Oh, you mean getting rid of a long-time Senator who happened to be the party leader in the Senate and had tons of political clout may end up hurting our chances at keeping our military base?
Some say absence of Daschle factor in Ellsworth making list
From the American News and wire service
And The Aberdeen (SD) American News
Former Democratic Sen. Tom Daschle is staying above the fray in the wake of the announcement that Ellsworth Air Force Base may well close.
Others, however, are more than willing to sound off.
Steve Hildebrand ran Daschle's 2004 campaign during which the former Senate Democratic leader lost to Republican John Thune. Current "Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) got to make the appointment to the (base closing) commission that Daschle would have. Nevada will gain more than 1,000 jobs ...," Hildebrand said in a series of e-mails.
Meanwhile, he said, Ellsworth and South Dakota "will continue to go at it alone with no one watching out for our interests. The new Democratic leader saw his state gain 1,059 jobs while John Thune let us down."
Hildebrand's comments, of course, weren't surprising. And just as predictable was that Daschle declined to get into speculation about what might have happened if he were still in office.
Daschle told the American News that while the news about Ellsworth was disappointing, there's still a chance to change the closure list. "It's regrettable, but we have to go from here," he said.
The Aberdeen native who now works for a law firm in Washington also said he'd do anything he can to help keep Ellsworth off the closure list.
Thune said he's open to any help Daschle can offer. Daschle has experience, knows how the system works and has been through the process before, Thune said.
Friday's announcement was a blow to Thune, who said during the campaign that he, being from the same party as the president, would be better able to save Ellsworth than Daschle.
And now Senator Thune, unable to get the attention of the president who handpicked him, is proposing to do the same thing they accused Senator Daschle of doing, he wants to obstruct the vote on one of Bush's nominee as an attempt to draw the president's attention to the proposed closure of Ellsworth Air Force Base. Thune is threatening to vote "no" on the confirmation of John Bolton as ambassador to the UN -- even though he supports the president's nominee and thinks he should be confirmed -- as a means of coercing the White House into not closing Ellsworth. Unbelievable! And if Senator Daschle would still be representing SD and threatening to do the same thing, Mullah, James Dobson would be pissing himself in rage over Daschle's obstructionist ways.
Threat to Base Sends Senator on Maneuvers
From the New York Times
Senator John Thune has long been a darling of the White House, handpicked by President Bush as a rising Republican star. But just months after winning election by telling voters that his ties to Mr. Bush would help save their military base, Mr. Thune is facing a new reality.
At home in South Dakota, he is feeling the heat from his constituents, who are furious over the Pentagon's plans to close Ellsworth Air Force Base, the state's second-largest employer. But in the Senate there are only so many options available to a freshman - even if that freshman is Mr. Thune, who became a Republican celebrity by unseating the Democratic leader, Tom Daschle, last November.
One of those options is sending subtle messages to the White House that the base-closing recommendations are more important than party loyalty, which is exactly what Mr. Thune is doing.
"I've said all along that I'm going to play whatever cards I have to get the best possible outcome I can for my base," Mr. Thune said on Wednesday. In an interview with a South Dakota newspaper, The Rapid City Journal, he put it more succinctly: "What goes around, comes around."
Right now, Mr. Thune's cards include hedging on a matter of utmost importance to Mr. Bush, the vote on the nomination of John R. Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations, which could come as early as Thursday. He has also not taken a public position on the Central American Free Trade Agreement, which Congress has yet to vote on, and on Wednesday he implied that he might waver on Mr. Bush's judicial candidates, although he did vote to confirm Justice Priscilla R. Owen to the appellate bench.
"I'm undecided on Bolton," Mr. Thune said, "and I guess that's where I would leave it."
His reasons? "My reasons are my reasons," he said.
But if Mr. Thune was being cagey, his point was obvious, coming as it did in the context of a lengthy interview about the Ellsworth base and how he is trying to save it. And at least one Republican aide said Wednesday that Mr. Thune had told a fellow senator he was contemplating voting against Mr. Bolton to send a message to the White House about the base.
It is not as if he believes that Mr. Bush picked the wrong man for the job. Though he has never said outright that he would vote for Mr. Bolton, Mr. Thune has made supportive comments. Last month, on the MSNBC program "Hardball," he said of Mr. Bolton: "He is a guy who shakes things up. And I think the U.N. needs that."
During the race, Mr. Daschle argued that, as minority leader of the Senate, he would have a seat on the base closing commission and could help spare Ellsworth, as he did 10 years ago when Bill Clinton was president. Mr. Thune countered that as a Republican, he would have the president's ear.
"John Thune said he had the ear of the president," Steve Hildebrand, Mr. Daschle's campaign manager, said Wednesday. "People are saying that, obviously, it was a deaf ear."