This is lower than low:

While the Democrats appease Senator Lieberman, they still have to worry about other recalcitrant Democrats including Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson. Though Lieberman has been out front in the fight against the public option and the Medicare buy-in, Nelson was critical of both. Now that those provisions appear to have been stripped from the bill, Lieberman may get on board, but Nelson’s demand that taxpayer money not be used to fund abortion has still not been met. According to a Senate aide, the White House is now threatening to put Nebraska’s Offutt Air Force Base on the BRAC list if Nelson doesn’t fall into line.

Offutt Air Force Base employs some 10,000 military and federal employees in Southeastern Nebraska. As our source put it, this is a “naked effort by Rahm Emanuel and the White House to extort Nelson’s vote.” They are “threatening to close a base vital to national security for what?” asked the Senate staffer.

Indeed, Offutt is the headquarters for US Strategic Command, the successor to Strategic Air Command, and not by accident. STRATCOM was located in the middle of the country for strategic reasons. Its closure would be a massive blow to the economy of the state of Nebraska, but it would also be another example of this administration playing politics with our national security.

The White House has gotten completely desperate. As Obama’s precious health care reform crumbles around him, he’s started to stoop lower and lower to try to get any skeleton of the reform passed. But this is pathetic. It’s low. It’s wrong. Threatening our national security just to try to extort a reluctant Democrat into voting for the bill is disgusting.

Obama and Reid are really getting desperate. It’s looking like no Republicans will vote for it, now that Susan Collins has come out and said that she won’t be voting for it. That leaves Harry Reid with 59 votes, if he’s lucky. It’s not surprising that Obama would stoop this low, but at the same time — does he have no shame?? (That’s a rhetorical question, by the way.) If he has no concern for our national security, then the base needs to be left open at least for economic reasons. If Offutt closes, how many jobs will be lost? I guess that doesn’t matter to Obama, either. How steep of a price is Obama willing to pay to get this monstrosity passed? If it passes, it will cost him a score of Democrats in Congress and might be the tipping point to keep him from getting reelected too. And on top of that, he’s going to risk our national security and 10,000 jobs?

Side note: interesting, isn’t it, that the most transparent, ethical administration ever would take part in extortion to get their way.

Michelle has Ben Nelson’s contact information. Call him with encouragement — apparently, he’s going to need it. If a Democrat’s going to be doing the right thing, then we need to support them, too.

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