NE GOP Lieutenant Gov. Rick Sheehy, handpicked succes­sor to Heineman, resigns after 2,000 late night calls to four women found on state-issued cell phone

Heineman, left, with disgraced Lt. Gov. Sheehy,
whom he had groomed to succeed him.

Also: Gov. Heineman's scheme to raise taxes on 80% of Nebraskans.
     Lincoln Journal Star outs two of Sheehy's paramours

Antigay Governor Dave Heineman called a press conference this morning to deliver the bad news about his dauphin, who really, really likes the ladies.
     Heineman's hand was forced by a public records request by both the Omaha World-Herald. and Omaha's ABC affiliate, KETV, which first requested records last November.
      Technically, Rick Sheehy is married, but his wife of 28 years, Colleen, filed for divorce last July.
     AKSARBENT has knowledge of at least one Democratic Party operative who said rumors of Sheehy's misuse of state property in connection with his extracurricular activities, including not just his state-issued cell phone, but a vehicle, were rife as far back as last summer, which begs the question: What did Sheehy's taciturn boss, Gov. Heineman, know and when did he know it?
     The World-Herald, which has been looking at Sheehy's phone records for about a month, published in Norfolk, via its news service, a story headlined Secret cellphone life of Rick Sheehy, in which he is said to have made 2,302 calls to four women, lasting a total of more than 28,000 minutes, in the last four years (About 1/2 an hour per day). Sheehy drove 60,000 miles throughout the state yearly during his tenure as Lt. Governor.
     On its 6 pm newscast, Nebraska's most influential newscaster, Omaha's KETV, floated the names of two GOP politicians the party might pick to replace the already-announced but certain-to-be-aborted candidacy of Sheehy: state senators Charlie Jansen, reportedly a stooge of the Koch Bros., especially Koch-funded ALEC and Beau McCoy, the legislature's most dangerous homophobe.
     KETV may have had as much or more credit in breaking this story as the World-Herald; it too filed to get phone records and threatened court action, according to the verbiage of documents shown on its newscast, if it didn't get them.

     KETV NewsWatch 7 I-Team found that Sheehy was improperly using his state-issued cell phone to make late-night phone calls -- some calls lasting for more than an hour.
     Acting on a public records request made by the I-Team, Heineman's spokesperson turned over a history of calls made to and from Sheehy's cell phone dating back to January 2009.  
     The World-Herald reported that it raised questions about the calls in recent days, which prompted Sheehy's resignation.  The paper reports that Sheehy made those calls to four women, other than his wife, during that time.

     Below: The Nebraska Lieutenant Governor's resignation letter, a one-paragraph missive of Nixonian terseness, and Heineman's press conference, earlier today.