It is the height of arrogance and the depths of stupidity, to tell a newly minted United States Senator, whose vote you are going to need to pass important legislation, to 'quit whining' about an issue that is critical to his state and his people.
That attitude has not been unusual in this administration, unfortunately.
The Bush team encouraged and supported Thune's campaign. Thune campaigned on keeping that base open. If the White House was not going to support keeping the base open they should have told him not to campaign on that issue. Their failure to do so was, to be kind, disingenuous.