Strong emotions Thursday weren't enough for Nebraska lawmakers to overcome State Sen. Ernie Chambers' opposition to a state-issued Gold Star Family license plate honoring Nebraska's war dead.

The Legislature recessed without voting on the plate proposal, Legislative Bill 570. It is not known whether lawmakers will have time to return to the bill in the waning days of the 2007 session.

The bill's sponsor, State Sen. LeRoy Louden of Ellsworth, said he remains hopeful that Speaker Mike Flood will put it on the agenda again before lawmakers adjourn May 31.

If the bill is passed, the families of Nebraskans killed in Iraq and Afghanistan would qualify for the honor, along with thousands of others whose loved ones died in other wars.

The Gold Star has been used to honor survivors, in particular mothers, of those killed in wartime since at least World War I, Louden said.

At least eight states already offer Gold Star plates, and seven more are considering Gold Star legislation.

"I will do everything I can to kill this bill," Chambers said at the start of Thursday's debate.

The Omaha lawmaker gave at least three reasons: He dislikes using license plates as state-sanctioned billboards, he opposes the war in Iraq as immoral and he does not believe the contribution of black Americans to the military has been properly recognized.

"A license plate should not be a billboard, no matter what the issue is," Chambers said.

He made some other lawmakers angry with his opposition.

Sen. Pat Engel of South Sioux City said Chambers' comments were "so unpatriotic."

"You are so lucky you live in this country, where you can say the things you say. If you lived in some of the countries you're more or less defending, you'd lose not only your tongue, but your head with it," he said.

Engel ended up walking out of the legislative chamber.

Sen. Steve Lathrop of Omaha, whose nephew is serving in Iraq's Anbar province, said it was a "dark moment for the Legislature that we would take more than 15 minutes to pass this bill."

"We give license plates to football fans in this state, and we're arguing whether we can do the same for families who have sacrificed loved ones. I think it's disgraceful we're arguing about it," Lathrop said.

The bill would allow close family members of military personnel killed in wartime to obtain license plates with a Gold Star to signify their sacrifice. Some proceeds of the plate would finance a new veterans cemetery near Alliance.

The plate proposal was requested by some of Louden's constituents, who had lost sons in Iraq.

"These are no vanity plates. This is a club nobody wants to belong to," Bob Wolf of Scottsbluff said in a March interview. His son, Army Spc. James "Jamie" Wolf, was killed in Iraq in November 2003.

Some lawmakers were sympathetic to Chambers' concerns about limiting the number of specialty license plates.

Sens. Mick Mines of Blair and DiAnna Schimek of Lincoln said Department of Motor Vehicles Director Beverly Neth had warned the Transportation Committee to be careful about authorizing new plates because the state could eventually be forced to issue plates on behalf of other, less popular groups. The Ku Klux Klan and Hells Angels were mentioned.

"There will be a proliferation of specialty plates; that is the issue here," Mines said.

However, both Mines and Schimek said they would support the Gold Star license plates.