By Daphne Retter The phrase of the day, brought to you by the United States Senate, is: “It’s not personal.” What it means: “It’s personal.” Take the squabble between Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.). It started in October 2005, when Coburn went after a Nelson-requested earmark. In the course of that debate — ultimately won by Nelson — the two made a deal whereby Coburn would talk to Nelson whenever he publicly sought to cut one of the Nebraskan’s projects. Nelson said he was shocked to discover that Coburn filed an amendment on July 13 to strip out a $7.5 million earmark for 21st Century Systems Inc. (21CSI), a Nebraska-based defense contractor, even though the former hadn’t yet made his case to leave the earmark alone. When Nelson saw Coburn on the Senate floor July 18, he told Coburn, “I thought we had a deal!” Read more...