Bruning and the stock market: Love it or hate it?

Attorney General Jon Bruning just can’t seem to keep his story straight lately.

Last week he told the Omaha World Herald that he made “a lot of money” at his first job out of law school working for Vital Learning Corp. in Omaha — and then made even more money by investing money in the stock market in the early 1990s.

Here’s what the World-Herald reported:

He said he then made more money by investing in the robust markets of the 1990s. “I was able to successfully invest that money in the stock market in the early 1990s,” he said.

But then during a radio show on Monday morning, Bruning seemed to contradict himself when he told KFAB that while a lot of people invest in Wall Street, he prefers to invest in Nebraska companies he can “see and touch.”

“I hate Wall Street,” he said. “I’d rather invest here in Nebraska… rather than send it out to New York… which is basically a big casino.”

And while some of Bruning’s investments are in Nebraska — chiefly, his investment in a bank holding company that owns three Nebraska banks — he also has chosen to invest outside of Nebraska, in a storage facility in Iowa and a retirement company in Kansas City.

Seems Bruning is having trouble keeping his story straight: Even though last week he told the World-Herald he made a lot of money off Wall Street, this week he says he hates Wall Street, which is a big casino. And even though he says he prefer to invest in Nebraska companies, he has invested in out-of-state companies.

All of which shows why it’s good to stick to the script. (Bruning’s campaign, by the way, has declined to comment on any of this to me.)

And while we’re on the topic of Bruning’s wealth, let us not forget that the incumbent everyone is trying to dethrone — U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson — is a very wealthy man, too. Opensecrets.org estimates he is worth between $8 million and $16.6 million. Their data makes it clear Nelson invests in all kinds of stocks, too.

If reporters decide to look more closely into Bruning’s assets and investments, they’ll have a lot of digging to do on Nelson, too.