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such issues as abortion, taxes and immigration, amassing one of the most conservative voting records of any Senate Democrat.
Hagel, once a fairly reliable Republican vote, has become an even bigger irritant to his party than Nelson is to his. Two weeks ago, he was one of only two GOP senators who voted with Democrats in support of an emergency war funding bill that would require the president to begin bringing troops home within four months.
On the day of the vote, the two senators, whose frosty relationship has endured since Hagel defeated Nelson in the 1996 Senate race, collaborated on an op-ed in the Omaha World-Herald that called the bill "a desperately needed adjustment" to U.S. policy in Iraq.
Hagel has faced particularly intense wrath from GOP loyalists in the state who have assailed him for breaking with the president. In a letter to the World-Herald, McCollister chided his onetime protege for making cause with lawmakers who have "a consuming, burning hatred of George W. Bush as their dominant legislative priority."
Nebraska's three GOP congressmen stuck with their party in opposing a Democratic House measure last month that set a deadline for withdrawing combat troops.
"I don't think we should tell the enemy what our plan is, and that's what I hear all across the district," freshman Rep. Adrian Smith told farmers and ranchers in McCook recently.
But Nelson and Hagel are speaking for a growing number of Nebraskans who are uneasy about the war.
"We don't see any end to it," said Gene Morris, who moved to McCook in 1961 and published the daily McCook Gazette for nearly two decades before retiring recently. "I think a lot of us think we're not doing what we're supposed to be doing."
Over a ground beef and sauerkraut sandwich popularized by German immigrants more than a century ago, Sehnert said he worries there isn't a clear mission anymore.
"You can just feel the fatigue factor developing," said Nelson, who returned to his hometown in February for Matheny's funeral.
Even some Nebraskans dismayed about the prospect of a withdrawal seem to respect their senators' willingness to challenge what the Bush administration is doing in Iraq.
"I'm glad someone is pushing back," said Tanner Kirchner, an army reservist from the western Nebraska town of Ogallala who served two tours in Iraq in 2003 and 2006. Kirchner said he fears that America will pull out of Iraq before the job is finished.
Unease over the war has deepened in Nebraska as it has nationwide, said Barry Rubin, the former executive director of the state Democratic Party, which has polled extensively on the war.
But worries have also intensified as the war touches an increasing number of communities across the sparsely populated state.
Approximately 95% of Nebraska's Army National Guard soldiers have served in Iraq over the last four years, including 800 who are deployed there now, said Guard Capt. Kevin Hynes.
At least 36 service members from Nebraska have died in Iraq or Afghanistan since 2001, according to the Department of Defense.
In McCook, Matheny's death two months ago jarred a community where the exploits of the McCook High School Bisons are normally the big news.
Day after day, the McCook Gazette filled with tributes to the young man, whose brother and sister also serve in the military.
When Matheny's body came home, hundreds packed the civic auditorium for the memorial service.
Administrators at the public schools scrambled to find substitutes for the many teachers who went to Matheny's memorial, Berry said.
More than 100 miles away at the University of Nebraska in Kearney, political science professor Peter J. Longo said two of his students from McCook asked for time off to go home.
"That sense of community is very important for Nebraskans," said Longo, a Nebraska native.
"There is some serious mourning and grieving that goes on every time a Nebraskan is killed in the war…. I think that has really tugged on both senators."
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