BREAKING NEWS: REPUBLICANS BLOCK DEFENSE BILL; DREAM ACT AND DADT FIZZLE

Politics run amok; Congress forgets why they were elected to govern

Washington, D.C.-- Late this afternoon, Senate Republicans blocked an effort to give our military the necessary funds to operate and also successfully blocked the effort to repeal the law banning gays from serving openly in the military.  It doesn't take a trained observer to note that the GOP is more interested in petty political posturing rather than protecting our service men and women in uniform.

The developments today can be only described as a profound lack of leadership in our federal government.  The partisan vote was a defeat for gay rights groups who saw the provision in a defense authorization bill as their last chance any time soon to overturn the law known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

"This ain't over," Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), who authored the repeal of the military policy on openly gay service members, said even before the vote. "It's long past time to repeal this policy."

The outcome was all but set earlier Tuesday when Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, a key Republican who supported repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" signaled her unease with the limited floor schedule for debate.

Collins had been the only Republican to support the repeal in an earlier committee vote. Activists, including musician Lady Gaga, rallied in Collins' home state of Maine on the eve of the vote to encourage Collins and fellow Maine Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe to vote to advance the bill.

Republicans complained that Democrats were using the bill as a vehicle to tack on election-year issues that would motivate Democratic voters to go to the polls, even though Republicans had similarly added provisions to past Defense bills.

Democrats fell short of the 60 votes needed to advance the legislation, which authorized $726 billion in defense spending including a pay raise for troops.  In a suprise twist, Virginia Senator Jim Webb did not want to hold up the bill despite his previous statements and perceived reservations about the DADT and Dream Act amendments.

Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins had been seen as the crucial 60th vote because she supports overturning the military ban. But Collins sided with her GOP colleagues in arguing that Republicans weren't given sufficient leeway to offer amendments to the wide-ranging policy bill.

By blocking the bill, Republicans also held up passage of the so-called Dream Act, which was to provide a route to citizenship for youths who were in the country illegally but had attended college or served in the military.
 
But Democrats argued that Republicans were unwilling to allow the debate to open, even when promised a chance to offer an amendment to cowardly strike the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy from the bill.
 

The Defense bill includes a 1.4% pay raise for the troops as well as funding for the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), the Senate Democratic whip, also vowed to bring the Dream Act back for another vote.

Both political parties have used the authorization bill in years past to advance other legislative goals, so the failure of the military spending plan was seen as unusual. But the process had grown politicized, especially in the limited time remaining before Congress was to adjourn to campaign full time.

The "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law, enacted in 1993, has been targeted by President Obama for repeal, and a federal judge in California this month declared it unconstitutional. Under the proposed legislation, repeal would take effect 60 days after completion of a Pentagon report on steps needed to ensure military readiness. The report is due in December. The House passed the repeal in the spring.

According to reliable sources, more than 13,500 service members have been discharged under the policy for being openly gay.