This comes to me from yet another one of my Democratic buddies. It's good to have friends!

Once the BRAC list was released, the White House no longer has direct say over which bases are closed, save for the needle in a haystack eventuality that the President rejects the entire list from his own Defense Secretary (for odds, see winning Powerball several weeks in a row).

The ball is now in the Commission's court, so voting one way or another or threatening voting one way or another, in hopes of influencing a decision on an individual base-- what does the Commission care?

The time for the 'tough' behind-the-scenes lobbying (sit down dinners et al) is over. Now, we have to make the case for Ellsworth on its merits.

Unless, of course, we had somebody from S.D. on the Commission to make the case to his/her colleagues for us...