Probe Called for in Sen. Nelson Offutt AFB Blackmail Allegations

E-4 National Emergency Airborne Command Post stationed at Offutt AFB

A couple of days ago, Michael Goldfarb at the Weekly Standard revealed a quote from a Senate source which said the White House is blackmailing Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) with the threat of putting Offutt Air Force Base in his home state on the next Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) list if Nelson doesn’t support the government health care bill in the Senate.

In the wake of the firestorm created by this allegation, 20 senators including Senator John Thune (R-SD) are calling for a probe into the allegations.

From the Omaha World Herald:

Nebraska’s Sen. Mike Johanns and 19 other Republican senators Wednesday called for a hearing into reports that the Obama administration used the future of Offutt Air Force Base as bargaining chip in the health care debate.

These 20 senators have sent a letter to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) asking for this to be investigated.

According to Action 3 News out of Omaha where the base is located, Nelson says his vote is not for sale.

And of course, both the White House and Nelson are saying the threat never happened.

This is certainly understandable; the White House doesn’t want people openly realizing the kind of Chicago politics they play, and Nelson doesn’t want people thinking he’s vulnerable.  And if he gives in and votes for this assault on the American way of life, he doesn’t want people thinking he did it because of the threat.

But Goldfarb isn’t buying it, and neither am I.  He said at the Weekly Standard late yesterday

They protest a little too much. I do not know this story is “absolutely false.” To the contrary, I’m confident it’s true. Twenty senators are now calling for an investigation, and each is presumably pretty well sourced in the Senate. If the charges are “absolutely false,” maybe the White House will encourage Senate Democrats to call this Republican bluff. I won’t hold my breath.

Goldfarb also points out what we all know about how liberals see national defense: for them, it’s all about jobs rather than keeping the nation safe.  Goldfarb says the White House sees Offutt in terms of the jobs there (and how they can use those as a bargaining chip) rather than the vital role Offutt plays in national defense.

To learn a little more about the importance of Offutt AFB to national defense, read my piece from two days ago; I was stationed there during my 10 years in the Air Force.

Some say the threat would be hard to carry out, and there is some legitimacy to that statement.  However, with the White House and Congress in the hands of the same political party, it wouldn’t be difficult at all to get the right dimes dropped to the right people.

Offutt AFB is also not a natural target for BRAC…but then, neither was Ellsworth Air Force Base a few years ago.  It somehow ended up on the BRAC list, and Senator John Thune had to work extremely hard (along with a little help from Senator Tim Johnson and Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin) to prove the defense value that should have been obvious.

We know the liberal power players in D.C. aren’t above both bribery and intimidation to get their radical agenda passed. This is just one more allegation that’s in character for how they do business.

The business of freedom, health care and national defense are far too important to be used as playthings by socialist Chicago thugs.  This bunch and all like them need to go in 2010 and 2012.

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• White House using base-closure process to extort Nelson’s vote on ObamaCare? (hotair.com)
• Nelson Will Oppose Reconciliation On Health Care (huffingtonpost.com)
• Nelson might not back next step for health bill (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• The Selling of Health Care Reform (online.wsj.com)

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