation reform, he says.

"We've just had a market meltdown of historic proportions and my opponent is opposing reforms to prevent that from happening again," White says.

"That is staggering.

"Dumb regulations are awful, but no regulation led us to where we are."