The day of BRAC-ening is upon us.

The Base Realignment and Closure Commission will begin formulating its hit list of military facilities today. The state could know by this afternoon about the fate of Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and Brunswick Naval Air Station. A decision on the military accounting facility in Limestone might not be made until later in the week.

All eyes are focused today on the Washington suburbs, where the commission is meeting. If the commission votes to close or realign Maine’s bases, the center of this drama will shift to Augusta, where it will fall to Gov. Baldacci to craft the state’s response and create a plan for economic recovery and redevelopment.

The commission’s recommendations will go to the president and Congress in September. They can be accepted or rejected, but not amended.

Working together, Maine’s political heavyweights have put aside partisan differences to make the best case to retain the state’s place in the national defense network. Gov. Baldacci, Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, and Reps. Tom Allen and Mike Michaud have made strong, convincing arguments that should sway commissioners.

If their efforts are unsuccessful, however, the cooperation could be threatened by election year finger-pointing. As much as the state has needed to be unified through the BRAC process, it will need that and more to deal with the possible aftereffects.

Over and over again, state leaders have shown that Portsmouth and Brunswick are vital to the country’s defense. They have demonstrated the adverse impact closure or realignment would have on the state. And they have proven the value of the facilities both in terms of efficiency and effectiveness.

Ultimately, it will come down to whether BRAC commissioners are prepared to see the truth and buck the Department of Defense and Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who is committed to transforming the military into a lighter, more nimble force.

The time for playing defense is over.

Planning has already started in case the worst is realized. When the bases on the BRAC list were announced this spring, work began. It will continue, hopefully with the same earnestness that marked the fight to keep the bases open, after today.

Even if we hear bad news from Washington, the government won’t padlock the gates at Brunswick or Portsmouth today. There are no U-Hauls waiting to scurry the military out of Maine in the middle of the night. The process of closure or realignment will take time, possibly stretching into the next decade.

As hard as thousands of people in the state have worked already, the heavy lifting really begins after the BRAC commission makes its decision. Recovery will not come easily, but it can come. It’s during such times that Mainers can take full gauge of the leaders they have chosen. More than any other single issue, how Gov. Baldacci and Sen. Snowe respond could determine their prospects for re-election in 2006.