Collins, Lieberman confident they can get 60 votes on standalone DADT repeal bill - Reid's unsure

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National Journal
December 10, 2010

____ Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn. - who had been in talks with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., on the parameters for floor debate on the defense measure - said they were confident they could get 60 votes for the stand-alone bill, which would be identical to the repeal language in the authorization measure and a repeal provision in the House-passed defense bill.

Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., said he would co-sponsor the legislation.

"We're not going to give up," Lieberman told reporters after the vote. "We're going to keep fighting until the last possible second in this session."

"While today's vote was disappointing, it must not be the end of our efforts," President Obama said in a statement. "I urge the Senate to revisit these important issues during the lame-duck session."

A spokeswoman for Reid said the Democratic leader is "supportive of this effort, but we will need significant Republican support to move forward given the time constraints we are facing in the remainder of the session."

"We've tried every possible way to move forward on this," Reid said, adding that he has "bent over backwards to get the bill done."


read more: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1210/121010nj1.htm

[Arkana]

1. If they can whip the votes and give Reid a list, I don't see why this isn't

a good idea.

All Reid has to say is "Get me a whip count, then I'll consider it."

[Renew Deal]

2. Is Reid trying to sabotage repeal?

I get a feeling he is. Why wasn't he MORE patient with Lieberman and Collins?

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3. who's to blame?

from Steve Kornacki at Salon: http://www.salon.com/news/dont_ask_dont_tell/?story=/politics/war_room/2010/12/09/dadt_repeal_dies


* Susan Collins: Maine's junior Republican senator, who reaffirmed her support for ending the policy last week, wanted Reid to make guarantees about the length of any floor debate (four days, she said) and the number of amendments that would be allowed for consideration. Reid, apparently believing that Collins was trying to run out the clock (the Senate is scheduled to adjourn for the year next week), went ahead with the vote without reaching an agreement. Collins decried his action -- but then voted for cloture. So what were all her objections about? If she could live with repeal without a protracted debate, why did she spend the last week helping to hold up the process? Maybe she really was trying to help her fellow Republicans (like, say, her good friend/ardent DADT repeal foe John McCain) run out the clock -- so that, once it was clear Reid didn't have 60 votes, she cast a symbolic vote for cloture (which probably won't look bad back home).

* Harry Reid: It's tough to tell how much, if any, blame the majority leader deserves. The answer depends on the motives of Collins, Brown and Murkowski. If there really was a scenario under which they'd all vote for cloture, and potentially bring a wavering Democrat (like West Virginia's Joe Manchin, who joined the filibuster on Thursday) along with them, then Reid dropped the ball by rushing to call a vote. If Collins was sincere in wanting four days of debate (and if that would have brought several other senators on board for repeal), Reid could have accommodated her by extending the Senate session past next week. But if he was right that they were looking for excuses to stick with the filibuster, then there was no reason not to force the issue now.

____ It's still possible that there will be another DADT vote before the new Congress convenes in January -- there's even some chatter that Democrats will bring the issue back on its own, and not as part of the overall defense bill. But if and when this happens, there'll be even less time left in the session -- and it will be only easier for Collins, Brown, et al. to make excuses for joining McCain's filibuster. And once the clock runs out and the new Republican Congress is sworn in, you can pretty much forget about repeal working its way to the president's desk in 2011 and 2012 -- and maybe well beyond that.

[AlinPA]

4. Collins? "Lucy" Collins? What a dirty mockery of civil rights. She is in this to kill it. It is a

fake. When will people figure it out that you can't work with republicans?

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5. well, that's what Reid thought, so he pushed to the cloture vote

. . . instead of stripping the DADT repeal amendment from the Defense bill as she wanted him to.

[donco6]

6. No chance.

The Republicans don't want it. They'll just work on some borderline Dems and get them to switch.

Prior to the latest Obama cave-in, they thought DADT repeal was probably a done deal. Now they smell the blood in the water and they see yet ANOTHER "victory" they can win for their Teabagger contingent, they're going to dive in headfirst to kill it.

[PVnRT]

7. Fuck's sake, now I have to give some props to LIEberman?

Godfuckingdammittohell

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8. of course

. . . he could be lying.

[Monique1]

9. Reid needs to read of LBJ when he was the head of the senate

LBJ did not take a guff from the republics.

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10. LBJ's tactics are over romanticized

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11. Why would it be more attractive as a stand alone bill rather than part of a

defense bill that has successfully been passed, I believe, every time in the history of congress? There was pressure on the gop to pass the defense bill because, well, it's a defense bill and they probably took a hit in not supporting it just because DADT was in there.

Don't get it...once again.