If members of both parties spent more time filibustering we would not
be as enslaved as we are today.
On 9/21/2010 10:28 AM, Tommy News wrote:
Promise to Repeal Gay Ban Faces Filibuster
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR
<http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/author/michael-d-shear/>
DESCRIPTIONDoug Mills/The New York Times President Obama gestured
during the State of the Union speech in January.
In his State of the Union address
<http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/01/28/us/politics/1247466761306/obama-s-state-of-the-union-address.html?ref=state_of_the_union_message_us>
in January, President Obama
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/barack_obama/index.html?inline=nyt-per>
repeated a campaign-trail promise to the gay community.
By the end of the year, Mr. Obama said, he would seek a full repeal of
the military's "don't ask, don't tell"
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/d/dont_ask_dont_tell/index.html>
policy.
The president called it a "law that denies gay Americans the right to
serve the country they love because of who they are," and he said
repealing it was "the right thing to do."
<http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/01/27/us/politics/20100127-obama.html>
The promise faces a critical test today as supporters of the current
policy say they will try to filibuster military defense legislation
that includes the repeal. With midterm elections just six weeks away,
a unified Republicans filibuster would likely mean a delay in
fulfilling the president's pledge until next year.
Opponents of an unrelated immigration measure included in the annual
defense authorization bill are also vowing to filibuster, increasing
the odds that both issues will be put off.
If the Democrats can't muster 60 votes to cut off debate, the delay on
"don't ask, don't tell" would be a blow to gay activists, members of a
key White House constituency who fear that next year's Congress will
be less sympathetic to a repeal of the 17-year-old ban. The policy was
enacted during President Bill Clinton
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/bill_clinton/index.html?inline=nyt-per>'s
first term.
And it would serve as another source of frustration for those who do
not think Mr. Obama is moving quickly enough
<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/11/us/11tell.html> to make good on
major promises, including a repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act and
passage of legislation to ban discrimination against gays in hiring.
"It's critical that it get done in the next week or so," Aubrey
Sarvis, the executive director of the Servicemembers Legal Defense
Network, said of the repeal of the military policy.
The network and other groups have praised Mr. Obama and his White
House for helping to negotiate a deal with Democratic lawmakers that
moved a repeal effort forward while allowing the Pentagon to conduct a
study on how best to implement the change in policy. That led to
public announcements of support for the repeal in May by Defense
Secretary Robert M. Gates
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/robert_m_gates/index.html?inline=nyt-per>
and Adm. Mike Mullen
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/michael_g_mullen/index.html?inline=nyt-per>,
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/j/joint_chiefs_of_staff/index.html?inline=nyt-org>.
But Mr. Sarvis said on Monday: "We need the administration to weigh in
and ask the Senate to take up this bill. I haven't heard the
president's voice in recent days on this issue. But I know he's an
advocate for repeal. He wants repeal."
Repeal is one of a series of promises that Mr. Obama made in the early
days of his administration, only to find that negotiations with
Congress were more difficult than he had imagined. The president's
pledge to close the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, also
remains unfulfilled, with little sign that a solution will come soon.
Among the biggest critics of the "don't ask, don't tell" repeal has
been Senator John McCain
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/john_mccain/index.html?inline=nyt-per>,
Republican of Arizona, a longtime member of the Senate Armed Services
committee. Mr. McCain has said consideration of such an idea in
Congress should wait until the Pentagon's study is completed.
As today's vote neared, advocates for repeal stepped up their
lobbying. They paid particular attention to the two moderate
Republican senators from Maine, Olympia J. Snowe and Susan Collins
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/susan_collins/index.html?inline=nyt-per>.
Ms. Collins voted on the Armed Services committee to support the
repeal, but both senators have expressed concern about the defense
spending bill, largely on procedural grounds.
In a statement on Monday, Ms. Snowe said that the Democratic
leadership should allow Republicans to offer amendments to the defense
bill.
Lady Gaga spoke to supporters of gay rights in Portland, Me., on
Monday.Craig Dilger for The New York Times Lady Gaga spoke to
supporters of gay rights in Portland, Me., on Monday.
"The Senate should have the ability to debate more than the three
amendments the majority leader is allowing, especially as this bill is
the largest discretionary authorization measure that Congress
considers," Ms. Snowe said in the statement.
The pop music sensation Lady Gaga
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/l/lady_gaga/index.html?inline=nyt-per>
traveled to Maine on Monday evening for a rally in support of the
repeal <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/us/politics/21gaga.html>.
"If you are not honorable enough to fight without prejudice, go home,"
she told the crowd at the rally.
The immigration provision in the defense spending bill would provide a
path to citizenship for young people who have lived in the United
States for five years and spent two years in either college or the
military.
A White House spokesman, Shin Inouye, declined to comment on the
"don't ask, don't tell" or the immigration provisions, but said Monday
night that the spending bill was "important for the overall health and
well being of our forces, especially given the ongoing campaigns in
Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world."
"This legislation received bipartisan support in the House
<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/29/us/politics/29cong.html> and in the
Senate Armed Services Committee, and the president hopes it receives
similar bipartisan support in the Senate," Mr. Inouye said.
Two senators, Richard Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, and Joseph I.
Lieberman
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/l/joseph_i_lieberman/index.html?inline=nyt-per>,
a Connecticut independent, plan to hold a news conference this morning
to urge their colleagues to vote in favor of moving the legislation
forward.
The vote is scheduled for around 2:15 this afternoon.
More:
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/senate-democrats-dont-filibuster-gay-service-ban/
--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
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