Politics: If the Democrats' stitched-together Frankenstein monster of health care reform gets the 60 votes to get through the Senate, it will have been done through an assortment of bribes and brass knuckles. (snip) Sen. Ben Nelson, a Nebraska Democrat, has also been critical of the buy-in and public option, but he has an additional issue about whatever comes out of the Senate not involving public funding of abortion in any way. Michael Goldfarb on the Weekly Standard blog quotes a Senate aide as saying the White House is now threatening to put Nebraska's Offutt Air Force Base on the base closure and realignment list if Nelson doesn't fall into line.
Offutt is the headquarters for the U.S. Strategic Command, successor to the Strategic Air Command. STRATCOM was situated in the middle of the country for strategic reasons. Offutt Air Force Base employs some 10,000 military and federal employees in southeast Nebraska. Its closure would be a major blow to the state's economy and would amount to playing politics with our national security...