Posted on 12/16/2010 8:34:49 AM PST by SeekAndFind
ABC News reports that Scott Brown has announced that he will support a stand-alone repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” ending the expulsion of gay and lesbian troops from the military. Brown’s decision gives Harry Reid 61 votes, enough to pass a cloture vote for the policy, and one final hurrah for the Democratic-controlled 111th Session — if he can fit it into the schedule:
Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown today voiced his support for a stand-alone repeal of the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, bringing the bill one vote over the 60-vote threshold that it will need to reach if and when the Senate votes on the measure in the coming weeks.
“Sen. Brown accepts the Pentagon’s recommendation to repeal the policy after proper preparations have been completed. If and when a clean repeal bill comes up for a vote, he will support it,” said Brown spokesperson Gail Gitcho.
Brown’s backing means that – on paper – supporters of the repeal have61 senators in favor of the bill. On Wednesday Republicans Olympia Snowe of Maine and Lisa Murkowski both announced their support for the stand-alone repeal. The House passed the clean repeal on Wednesday and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has vowed to bring it to a vote in the Senate before the end of the year.
However, Reid has warned that bringing the bill to a vote in the Senate is not an issue of support, but rather of time. With just over a week before Christmas, the Senate is only now kicking off debate on the START nuclear treaty and a massive $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill. It will likely be early next week before the Senate wraps up work on those two measures – and numerous GOP senators have voiced stern opposition to both bills, preferring instead to fund the government into early next year and go home for the holidays. That leaves little time for the Senate to pass the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal.
Brown voted against the military appropriations bill that contained a DADT repeal last week, objecting to a jam-down of a massive spending bill without sufficient debate or amendment opportunities. Two other Republicans that support a repeal, Olympia Snowe and Lisa Murkowski, voted no on the same grounds. A stand-alone bill will avoid those issues and allow the three to switch votes and support repeal, a position publicly held or at least considered by all three prior to the lame-duck session.
The Senate has already passed the tax deal, which was the line drawn in the sand by the GOP at the start of the post-midterm session. Brown can therefore vote for cloture on this measure without violating the earlier pledge, even if Congress hasn’t addressed the budget with a shutdown date rapidly approaching. The GOP wants a continuing resolution anyway rather than an omnibus spending bill completing the FY2011 budget.
Reid, though, has already started debate on START, and still has to handle the budget this week as well. He’s trying to double-track the two efforts, but Jim DeMint has threatened to obstruct if Reid tries a jam-down on START. If DADT doesn’t come up in this session, it will have to be passed again in a Republican House after January, and that may be a problem with the GOP holding a 48-seat majority in the lower chamber. Still, the threat of court action that would immediately impose a repeal rather than an orderly transition may move John Boehner to allow a vote without whipping the caucus early in the next session.
...governing AGAINST the will of the people. After the November elections, the message was loud and clear. YET, Washington continues to spit in our face and protect their own (Repubs & Dems).
Dems and their fag minions don’t care if our troops die as long as they are singing show tunes when they do it.
Might as well be a Rat . . . at least it put an R in the Kennedy seat.
The pin up has already been photographed too, he posed for Playgirl.
Brown is just another emotional idiot, not thinking things through like everyone else who supports gay marriage and repeal of DADT. I guess the U.S. has not yet hit bottom, but with this idiocy we soon will.
I know I won’t encourage my kids to join the military.
If this passes, I would urge MA republicans to vote against him. Put a rat in again since there's no difference between the two. If anything, it will teach Rinos a lesson.
They all take bribes for their votes!
I believe they have Princess Lisa, one of the Maine twins and Scott Brown.
Soo frustrating! Hopefully they can delay this crap.
whereever you got that you should repost as it’s own thread....it goes a long way in showing how the Republicans will lay down while the democrats with fight tooth and nail to get what they want...
OK, flame away...but...
WHO THE HELL CARES? I really couldn’t care less about someones sexual orientation as long as they don’t flaunt it, and they’re willing to do what the military asks them to do.
We’re facing a trillion dollar deficit and THIS is what people are worried about?
“Contrary to popular belief, members of Congress are human beings. They have a certain shelf life and a certain amount of energy to be drawn on. We’re tired.”
Sounds like that a$$hole in the Gulf “I just want my life back.”
I thought this guy was better than this. Between him and The Weeper of the House, what are we coming to?
All part of their plan, my FRiend... when enlistments drop, the Donk's chorus will be "we can't sustain the military with current enlistments"... then we'll see them do a full court press to reinstate the military draft.
Just like with Cao in Louisiana, he virtually voted with the Rats every time, but he still lost his seat.
RE: Okay so what R’s voted yes?
You know that Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins would reliably side with Dems on issues like these. So, there you go.
Then you have Lisa Murkowski who might as well be Democrat.
You have no problem with people with mental disorders being trained to efficiently kill other humans and being given the most effective means to do so?
Which is exactly today's policy under DADT. Repealing it allows them to flaunt it.
They needed to say that we don't support this refudiated Congress doing anything, that the American people have spoken and sent a new group to Washington, and that we can wait until they get here. Then force your caucus to agree to that proposition. Otherwise, you get a very liberal house and a Senate that has only 41 Republicans passing legislation that we can't filibuster because they can always pick off one or two RINOs on any individual issue. They needed to make it a blanket, principled decision--No Lame Duck Legislation.
But in their hearts, the GOP leaders fear the newcomers as much as the Dems do.
“Why is this NOT a surprise?”
Because this story ‘broke’ on 12/3
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2636996/posts
RE: I really couldn’t care less about someones sexual orientation as long as they don’t flaunt it, and they’re willing to do what the military asks them to do.
Well, that’s exactly the point of DADT repeal — SO THAT THEY CAN FLAUNT IT ! OPENLY.
If they did not want to flaunt it and proclaim to the world that they’re gay — why fight to repeal a law that was working so well ?
We're screwed!
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