Republican Nebraska state Sen. Mark Christensen says that a fellow lawmaker might go to hell because "he doesn’t have the relationship that it takes to be a Christian or go to Heaven" after filibustering a bill that would expand prison work camps to provide labor for nonprofit organizations.
Sen. Ernie Chambers (I) shut down the legislative process for hours on Wednesday with his filibuster of Christensen's Legislative Bill 52, which allows inmates at the McCook Work Ethic Camp to provide labor for "any charitable, fraternal, or nonprofit corporation."
During his hours-long filibuster, Chambers blasted former Republican Lt. Gov. Rick Sheehy, who recently resigned after a paper revealed that he had made thousands of phone calls to women who were not his wife. Chambers was also critical of the Nebraska attorney general because he let former Sen. Brenda Council (D) off with a misdemeanor after she gambled more than $63,000 in campaign funds at casinos.
"Sheehy and Council commit crimes but aren’t charged," Chambers said, noting that "some scruffy person" would not be so lucky, according to the Nebraska Watchdog.
“Why shouldn’t Sheehy be sentenced to do some free labor?” he wondered. “It would teach him good work habits, and it would let him know that crime of any kind doesn’t pay.”
Chambers -- who once sued God for causing "fearsome floods, egregious earthquakes, horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornadoes, pestilential plagues, ferocious famines, devastating droughts, genocidal wars, birth defects, and the like" -- continued his filibuster by going after the hypocrisy of Republican Christians because they had “taken people’s wives” and “shiver of shivers, engaged in homosexuality.”
At one point, Chambers noted that Jesus “looked more like me than you all.”
The state senator observed that the Mafia had higher standards than the Catholic Church because if made men were “raping children, they’d off them.”
The filibuster was shut down when the legislative session ended at noon on Wednesday.
Following the session, Christensen told the Watchdog that Chambers filibustered because thought the prison work plan was reminiscent of “chain gang days.”
“He knows the Bible but he doesn’t have the relationship that it takes to be a Christian or go to Heaven,” Christensen added.
