Uh-oh.

I've been purposely not thinking about base closings at the same time as I think about the nuclear showdown, but here it is, in a Bangor Daily News op-ed called "How to Pressure a Senator."

The Pentagon's recommendation that the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard be closed and the Brunswick Naval Air Station be cut back offer Mr. Bush a bargaining opportunity reminiscent of the Lyndon Johnson era. Though the closure decision is supposed to be apolitical, nothing in Washington is apolitical.

Another thing about those base closings... a helpful number-cruncher tallied up the job losses state by state and noted this interesting fact:

Red states gain 14,710 jobs.
Blue states lose 28,200 jobs.

Isn't that interesting? Then take a look at this list, which tallies net job losses in states where senators are up for re-election in 2006:

CT: Lieberman (D) -6,496
ME: Snowe (R) -6,938 (many actually in NH)
MO: Talent (R) -3,679
MS: Lott (R) -1,678
ND: Conrad (D) -2,645
NM: Bingaman (D) -2,849
PA: Santorum (R) -1,878
VA: Allen (R) -1,574

Note that Snowe loses the most, followed by Lieberman, my least favorite Democrat. And we still haven't heard anything from Collins. I will spend the rest of my weekend trying not to think about this even more.