Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyDecember 9th, 2010
You know things are heating up when the Human Rights Campaign issues a rare warning like this one:
Fred Sainz, a spokesman for Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement, “If senators move forward with a vote on NDAA before a deal has been solidified, the vote will fail and all key players will share the responsibility.”
The statement appears to be aimed at Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, who has been flirting for 24 hours with scheduling a vote on the defense bill that includes the repeal. A planned vote was scrapped Wednesday night after a key Republican senator said she was not satisfied with the results of negotiations.
Of course, we don’t know how the HRC defines “sharing responsibility,” but it’s good to know that more people are beginning to see through Harry Reid’s machinations and are willing to call him on it.
Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports that it’s Harry Reid who is stonewalling Sen. Susan Collins and jeopardizing DADT repeal, not the other way around:
[Sen. Collins] said she largely accepted Reid’s offer of 15 amendments, but added she needed four days of debate on them.
Guess what: Reid has yet to respond to her offer, according to a spokesperson for Collins. “As of this morning, Senator Collins has not received a response from the Majority Leader,” the spokesman, Kevin Kelley, tells me.
This is potentially bad news. Word is that the Senate may vote today on the defense authorization bill containing DADT repeal. It seems likely that if Collins’ every demand isn’t met, she’s prepared to stop the defense authorization bill from proceeding, and other moderate Republicans who generally support repeal may also vote No.
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gar
December 9th, 2010
Oh good grief! Give Sen. Collins her damn four days of debate and have done with. Geesh!
Matt
December 9th, 2010
I wonder if HRC considers themselves to be among the “key players”
Ray
December 9th, 2010
I just watched the vote and, yes, it certainly did appear that Senator Reid was playing rhetorical games with Senator Collins. Joe.My.God reported that Collins DID vote with the Dems but the final vote was 57-40. Three people didn’t vote.
Collins called out Reid on the Senate floor and asked him if he was going to come through with the 15 amendments (10 for Repubs, 5 for Dems) they *seemed* to have agreed on yesterday. But Reid’s response was that “they” keep changing the rules and in his frustration, he was going to go ahead and call for the vote. He did. He lost. We lost.
TampaZeke
December 9th, 2010
Jim, you mean the same Washington Post that has, over the last two weeks, published countless stories and op eds heavily weighted AGAINST repeal. Like the story they did where they ONLY interviewed service members who were against repeal. You’re basing your information on the Collins/Reid negotiations on THAT Washington Post?
I don’t know that I would have that much faith in their reporting at this point.
Timothy Kincaid
December 9th, 2010
Zeke,
I saw several different sources for the same news on Collins/Reid.
customartist
December 10th, 2010
In the end Susan Collins cannot guarantee that she can get the Republicans to relinquish their Vow to “Not Pass Any Legislation” until they get tax cuts for Millionaires.
Republicans stamd firm on this, and even if they do get tax cuts, this does not equate to their passing DADT Repeal. They will surely come up with more specific reasons to not pass DADT Repeal. McCain is willing to sacrifice his entire life’s cred to get the taste of sour grapes out of his mouth.
customartist
December 10th, 2010
Instead of attaching DADT Repeal to Military Funding, this should be attached to the Tax Cut Bill.
THEN the Repubs could hold their noses and justify voting in favor of it, and the Demorcats would have greater by-in.
Email this to the Whitehouse:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Dear President Obama,
Please propose a Bill attaching DADT Repeal to the Tax Cut Bill. This will gain Yourself and the Democratic Party political credit, and it will allow Repubs to be motivated and to have the necessary cover to vote in favor of this understandably controversial legislation.
Désirée
December 10th, 2010
while I have no doubt that Reid is playing games, I still don’t understand why the blame for the repeals failure isn’t being placed squarely on the Republicans who have held the Senate hostage with their tax cut for millionaires demand. I know you guys want to make the Republicans look less blame worthy than the dems right now, but the fact remains, if they wanted to pass a DADT repeal even a little bit, it would be done, regardless of Reid’s politicking. They don’t want it passed and Reid is just helping them by offering a nice target.
Seeing people here blame Reid as if this is entirely his fault is like watching someone blame Student A for not doing anything to stop Student B from bullying Student C while ignoring the fact that Student B is the bully doing the bullying.
Timothy Kincaid
December 10th, 2010
Desiree,
As we don’t allow slurs or hate speech on this site, I assume that you simply misspelled “Republican” and corrected your spelling for you.
Jim Burroway
December 10th, 2010
I have always held REpublicans responsible for their anti-gay actions. But I refuse to adopt a double standard that gives Democrats a pass.
And I do see this episode as Reid’s fault. He called a snap vote when people ON HIS OWN SIDE weren’t in the chamber to vote. He knew it would be a close vote and needed every vote there, but he called a vote while Sen. Blanche Lincoln was at the dentist’s office. He also called the vote even though Sen. Collins, who was supposed to be another “yes” vote (and ultimately was as “yes”) wasn’t even in the chamber and didn’t know the vote was going to take place.
Nobody who really wants a bill to pass pulls a stupid stunt like that, and Reid’s not that stupid. That tells me that Reid didn’t give a damn whether the vote passed or not. All he wanted is something to use for the next two or six years to try to blame Republicans for his failure. Yes, Republicans are to blame for voting “no.” But to pretend that Reid actually wanted it to pass is to live in a dream world. I prefer to live in reality.
Priya Lynn
December 10th, 2010
Jim said “That tells me that Reid didn’t give a damn whether the vote passed or not.”.
I agree. He just wanted to get this out of the way regardless of how it turned out and that’s why he rushed into it.
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