At around 2:15pm the Senate will hold a cloture vote on this year’s Defense Appropriations Bill. The base bill includes a repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. During the markup of the bill, Republican Susan Collins voted for repeal, while Democrat Jim Webb voted against it. It’s not clear if there are 60 votes to overcome a Republican-led filibuster. If cloture is attained, the first amendment to be debated will be to include the DREAM Act in the bill.
If the Republicans successfully filibuster, the Defense Appropriations bill may not pass this year. At least, that’s what Senate Armed Services chairman Carl Levin is saying. So, we would have no funding for our troops, and the Republicans will have further infuriated both the gay and Latino communities. The question is what is more motivating. Rewarding the Democrats for delivering on their promises or punishing the Republicans for standing in the way?
I think we know what the Republicans are banking on. They want us frustrated and apathetic. They will give their base what they want. So, how stupid are we?
“So, how stupid are we?” – by the looks of things pretty stupid, unfortunately.
Why did Webb vote against? Is Webb afraid of “Teh Gay”? Because Virginia is the home of Falwell(what’s left of his church anyway) and Pat Robertson?
Webb does stuff like this with some regularity.
He wants to wait until the report is finished.
Webb is weird with the military, and he’s a sexist. Usually if it’s this close you can get him on-board.
I’ve met him a few times, and I can say that he probably still holds the same feelings about women as he did when he wrote this:
http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/mediapolitics/2182.html
Pretty sure that Webb just voted for cloture.
If true, then it has held true that you can get him on-board when it’s a really close vote.
It’s true.
So who are the two(or three) assholes that just filibustered it?
Apparently Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor (Harry Reid switched his vote for procedural reasons, to be able to bring the issue back for reconsideration).
I’d guess Lincoln is either thinking this will get her some votes in November (I think she’ll still lose, but it’s in the nature of elected officials to care about votes), or she knows she’s going to lose in November and just doesn’t care. I don’t know anything about Pryor, but he could be voting with Lincoln as a courtesy to a same state Senator (like Snowe and Collins sticking together).
i think it’s probably similar to Lieberman’s decision to oppose his own ideas for health reform, simply to punish the liberals that primaried him in 2006 or whenever.
Blanche is pissed and this is how she gets her revenge.
I think it’s the lame duck thing. Blanche is free, at long last, to vote her conscience.
She’s not out of office yet, so I presume she figures that if she votes for repeal it’s a sudden end to her political career while if she votes against, she can keep up her delusions that she might survive November and come back next year. Maybe she’s banking on her opponent suddenly having a heart attack or a major scandal or something.
If she votes the same way in the lame duck session, once her political future is obvious, then we’ll have a better idea of whether this is just more of her consistently self-deluded political calculus or if she’s voting her conscience.
What conscience?
“So, how stupid are we?” Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! Can I answer that?!!!!
“So, how stupid are we? ” A lot depends on who “we” are, Booman.
Anyone who self-identifies as a republican these days is, by definition, stupid.
Any Dem who thinks that will move the ball forward by not voting and getting other Dems to not vote is stupid.
And I, who fell increasingly worn down by all the stupidity and am starting to feel paralyzed by it all (Feingold in trouble in Wisconsin, really?) am probably stupid too.
Who does that leave out?
if the senate fails to repeal dadt, isn’t it within the president’s powers to issue a stop-loss order that would end the discharges? I’ve seen a rather large number of posts and articles that say this is true, even if the president hasn’t done anything of the sort.
I’ll blame the republicans for filibustering the bill, but, if the stop-loss stuff is true (the palm center says it is, dan choi says it can be done, so do many others), I’ll be very disappointed if the president doesn’t react to it forcefully.
Come on Brandon, this will not happen. There are way too many Clinton alums in this White House still stinging from the issue from the early 90s.
oh i know it won’t. But i didn’t want to be “living in an alternative universe of permanent outrage and relentless negativity.” i hear tell it’s fostered and fueled by the blogosphere, rather than on concrete disappointments. I should stop comparing the president’s promises to the almighty, and compare them to the alternative. Since the GOP would rather gays and lesbians simply die of AIDS, I guess what i see as a failure is really a victory.
I disagree with your framing, Booman. The “we” who are being stupid in this case, as in so many others in the past couple years, are a handful of Senate Democrats and the entire Senate Republican caucus. Please place the credit/blame where it’s due.
So now that the vote failed, thanks to the GOP and two douchebag Democrats named Lincoln and Pryor, with the fierce advocate stand up to the forces of intolerance and sign that stop-loss order i keep hearing about? That would be awfully bold, don’t you think? And it would send a message that this president isn’t a pushover.
I’ll be holding my breath.
Ok, no i won’t.
Republicans hate the troops, gays and brown people. What is the point of being in the House when 41 cynical aholes make your job pointless? They need to start teaching this in school and college. There are no equal part between the branches of government. The rules of Senate trump everything. It is Fn maddening.
Two NATO countries discriminate against homosexuals in the armed forces: Turkey and, you guessed it, the USA. See the connection? Long live the EU.
When would funds for the military stop? End of Dec?
Blanche and David Pryor took on the Democratic villain role. Snowe and Collins stood firm. The Maine GOP apparently is hoping for a lot of Tea Party strength in two years. Murkowski ducked the vote.
Harry Reid says that the door is always open to compromise. Just ask the folks who have exhausted their unemployment how that went down. The question is if Reid is going to throw away the Nevada election by making his voters mad again. I’m hoping this time sanity prevails and he stands firm. It’s time to put the Republicans in the position of not supporting the troops.
At what point do the Democrats exact punishment on the GOP for this? At what point does anyone who believes in tolerance and equality make the GOP pay for this afternoon’s vote?
Oh BooMan, please tell us what YOU think!
Is this a catastrophe or just a temporary set-back? Will the repeal of DADT happen in the lame duck session? And what will become of the DREAM Act?
I agree with you that the Republicans couldn’t stand Democrats getting stuff done–again. But will “cooler heads” prevail in December?
I don’t know what is going to happen. I suppose a lot depends on whether the Republicans have a great election night, a good election night, a disappointing election night, or a catastrophic election night.
The worse the Democrats do, the less legitimacy a lame-duck session will have.
If the Democrats can’t get this done in December, then it will be President Obama’s obligation to stop appealing this in the courts.
President Obama promised my people that this would get done by the end of the year. He has since then discharged scores of American Service Members–including Dan Choi. I am an Obama supporter, but this really is intolerable.
If Obama loses the support of gays in 2012, he will lose his reelection campaign.