“It was one of those difficult decisions,” Nelson said. “We’re not looking into a mirror here. We’re looking at alternatives — that was the decision we had to make.”

Critics, or “partisans” as Nelson calls them, immediately pounced. In floor speeches and millions of dollars of political ads, they all but accused Reid and Nelson of corruption. Even some GOP senators, who got along well with Nelson personally and teamed with him on legislation, said they found the deal detestable.

“I thought it was an egregious act. … a pretty dumb thing to do,” said Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), a member of both the Finance and Health committees, which had jurisdiction over the health care bill. Republican Mike Johanns, Nebraska’s other senator and a leading health care law critic, called the episode “embarrassing” for Nebraska. “That’s not who we are,” he told POLITICO…

Today, he insists that any backlash from his unpopular health vote — not to mention the Cornhusker Kickback — had nothing to do with his decision last December to forgo a third Senate bid. He still had cash in his campaign coffers, and internal polling had showed him narrowly leading GOP state Attorney General Jon Bruning and state Treasurer Don Stenberg.