Do Tell: Ben Nelson - Jokester, Daredevil, Rocker

This week, we profile Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) who wore a Brooks Brothers seersucker suit as he chatted with us on the campiest of Senate holidays -- Seersucker Thursday.

Sen. Ben Nelson and congressional colleagues on Seersucker Thursday.

Nelson hails from McCook, Neb., a town of about 8,000, which has produced three of Nebraska's governors and two of its senators.

Besides being the most conservative Democrat in the Senate, Nelson is known as the Senate's preeminent practical jokester. (He calls them "gotcha's.")

Nelson told us about the heart stopper he pulled over on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) on swearing-in day, and other shenanigans that endear him to his colleagues and staff (view the video and text of the interview below). His biggest coup as Funny Man was appearing on Candid Camera when he was governor of Nebraska, baffling -- and, in one case, really angering -- unsuspecting constituents by telling them he wanted to change the name of the state.

With so many of his Democratic Senate colleagues running for president, Nelson is playing it safe by not endorsing anyone yet. He has a long-running joke with presidential hopefuls that he'd like to be Interior secretary because "Interior has oversight of hunting grounds."

When he wants to rock out, Nelson listens to the Rolling Stones. (Which, yes, is pretty weird coming from a man in a seersucker suit.)

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Sleuth: Here you are wearing a seersucker suit on Seersucker Thursday. But you're from Nebraska, which I don't really think of as a seersucker state.

Nelson: Well, I'm from southwestern Nebraska. That's sort of south. Right on the Kansas border. So, that's [the] South.

Sleuth: You are known around your office and around the Senate as being a jokester.

Nelson: Yes I am. I never plan to grow up when it comes to practical jokes.

Sleuth: Tell me about some of the best practical jokes you've pulled on colleagues in the Senate.

Nelson: Probably the best one that I pulled was on Senator [Hillary Rodham] Clinton (D-N.Y.). It was the day we were being sworn in for our first term and we'd gotten all kinds of instructions about what to do, what to bring, and one of the instructions was to bring a family bible for the swearing-in ceremony. I don't know what caused me to do this but she was just sort of looking out, spaced a little bit. And I just leaned over and said, 'Incidentally, what scripture are you going to read?

She said, 'Scripture? Nobody told me I had to read a scripture!'

And then she saw that I was laughing and she said, 'Oh, you stopped my heart.' She said, 'You do that often?' I said, 'All the time.' She says, 'Good, go get [former Sen. Jon] Corzine (D-N.J.).'

So here's a guy who spent $66 million of his own money and his reaction was: 'Scripture?!' You know, it worked. This year I did it to [Sen.] Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.). She was the victim.

Sleuth: It worked?

Nelson: Yes. Always works. Always works.

You know, I get on the elevator. And [we] got a 15 minute vote, [I] say to somebody, 'Boy, we gotta hustle this is a 10-minute vote.' [Inaudible] Go running off the elevator.

Or, the other day, somebody was getting on the elevator. As the door came across I just grabbed 'em by their jacket. They said, 'I'm caught in the door, I'm caught in the door!'

Sleuth: Who was that?

Nelson: I'm not going to say. Well, actually I did it on the subway, it was [Sen.] Bill Nelson (D-Fla.). He's been threatening to get even with me ever since.

Sleuth: And you two must get mixed up a lot, getting each other's mail and email. Is that a problem?

Nelson: Most of it is in the news. I'll see that I'm co-sponsoring a bill I don't know about so I'll go, 'I didn't know I was co-sponsoring this bill!' Well I'm not, he is.

On one occasion there was a picture of him in the paper with my name on the caption.

Sleuth: I understand you once made it on Candid Camera when you were governor. Tell me about that.

Nelson: They came to my office, the governor's office, set up something that was a distraction over in the corner. Then poor unsuspecting people come in from the rotunda and they would sit down right across the desk from me.

And I would say, 'You know, the name Nebraska has served this state so very well. But it's time to move on to different things. Look at Standard Oil. Now you've got S.O., you've got AMACO, you've got all these shorter words and shorter names. It just seems to work very well for them. I've thought about changing the name of the state from Nebraska. I'd like to run this by you.'

Well, you can imagine the look on their face. And so I would say, 'Well, Quintron or Zenmar.' And mouths would drop open.

I had one person who came in and just immediately went like this. [Expression] The look was: Have you lost your mind?

She said, 'I think it's the dumbest idea that I've ever heard. I don't think you ought to even go public with anything that dumb.' She went on and on and on and on. When I finally said, 'Smile, you're on Candid Camera!' it took her a while to stop being mad. [Laughter] Usually people just go [laughter]. She was really upset with me.

Sleuth: You once jumped out of an airplane with the Army's Golden Knights on college game day over Nebraska Memorial Stadium. What possessed you?

Nelson: Of course the staff was quite concerned about it because this is a very close number back here between minority and majority. At that point it was even closer, it was tied. So I thought twice about it.

So I went up and I jumped out of a plane with this officer from the military.

Sleuth: And how scared were you on a scale of one to 10?

Nelson: Twenty. [Laughter] It was tough. When they opened the door and you're right there, you know you're going out of the plane. That's when it gets to you. And once you're out of the plane, I found myself thinking, If I ever get down again I'll never do this again.

Sleuth: What kind of music do you listen to, and what are your favorite bands?

Nelson: Mick Jagger. I've said about Mick Jagger, when they [performed] in Omaha, that he should be in Nebraska's back field with all the moves he has. I can't imagine anybody at any age moving the way he moves -- let alone at his age. So I know he'd be a tremendous running back for Nebraska. So I get a kick out of the Rolling Stones. They're senior folks who've been around for a long time who seem just as relevant today as they were then they started.

Sleuth: What's been your oddest moment so far in the Senate?

Nelson: Oddest...hmmm...oddest. There was an amendment up. And I was absolutely convinced it was wrong and my staff didn't try to talk me out of it. So I went down and I was one of the first people there and I voted 'no' and then I came back by after the vote was over and said, 'How'd it do?' It passed 99-1. It my was my solo vote. All by myself.

Sleuth: What was the amendment?

Nelson: I don't remember but I was convinced I was right.