Nebraska has been coming at us from all angles lately, thanks to the recent national media spotlight on Sen. Ben Nelson.

First Newsweek. Then the New York Times Sunday Magazine, refuting the idea that he's the next Zell Miller. And then I got the big news: The senator would go head-to-head with Jon Stewart on "The Daily Show." Very exciting.

I love Jon Stewart. In my New York life, everybody worships him. But TV's bad boy booking the Democrat-in-a-sea-of-red senator from my home turf is worlds colliding. I was very curious to see how it would go and how it would be received.

It's not often that someone from Nebraska is featured on late-night TV in anything other than an infomercial. I believe the last time I tuned in for such an occasion was to watch Andy Roddick talk to David Letterman after his 2003 U.S. Open victory.

Boy, was that disappointing. Even though I'd spotted A-Rod's Husker-hatted mug in the tabloids more than once (during the Mandy Moore era, of course), when Dave teed him up to talk about his Nebraska roots, all we got was a big fat diss: "Nebraska? Oh, I was born there but I haven't lived there in a really long time," he mumbled, or something to that effect. It seemed as if Roddick was reluctant to get dull old Nebraska near his pretty trophy, lest it take off some of the shine.

So now Nebraska would meet Stewart, a formidable opponent. I was less worried about the image the senator would project — after all, he knows who he serves, and who's better at staying "on message" than a politician? I was concerned about what the object of my affection might do to him, and to us.

I was relieved. Stewart was kind; the senator held his own. But there was that one obligatory crack — when the senator invited Stewart to Nebraska, his perfectly comically timed excuse was "Uh, well, I've got a … thing."

So I decided to interview Nelson myself, to see how he feels about all this attention, and about representing our state to people who will likely fly over it hundreds of times but never actually visit.

"It's a slow news time," he said when I asked him if it was his position on Social Security that was stirring up the interest, or something bigger.

"I'd be less than honest if I said I didn't enjoy some of the attention," he told me. "But no matter what happens with the media coverage, I'm going to avoid the pitfall of believing my own clips."

I told him I thought Stewart had been good to him. He agreed: "He was very good to me, and he's very funny, which makes him very bad for you because it's hard to keep up with him."

We talked about the declined invitation, and he revealed a TV-banter secret: "I was watching his eyes, because I knew he was going to go funny on me right there, but I didn't know what he was going to say."

It seems Nelson, too, is a Stewart fan. "It's amazing. I have yet to have anybody say anything bad about him."

I told him that I watched the "Daily Show" for solace on Election Night. Stewart said all the right things, one of them to the effect that "New Yorkers were most victimized by the terrorist attacks, and openly gay people are nowhere openly gayer than in New York, so it's good we have people in the red states looking out for us on the issues of homeland security and gay marriage." (I'm paraphrasing.)

I asked Nelson what he thought of that sentiment. "Jon Stewart is a comedian who from time to time says things that are heartfelt and not necessarily designed to get a laugh," he began. "There's a belief that there's a major difference between values in Nebraska and values in New York, but I don't know that the values are different.

"I think there are some people who have learned to live together in congested areas, and they view things from that perspective. And there's a perception that people in the wide-open spaces care a little less about their neighbor or are more critical of other lifestyles. To believe that is to ignore the fact that the reason that people survived on the Nebraska prairie during those harsh winters is that they really understood community. They had to work together. Perhaps government has taken some of that community away, but I think there's a lot more sense of being concerned about your neighbor than folks in the blue states know or believe."

Of course. So what has us so twisted around that we can't recognize ourselves in one another?

"It stems from years and years of what we've been seeing so much of: wedge politics and political one-upmanship. It's something we have to overcome if we are going to be united down the road," he said. "I think Jon Stewart agrees with me that there needs to be less red state and blue state and more United States. I just think we need to worry about how we're reacting to one another."

In that spirit, I asked him who else he wishes could see Nebraska firsthand. "Sen. Susan Collins, from Maine, may be able to come out when Nebraska plays Maine this season," he said. "I've worked so well with her. She's on the other side of the aisle, and we've proved together on many occasions that you can be bipartisan and get things done. I'd love to have her visit. There are a lot of my colleagues I'd love to have visit."

Maybe the recent media blitz will lure them — they're certainly taking notice.

"The two senators from New York have been teasing me about (the media attention) a bit," Nelson told me. "They think I've made it big time when I'm in their paper. I told them that the Nebraska papers are what I consider big time."

Clearly, we see eye to eye. "You're still a Nebraskan," Nelson commented, at the end of our conversation. "And I can really tell that."

And that made me proud. In life, as in politics, no matter where you go, it's important to remember where you come from.

Kelly Bare is a writer and editor in New York. She can be reached at kellybare76@yahoo.com.