From The Hill:
The Senate on Thursday dealt a severe blow to the repeal of the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” law, dimming the chances for the Clinton-era ban to be scrapped this year.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) failed to garner the necessary 60 votes for a procedural motion to start considering the 2011 defense authorization bill, which contains a provision to repeal the ban on openly gay people serving in the military. The final vote was 57-40…
Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Susan Collins (R-ME) are trying to revive it as a stand-alone bill to be voted on after the tax deal (the reason it failed at cloture is because the GOP has clearly stated that tax and budgetary issues must come first – no vote on anything until that is done). We’ll see what happens if they manage to bring it up again – and cloture doesn’t necessarily mean approval because a lot of “2012 Democrats” are looking over their shoulder wondering how such a vote will appear at election time.
The bottom line on this is that DADT should not be considered in this Congress – it is has been soundly rejected by the American people and thus only the most pressing of issues should be considered before adjournment. DADT, plus or minus, is not a vital issue for the United States at the moment – it can be addressed next year.
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