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Washington Post reports:Steve Hildebrand, Daschle's campaign manager, said Thune, who won by two percentage points after losing a Senate race two years before, is likely to have a strong challenger when he seeks reelection in 2010. He's still going to...

Dave Kranz, Tom Daschle's long-time college buddy, has an article in today's Argus in which he's whining about the Republican Senate Committee's press release about Thune's victory. The problem is that when the Democratic Senate Committee wrote a release in...

From today's Congressional Quarterly:BRAC Chairman Says Pentagon Might Be Wrong About Some Base Closures By John M. Donnelly, CQ Staff With an independent commission poised to vote this week on the list of military bases it will recommend for closure,...

Sibby is noting how Steve Hildebrand, who is still be paid by Tom Daschle to attack Senator Thune, was enjoying how Ellsworth Air Force Base [was] biting John Thune in the butt:In my earlier post I showed how Tom Daschle...

Talmage Ekander (South Dakota Lawyer) has written a couple of detailed and thoughtful comments on Darwinism in reply to my post below. They demonstrate that his blog is a valuable addition to the regional blogosphere. I don't have time to...

That it's college football season already here? That's where I'll be this afternoon, anyway. Football in 86 degree (forecast) weather. Wow. How unnatural....

With the decision this morning by an 8-1 vote, South dakota's Ellsworth Air Force Base was removed from the list of recommended closures by the BRAC Commissioners.

Some coverage on the facts of the decision in the Rapid City Journal...
Ellsworth saved

Like the phoenix from the ashes, the status of Ellsworth Air Force base rose from expendable to essential in a matter of seconds when the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission, or BRAC, voted Friday to save the base.

South Dakota's top lawmakers and the head of the Ellsworth Task Force were at the edge of their seats in the suburban Washington, D.C., hearing room when BRAC commissioner Samuel Skinner made a motion to reject the Pentagon's recommendation to close Ellsworth and move its 29 B-1B Lancer bombers to Dyess Air Force Base.

Looking for at least five commissioners to raise their hands in support of Skinner's motion, the South Dakotans instead saw all but one of the nine-member panel vote to save Ellsworth.

...and in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader:

ELLSWORTH SPARED

Ellsworth Air Force Base was taken off the Pentagon?s recommended list of closures this morning, a decision that sent jubilant Rapid City residents leaping to their feet as they watched the proceedings on live TV.

The nine-member independent commission voted 8 to 1 to reject the Pentagon?s recommendation to close the base as part of the Defense Department?s plan to restructure the military.

Meanwhile, some of the politics of the situation which provide a boost to Sen. Thune's position were not lost on others:

Base Closing Choices Impact Politics

When the Pentagon announced that it wanted to shut down Ellsworth Air Force Base, it was an enormous setback for Sen. John Thune. The Republican got elected in part by repeatedly telling voters he could save the base because of his close ties to President Bush.

Thune responded to the Ellsworth news by going on the offensive: He and fellow South Dakota leaders from both parties launched an intense lobbying effort. He also stopped fund-raising for the Republican Party and opposed the Bush administration on a few important Senate votes.

On Friday, Thune's political future got a big boost when a federal commission decided to save Ellsworth, home to B-1B bombers and a major player in the Cold War. He and other South Dakota politicians hailed the decision as the result of an extraordinary bipartisan campaign that convinced the commission that the military and nation need Ellsworth.

All in all, a very good day for South Dakota!

A comment has been left on this blog from a classmate of Crystal Guyer, the 14-year old who is watching her 22-year old husband face first-deree sexual assault charges. I asked for insight when soliciting comments from readers, and it...

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