Breaking: Hope For DADT Legislative Repeal Dies

Well, this is goddamn depressing: Democrats in the Senate were unable to get the votes to get the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell repeal to even be debated, which means the last hope of legislative repeal is dead. What went wrong?

For awhile there, it was looking like with the help of Lisa Murkowski, Scott Brown, and possibly Susan Collins, Democrats could beat a Republican filibuster. But then everything went to hell at the last minute: Murkowski and Brown voted against cloture, Collins voted yes just for the hell of it (because it no longer made a difference), and that’s it for gay rights for servicemembers, despite a Democratic Senate, House and President. According to The Washington Post,

Throughout the first 15 minutes of the vote, Collins repeatedly broke into huddles with Lieberman and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.), reading through legislative language on the floor, at times rolling it up into a ball and angrily waving her arms about how the process was handled. Collins voted with Democrats to proceed on the bill, but only after it became clear her vote would not effect the outcome.

Eventually, Murkowski and Brown voted no, as did new West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin, for reasons that have yet to be explained.

As for what happens to gay servicemembers now, there’s still the California Log Cabin Republicans case winding its way up the legal system. And Glenn Greenwald argues that the President said to have the authority to suspend DADT unilaterally. Will he do it?

Senate GOP Blocks Cloture On Repeal Of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell [TPM]
Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Procedural Vote Fails [WP]