In the wake of Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts putting health care legislation in doubt, Ben Nelson has to feel pretty stupid about caving last month and casting a vote for the Democrats’ health care bill.

In reaction, he released a statement this afternoon about the renewed need for bipartisanship, and he said it isn’t time to “give up” on passing a bill.

But this part of his statement stood out at me:

“The Massachusetts vote should be a wake-up call for Washington. Republicans now have 41 votes in the Senate, Democrats and Independents have 59. The 60/40 split that took us too far down the road to partisan gamesmanship is history.”

Nelson has no sense of irony about the fact that his “Cornhusker kickbag” was the epitome of the sort of partisan backroom dealmaking that fueled voter anger in Massachusetts.